Tucson – Arizona – Part 1

Posted 3 years ago by Mike

Rolling into Tucson, we noticed something different. The desert was green!! It’s amazing what a little rainfall can do for the Sonoran Desert. Plants seemingly dead, come instantly to life. It is quite the sight to see. Our home for the next month is Desert Trails RV Park in Tucson Estates which is on the west side of town. The location could not be better, neighboring Tucson Mountain Park and Saguaro National Park. Outdoors paradise. A network of trails right from the RV Park to Tucson Mountain Park. Nice!!

Spending Christmas away from family is a bit hard but the park did a very nice pot luck dinner. So much good food and quite the variety. Even had some Thai dumplings. We didn’t know it was a potluck and was not prepared to bring a dish, but the volunteer organizers said not to worry for there was plenty of food. Another example of the generosity of the RV community.

Our park neighbors have a couple different bird feeders along with a hummingbird feeder. I never realized the bird diversity in Arizona. Probably a dozen different bird species come to eat some seed. Even cotton tail bunnies like to munch on seed that falls to the ground. I never thought of myself as a bird watcher but it is a nice past-time while enjoying our morning latte 🙂

Our first ride in Tucson was along a section of The Loop. The Loop is about 60 miles of shared use bike path. Car-free riding is always nice. We rode around the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Planes as far as the eye can see — cargo planes, fueling planes, fighter jets. Quite the sight to see. We ended our ride at Borderlands Brewing Company for a nice brew and carne asada nachos.

Located in Coronado National Forest is Sabino Canyon. Some incredible steep canyons and rock formations. We did the 7 Falls hike which involves several creek crossings. And since we had some recent rainfall, the creek was not dry, making the crossings a bit trecherous. Unfortunately, a fellow hiker fell into the creek and hit his head on a rock. He had a decent sized gash on the top of his head. We didn’t have any first aid gear but we were able to help him get out of the creek and retrieve his glasses that had fallen off. We were only about a mile from the trailhead and he assured us he was OK despite the cut and his wife would help him get back. So on we went. The hike goes all the way back into Bear Canyon with a spectacular 7 Falls pay-off. Quite the impressive tiered waterfall. I really enjoyed this hike.

Our trailer was in need of some repair. Back in Sandy, Oregon we had to put new tires on because the right tire was completely shot. I noticed the right tire is still wearing unevenly. Luckily, we found a local shop that was able to do the work on short order. Turns out the bearing were shot which makes sense because they were nearly 2 years old and now that we are full-timer’s had a good amount of mileage on them. And since the RV was in the shop, I felt it was time to retire the hand crank tongue jack for a powered one. I like getting a workout in but not when I just want to unhook or hook up the RV 🙂 We decided to spend the day at the International Wildlife Museum — a natural history type of museum — lots of interesting exhibits. My favorite was the Golden Takin that lives in the Himalayas. Very unique looking animal. When we went to pick up the trailer, the skies decided to open and downpour. Intense downpour. We were literally soaked within seconds. Oh well. We made it back to the park without incident and took a hot shower and enjoyed a hot cocoa. Felt good to get those repairs taken care of.