Sabino Canyon

 

We drove to Sabino Canyon on the day of the big snowfall and the visitor centre volunteer told us that much of the canyon was inaccessible unless we wanted to roll up our pants and wade.

We decided we'd take the shuttle up and walk back until we reached an unpassable point and catch the shuttle as required. Hah!  The shuttle wasn't running because of the flooding.

Instead we took the Bear Canyon trail as far as we could before you have to cross the creek.  This is the trail that leads to the Seven Falls we visited in 2017. 

The trail near the visitor centre must have the highest concentration of phainopeplas in the world. 

Further up the trail we came upon a group of white-throated sparrows bathing in a puddle.

Here I am hiking through Saguaro Alley.

The further up the valley we got the closer we were to the snow covered hills.

We spotted our first northern cardinal of the trip. Bird of the Day!

Female northern cardinal

Look at the beautiful patterns on her feathers.

And we saw these javelina tracks.

There wasn't much blooming yet but I spotted this flower:

Desert evening primrose

Here's Leo scouting the creek for a possible crossing point.

No luck.

We turned around and on our way back crossed over from Bear Canyon to Sabino Canyon, walking back on the road.

This involved taking off my shoes and wading at one creek crossing.

As we neared the visitor info centre we saw more and more cactus wrens

And curve-billed thrashers.

We rewarded ourselves with lunch at Filibertos, a Mexican takeout chain.  I had the tamale plate