Uraling about the BANWR

Almost 60 km of Uraling the trails in the Buenos Aires NWR nearest to the Pronghorn Scenic Drive.

The scenic drive itself is OK, no animals seen though and scenery-wise not very photogenic or perhaps I've just been seeing the same scenery over and over.  Grasslands, mesquite bushes, cottonwood trees, and the occasional camper.

Got mis-oriented a few times while exploring near the base of the small hills to the west of the visitor center.  Found some campsites outside the confines of the NWR, and everywhere I went, I usually either came up on another person in their truck or they came up on me as I looks for picture spots.  More folks outside the NWR than inside for some reason.

Yep, Baboquivari Peak again, from the base of the hills

I would explore dirt roads/trails until they became too rutted and deep for Fiona to manage safely.  In the end, I ended up retracing my way back to the visitor center area and checked out Aguirre Lake nearby.

It's the dry season, so the lake was dry.  Basically looked like a squarish depression with grass and small bushes growing in it.  The walk around the lake is 0.8 miles so easy enough to do, I guess it's better when there's water in it though?

Took Route 429 which winds up junctioning with Route 210 which is the southern portion of Highgate Road, taking you eventually to Arivaca Road which sort of bisects the lower third of the NWR.  

Tooling along, I spotted this hawk sitting on what looked like a slap of meat draped over a branch.  I stopped, turned around and positioned Fiona far enough away to not spook the hawk.

Breaking out the 200mm Telephoto lens, I got these pics:

Sure looks like raw meat doesn't it?

Which would explain why the hawk was sitting there.

Another hawk showed up and perched atop a nearby tree, and this seemed to cause the above hawk to fly off.  The newcomer didn't stay long either.  Once both were gone, I walked over to the object draped over the branch and:

Looked like perhaps the skin of a deer that a hunter had

removed and left there on the branch?

I am unsure why a hunter would leave the skin there.....weird.

I kept riding and soon was crossing across Arivaca Road and headed towards my campsite.  Two groups of campers were settled in somewhat near my site but out of sight so all good.

For whatever reason, there were more campers grouped together in clusters than single camper units like mine.  Perhaps it's a bunch of friends out for a hunt or camping event.

I'm thinking I've pretty much explored what I want to explore for this area.