Portal

April 2017

Leaving Bisbee, AZ was a mixed bag of emotions… We loved the town, people, FOOD, and most of all the energy of this small town nestled in Tombstone Canyon, so we were sad to leave after 3 weeks. BUT, we were headed for our annual pilgrimage to Cave Creek in Portal, AZ, which is about 10 miles west of the New Mexico border and about 50 miles north of Douglas, which is on the Mexico border.

Cave Creek is in a canyon, with awesome steep, wind-carved caves lining the red rocks that form the canyon walls.

The campground, Sunny Flat, has 12 campsites lodged underneath Alligator Junipers, Sycamores and Oak trees – blue, blue skies and beautiful birds galore. We were very lucky to get campsite #9, which is the largest of all 12 sites, has lots of shade, borders the creek, and is very private.

There is no electricity anywhere in the Cave Creek campsites, unless you are lucky enough to be the camp host, so dark comes in the canyon around 7:30pm. In the evenings we would build a campfire and tell childhood stories/memories to each other by firelight magic. We were lucky enough to watch the full moon rise over the red bluffs on the 10^thof April as the embers faded to dust from our fire. Most of the campers who frequent this area are retired and birders (at least in April – which is the only month we seem to haunt this Canyon), so it is quiet, and simply serene. As we are only amateur birders, we put our one humming bird feeder out during the day, and put it in the bear-proof, metal food storage box at night. Bears do wander through the camp!

Every other day we go to the town of Portal (about 8 miles down the road) and support the local Portal Store and Café as we sit outside enjoying a shared Kilt Lifter beer, watching the birds jockey for position at the numerous feeders. One day the waitress asks us if we have seen the Great Horned Owl that is nesting (I presume) in the Sycamore tree just outside the yard at the Café? I asked which tree and proceed to have a look for myself, with my camera, of course. We were at the Café several days for our brew and each time the Owl was in the same tree (in the daylight), hence the nesting presumption. This is the first time I have gotten a picture of an owl in a ‘tree hole’. Lucky us, to see this magnificent bird of prey in her natural habitat!!!

I like to walk the trails down by the Cave Creek streamed – as I wander, a poem flashes in my mind, alas, no paper or pen so I write my thoughts in the sandy bed by the creek and take pictures of my ‘sand poem’. Clever gal am I!!!

“Dark and Light meet

On the edge of darkness,

Lightening flashes

As thunder crashes…

Conception arises.” sjr

As this is our third annual pilgrimage to Portal and Cave Creek most of the dialog and pictures are the same so, this will be a short post with just the highlights of our week in nature’s paradise.