In recent Septembers, as part of our Rodeo-Portal Heritage Days, Elaine Moison and Dave Jasper have guided a field trip into South Fork, to discover and enjoy the wildflowers that flourish at the end of the summer monsoon. This year we found exquisite flowers, in … Continue readingAn Autumn Bouquet
Cave Creek Canyon above the South Fork confluence (Photos by Narca) Yesterday Alan and I hiked into Cave Creek Canyon before the closure was due to go into effect. He went a couple of miles up, as far as Diana’s house, while I also hiked … Continue readingLast Day in Cave Creek Canyon
On Monday, the Forest Service plans to institute a ‘hard’ closure of Cave Creek Canyon, meaning no entry by any means, including foot, except to canyon residents. The closure will most likely last for months. Thus, tomorrow is the last day when people can enter … Continue reading‘Hard’ Closure Coming to Cave Creek Canyon
The Forest Service has closed the road into Cave Creek Canyon indefinitely. In places the road has been seriously undermined, even washed away. Anyone needing to access the Southwest Research Station will have to approach from Paradise via East Turkey Creek, then turn left and … Continue readingPortal after Hurricane Odile, Part 2
For friends of Portal everywhere, the bottom line is that everyone is okay, after the remnants of Hurricane Odile targeted the Chiricahua Mountains and the sister villages of Portal, Arizona, and Rodeo, New Mexico. At our home, we received 5.29″ of rain over a four-day … Continue readingPortal After Storm Odile
Imagine: you’re immersed in the early-winter splendor of the Chiricahua Mountains. Dawn light on the Chiricahua Mountains (Photos by Narca) The air is brisk and glorious, and, hiking up South Fork, you settle into the depths and subtleties of the season… into the drifts of … Continue readingWinter’s Subtleties
Once again, drifts of autumn leaves shift with the winds in South Fork, in the Chiricahua Mountains. Madrone berries are peaking, and pulling in feasting birds. Above, the sky is frisky with mares’ tails, foretelling an impending storm. All this richness! Autumn along the South … Continue readingAutumn Musings
Wow––6 trogons in South Fork this morning! My first glimpse was of a plump bird, breast on, perched on a creek boulder. That breast showed a big white crescent, framed above and below by dark, and my first thought was, surely not a Ring Ouzel! … Continue readingFledgling Trogons!
…in South Fork! Elegant Trogon male (Photos by Narca) For one, you may glimpse an Elegant Trogon descending to the creek bottom for a drink. This male was hover-sipping from a rill of water spilling between boulders, just as he would hover before a tree … Continue readingAahh, the Benefits of Exercising…
Aww, man!… and five coatis scamper across the road just ahead. White-nosed Coati (Photo by Narca; not to be confused with the photo I might have gotten!)