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.

T-Dubing to the Cerro Colorado Mountains

Warm day today, it got over 70°F (21°C) under sunny skies!

I rode Yagi, my Yamaha TW200, using google maps to get close to the Cerro Colorado Mountains to the NW of my camp site.  It was all dirt trails, with no major challenges except for portions of road where mud had blocked the way.

I hate mud.

Each time though, except for one, I was able to bypass the mud obstacle by going off trail and winding my way through bushes and small trees to the other side of the trail where things were dry once again.

Google maps had outdated data, and I ended up in a dead end.  However, a quick look at the map on my phone and I could see a parallel route that worked to get me further onwards.

I ended up going around the north end of the Cerro Colorado Mountains and stopped with a view of the western side of these mountains:

 Western side of Cerro Colorado Mountains

 View of Baboquivari Peak

I retraced my route until I could get a good view of the eastern side of the Cerro Colorado Mountains:

Using Google Maps, as I had cut to reserve on the fuel tank, I was making my way back to civilization and fuel when I saw this view of the Cerro Colorado Mountains below:

What caught my eye was what I thought was a massively large petroglyph on the side of one of the mountains:

 It turned out to be a trick of the light (click to enlarge)

However, the trick wasn't obvious to me just by viewing the picture

through the LED display on the camera.

Continuing on, I ended up on a road that led to private land and a gate.  Access however is permitted to allow folks to get back to public lands.  Just make sure to close the gate as you pass.

A few miles later, I was back on Arivaca road, the eastern end.  A bit over 8 miles east of the town of Arivaca itself.  So that's where I rode, and getting to the town's gas station with 106 miles on the tripmeter and pumping 1.6 gallons into the tank.  (it's capacity of 1.8 gallons).

Fueled back up, I retraced my route on the Arivaca Road back to the entrance road that leads to Rancho Seco.

Cerro Colorado Mountains on the left

Found a trail that allowed me to get much closer than the above pic

About two miles later (the last half mile was basically loose stone and small boulders which made things interesting) but Yagi handled it all with no issues.  I got all the way to the end of the trail and parked Yagi.

It was then a short hike (less than 1/4 mile I estimated) to the base of the mountains where I sought out the "petroglyph" I'd seen from the road earlier.  Nothing.

 The above rock formation is where the "petroglyph" was, which

turned out to be a trick of the light

 Northern portion of the Cerro Colorado Mountains

I made it back the 14 miles back to Arivaca with no issues, picked up some grub at the Mercantile Store which is also the gas station and then went back to camp.

Sunset was clear skies, so not very exciting:

 Sunset Mode in the camera

T-Dubing around the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

Sunny but with a high of only 58°F (14°C) with a gusty breeze to bring on the wind chill.

While things were warming up, I geared up and rode Fiona the 11 miles to the Waste Transfer Stations I'd spotted yesterday while checking out the town of Arivaca.

Got there, dumped my accumulated garbage and returned back to the campsite.  Note: Next time, there's a closer waste transfer station at junction of AZ 286 and Arivaca Road, for the hamlet of Sasabe.

Once back, I switched to Yagi, my 2006 Yamaha TW200 Dualsport for today's riding.

I rode back towards the State Trust Land gate north of mile marker 17 on AZ 286 and decided to explore the left fork trail at the cattle herding area where I'd turned right to end up in Brown Canyon.

The trail was a bit difficult at times, very rocky but Yagi handled it with more aplomb than I exhibited.  I had to turn around after a small creek crossing when the way became a steep uphill path strewn with large loose stones.  Not something to try while riding alone!

I rode back the way I came and sighted a good spot to get pictures of a set of interesting hills:

 Looking back the way I'd ridden....that's Mildred Peak on the left,

with Baboquivari peak behind the hillside on the right

Once back on the AZ 286 Highway, I turned south and rode the 17 miles to the hamlet of Sasabe and the border with Mexico.  The town wasn't anything to write home about as expected, so I slowly cruised through it until I reached the border stations area.

I turned around as I had no plans to cross the border and besides, didn't have my passport with me.

I headed back through the hamlet of Sasabe and stopped briefly at the local church for a picture:

I then turned east at an entrance to the Buenos Aires NWR which extends all the way to the border with Mexico.  In fact, I found a trail that led right up to the wall at the border!

Looking West

Looking East

I continued heading east, riding next to the border fence/wall.  Perhaps a half mile later, I came upon a trio of soldiers, wearing masks to protect their identities, rifles in hand on the other side of the border!  

The just stared at me as I took a couple of looks as I passed them.  I soon ran into loose sand and decided to bail on the border road at the first opportunity to turn north.

A short time later, I was back in Sasabe and turned north on AZ 286 heading back towards the area near the refuge's headquarters and visitor center.

I explored several more trails, but only found one more picture worthy location.  The rest were just narrow trails, usually peppered with muddy spots, winding among mesquite bushes and tall grasses.

A view of Baboquivari Peak from near the Refuge's HQ

It was past noon at this point so I headed on back to the campsite and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing there.  The sun was nice and warm but the breeze was strong enough to add a bit of wind chill still.

Pretty good day of riding, managed to not drop Yagi and only minimal dabbing was involved on loose sand and deep mud situations.

Uraling to Arivaca Lake, AZ

A sunny day today, after three cloudy ones, so the sun and its warmth were a welcome start to the new year.

The year's first Sunrise was just OK:

Spent the morning doing maintenance chores on the URRV and doing some light hiking on the trails near the campsite.

In the afternoon, I rode Fiona, my '99 Ural Patrol and headed the 9 miles or so to the small town of Arivaca.  They've a Mercantile store there where I could get gas not only for Fiona but the spare gas can and bonus: they let me fill up a five gallon can of water at an outside water spigot for free!

Errands complete, I meandered over to Arivaca Lake to see what there was to see.

The road there is quite windy and has some enjoyably curvy turns and dips to keep one entertained.  Found the lake at the end of two miles of bumpy dirt road.  Folks were fishing at the lake's edge in camouflage clothing, which I found a bit weird but hey.

A couple were playing around with kayaks:

As I retraced my route back towards the town of Arivaca, I found a nice spot to pose Fiona at with Baboquivari Peak in the background:

The mountains to the east of Arivaca look interesting don't they?

Got back in time to eat dinner before catching the new year's first sunset: