We always enjoy this park. This time we were here for 2 weeks encompassing Christmas and New Year’s Day.
While running errands, we saw a landscaper at work. Sometimes saguaros need to be moved, too:
We had a week of cool rainy weather before the sun came out. It produced snow in the lower elevations, but luckily no flooding. There was enough snow on Mount Lemmon to open the ski area early.
When the sun finally emerged, we were treated to some beautiful sunsets.
We joined a guided bird walk with Steve and Nancy, but some of our best sightings were in the campground. This hawk perched in a tree at our site for several hours. Under his claws is a round tailed ground squirrel, which made a fine breakfast.
We bought a small hummingbird feeder with suction cups and stuck it on a van window. Bob got some excellent photos of Anna’s hummers without needing a telephoto lens.
We joined a group for a geocaching hike. We knew nothing about geocaching, but were intrigued by descriptions of some caches in the park placed by a person known as CliptWings. One was called “Shave and a haircut”. Upon opening the ammo box, we found a closed interior lid with a sign saying “knock here”. After producing the correct rhythm, the box cheerily played the tune and unlocked to reveal the log and some small trinkets. An Arduino with associated circuitry and a 9V battery were attached to the back of the inner lid.
We spent the sunny and warm week hiking in the park and biking on the Tucson Loop. By the weekend, temps reached 70 degrees. Then, sadly, our time at Catalina was done and we had to move on.
Previous Visit: 17 Feb 2019