YOU'LL NEVER GUESS

December 13, 2010

I don’t want my column here to turn into travel adventures, but on the other hand, I have never lived in Arizona before. My late husband JC and I spent six weeks in Texas on business many years ago and that was something else, and not a holiday at all.

However Trav has lived here for several winters prior to our being married and seems to have a endless number of adventures guaranteed to elicit ‘wows’ from me. Two this week are especially remarkable.

The local country, while broke, has in the past established a wonderful park system. Some might not qualify as parks in your view, but here is an example. Heard the word ‘wash?’ In Montana we would call it a barrow pit, gully or if large enough a canyon. Here from small to very large it is a wash. During the wet season it may have water, and some actually qualify as rivers ‘tho few have water year round. Driving around the countryside it is very hilly, low rolling hills with signs, “Don’t Enter When Flooded .”

These washes are public property and when they run through populated areas they are quite often landscaped with nice walkways alongside, places to walk your dog, hike or run. Biking is very popular here with bike trails on all major roads and washes where it is allowed.

We hiked another very popular area, Sabino Canyon Recreation Area this past Tuesday. This is located in the Catalina Mountains north of our home. Took the tram to the top - well almost top - of the canyon and hiked about three miles back down to the First Stop and caught the tram again back to the Visitor Center. The roadway and nine rock bridges were built by the CCC during the big depression. Parts have washed out after various storms and been rebuilt. The road follows the creek and is just beautiful. Cottonwood trees just turning gold and intense blue sky reflected in the many pools along the trail. This park is part of the Coronado National Forest.

Yesterday we went out for lunch, a picnic at Agua Caliente Park. Believe it or not this is an oasis, a real one not manmade and it’s existed since circa AD 1150. The name translated means hot water (Agua Caliente) but the temperature of the spring is 87 degrees. The property has served as an army encampment, an orchard and cattle ranch, medicinal and recreational resort and now a park. The water contains numerous species of non-native fish, tilapia, blue gills, bass and grass carp.  It also appears to support a very large painted turtle population.

We had a nice lunch and walked around the trails and headed back to the Ranch House/Visitor Center. This began as a one-room adobe built around 1873 and was expanded over time to be a lovely ranch house. As we approached the back of the ranch house I saw what appeared to be a rather large cat sitting in the shade. We had seen signs requesting pets to be on leash and it didn’t seem logical for a cat to be by itself. About then I realized it was a cat alright, a BOBCAT. My husband Trav had seen live bobcats before as he and my late husband had hunted them in Michigan with bows on snowshoes. I have seen photos but not the real thing.

We watched it jump over an adobe wall behind the ranch house. We proceeded on into the visitor center and told the lady there about the bobcat. She found another worker there are they looked out the windows and eventually spotted it. Trav said it was a big male who obviously was very comfortable in his surroundings. It walked around like he owned the place. It was beautiful to see.

With the number of birds and ducks around there is no doubt he is very well fed. Talking to the folks at the center and some of the locals here, everyone says they are very common. Wow. They also eat cats, small dogs and I suspect anything they can run down. It was bigger in real life than I had imagined it from photos.

It was a very interesting experience - the park is terrific, the Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Department has a lot to be proud of here. There are more!

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