Chiricahua National Monument and Willcox

[Click on the images for larger versions of these photos]

On February 24, Greg and I took our annual trip to Willcox to see some migrating sandhill cranes and to do a little hiking at Chiricahua National Monument.

At the national monument, we saw Mexican Jays in the parking lot just before we started to hike down the Echo Canyon trail.

Because of the big storm the previous weekend, there was still some snow and ice on the trail.


As usual, the light was beautiful and the rock formations stood out against the blue southern Arizona sky like the ruins of melting castles.



After our hike we went to Twin Lakes Golf Course to try to see some cranes. Though I wasn't able to take any good pictures of the cranes, we did see several large flocks landing. We spent an hour there listening to bird sounds and marvelling at the constantly changing light as it went from this:


to this:

and this:

and finally:
Spring has arrived in southern Arizona, and thousands of tiny ephemeral plants are starting to grow in the desert here in Tucson because of the recent rains. Stay tuned for wildflowers, blooming cacti, and more.