We joined the Tucson Kitchen Musicians for their second annual campout at Calabasas Campground, a stone's
throw from the Mexican border.
I hadn't visited this area in
many years, and I forgot how lush it is! All rolling hills of ocotillo and canyons with a thick canopy of piñon, juniper and Mexican blue oak.The Calabasas site also had an impressive variety of birds.Dozens of vermilion flycatchers as well as acorn woodpeckers, kingbirds and curve-billed thrashers.A morning hike in the hills above the campground.Maya, Curtiss, Susan and Dennis Susan and me at a sing-along in the shade.The last day we took a side trip to Peña Blanca Lake. Like all Arizona reservoirs, it's silted in and deep in trash, but it's still quite lovely from a distance.Charming shaded path along the reservoir (at least until the chatter of birds was replaced by the whine of a ghetto blaster).I wanted to describe this as a "dragonfly", but it turns out there are dozens of species in Arizona. My best guess is a "blue dasher".
