Relaxing at Usery

Relaxation at it's best.  A month at Usery Mountain Park. 

 Lots of birds and wildlife (bunnies, ground squirrels, and coyotes).  

Ranger B has many nature programs every day!  And, when we got up early enough and felt like doing anything we attended talks, walks, and movies.  We learned about mountain lions, condors, and bats.  Took desert nature hikes and in one walk we learned which critters make which holes (tarantulas, squirrels or scorpions) and to not put our hands in the holes!!  

What size hole - and what nasty thing is down the hole?
If there is a web across the hole, you'll find a tarantulla

And we took beginner lessons in Archery.  

Looks like a pro, huh?

And hits the target every time

We went thru 60 pounds of bird seed, 1 ground feeder block, 10 suet blocks, and over a quart of hummingbird juice.  

The love birds liked the bird block

So did the bunny and the squirrels

We got to spend 18 of our 30 days there in our favorite site 9 

(not sure how that worked but we should only have been in there 15 days per rules).  We had friends come visit and bird watch too. 

Of course, we checked out cactus abnormalities

Lots of arms on this big cactus

Dead saguaro losing it's cover

Do you see the face in this saguaro scars?

a saguaro with 4 lumps on top

Healthy looking saguaro
but wait, there's more....

This is how they ensure it won't fall over ... they bolt it to the ground
(nice fake saguaro with antennas inside)

We've been watching this cactus for many years - starting with the right arm the size of a baseball

Who would put a watch around a cholla --
nope it is just where the branch was broken

This cactus looked like it was dying for many years. 
It hung over a campsite that we wouldn't stay in.
One night it fell and broke into many pieces

A big cactus like this weighs 6-8 tons and could have caused a lot of damage

like this

. 

We learned that October is probably too early to visit in the Phoenix area.  Until Halloween, daytime temperatures were in the high 90's, night time temps in the 60s and 70s.  Us sissies spent a lot of time inside the RV with air conditioning.  It's still 10-15 degrees above normal in the mid-80s now at the end of November.