Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area and Lowell, AZ…

Near Bisbee, Arizona is the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area which is home to thousands and thousands of wintering birds. What make this refuge fun to visit is the large population of Sandhill Cranes found there in the winter time. We weren't sure if they would be already taking off for their northern nesting grounds but we took the 25 minute drive out to the refuge to see.

As we pulled into the refuge we could hear the sounds of Sandhill Cranes whose numbers swell to more than 20,000 in peak season. Sandhill Cranes spend the night standing in Whitewater Draw’s shallow waters to evade predators making this the perfect location.  We parked and then we walked out to the shallows where we saw a sea of Sandhill Cranes all around the edges of the shallow waters noticing the birds were beginning to mill around to feed.

We walked around the flats and encountered many other species of birds besides the abundant Sandhill Cranes . Cinnamon Teal, Shovelers, Pintail, and Ruddy Ducks were feeding in the shallows as well. White Crowned Sparrows, Yellow-Rumped Warblers and Says Phoebes were catching flies for their morning breakfast while Kestrel and Northern Harriers were searching for larger prey nearby.  We were treated to lots of lively activity at the refuge that morning.

On our way back we stopped to check out a recommended “must see” place in nearby Lowell, AZ, the Shady Dell RV Park. It was locked up as they only take reservations and don’t open until late in the afternoon.  This is not a place to bring your RV to park since it already has the RV’s on site as rentals. What makes it unique is all of the RV’s on site are vintage! To make it more interesting they pipe 50’s music throughout the park giving it that very real nostalgic feel. We also walked around a bit and checked out the restored part of downtown Lowell where there were lots of cool looking old cars and a gas station. Someone is spending a lot of money to vamp it up but it still has a long way to go to be fully restored…

 

After we returned to the RV we made one last walk into Bisbee and walked up a few side streets that we had missed before. Finally we ended up at the Copper Queen Saloon next to the Copper Queen Hotel that is said to be haunted. Seeing no ghosts in the saloon we sat at the bar for a cold adult beverage. Lucky for me one of the beers was on tap from the Savage Brewery where we wanted to visit but was closed on Monday. Their Strongman Ale was excellent as was Sharon's Vanilla Porter she ordered from Breckenridge Brewing Company in Colorado. A fitting end to our visit in Bisbee...

The next morning we headed east about 80 or so miles and pulled into Rusty’s RV Ranch. Rusty's is near the town of Rodeo New Mexico out in the middle of nowhere. We are in a quite large pull -thru site (all sites here are pull-thru) with great views to the west of the Chiricahua Mountains a place we will visit during our stay here..

NOTE: Yes I am behind in the blog again as we have left Rusty’s in Rodeo NM and moved on to Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, NM…