2 Oct 20 - Weekend getaway at Cave Creek Ranch in the Chiricahua Mountains near Portal, AZ 

Friday we took the long way to Portal driving through St David, Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas. Tombstone looked ready for tourists, but few were on the streets – maybe too hot (near 100). The old copper mining town of Bisbee is always lovely, so we had our Beyond Bread picnic sandwich on the courthouse lawn. The point of going to Douglas was to see the border and the Gadsden Hotel, an early 1900’s hotel built during the copper mining boom. Hotel was still alive, but the town looked like it was dying. 

Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning we stayed in cabins at Cave Creek Ranch near Portal. Dave and Sherry Hansen stayed in the next-door cabin and Dave and Laura stayed in their trailer in nearby woods. Gwen Hyatt joined us Saturday afternoon on her way home from her summer in Michigan and camped near Dave and Laura. We had dinners on our shared patio overlooking the dry Cave Creek and many critters: deer, skunk and every kind of bird imaginable. The area near Portal is a big birding area.

View from our cabin

Our dinner guest

We did a hike up the South Fork (of Cave Creek) trail Saturday and saw some water and few other hikers. On our drive back to the cabins we saw birders gathered along the road and stopped. They had spotted a male and a female Eared Quetzal, large, colorful and rare birds. There are only an estimated 20 of them in the whole Chiricahua’s. The birders were friendly and helpful sharing binoculars and using laser pointers to show us where to look. One was recording the calls. They have their own terms – the branch one bird was perched on was referred to as a “bar.”