Madera Canyon, ARIZONA

Thursday, December 11 was to be my last full day in Tucson because my friend Jason was leaving the next day for one week to California. He had been telling me about the incredible birding at Madera Canyon up in the Santa Rita mountain range located in the Coronado National Forest. So I left around  nine after the morning rush hour, if that's what the locals call it because it's nothing like our rush hour back in Los Angeles!  Madera Canyon is approximately 40 miles outside of Tucson.

The drive up to the canyon is typical dry landscape and long roads. 

Once you get up to the 5400 foot elevation the landscape is totally different. I can see why the multitude of bird species, including trogons, make this their permanent as well as wintering homes. 

I saw four different species of wood peckers and a multitude of other species and wildlife. 

That's Tucson some two thousand something feet below the highest point one can drive up.

There are a few residences up in the canyons and their homes are very quaint and decorated for the season. 

Coming back down into town I passed a few spots that caught my attention like the town of Sahuarito!

Once in Tucson I remembered driving around this area last week, on my way back from Tombstone, but didn't have my camera on me. I remembered how the old motel signs had caught my attention and 

was glad to have run into it again. 

The one piece of artwork I had really regretted not taken a picture of was this one, a portrait of Frieda Kahlo on the side of a building housing a small grocery store with a couple of taco street vendors,  in a not so good part of town. I had to make a quick turn back and get a picture of it. To me this type of artwork shows life in the community, some would call it graffiti!

Thank you Jason for sharing your city with me some of the wonderful and beautiful areas it has to offer. Friday morning I did the one hundred and twenty mile back to Phoenix and to my friends Bonnie and Toms home where Motel Miguel awaited me. I woke up this morning at three in the morning to the sound of rain. My very first rain living in Motel Miguel. It wasn't loud like I thought it might be but rather comforting and soothing. Let's see what else Phoenix has in store for me until after Christmas when I move onto Silver City, New Mexico!