We are having a record-breaking June here in Arizona. It’s not just the fires that are hot. We are to get to 115 or 116 tomorrow (120 or so in Phoenix) which hasn’t happened here in 20+ years. Bob is taking all of the credit.
Regardless of temps, however, we are continuing to explore this little corner of the world. Generally, when we travel here we hop onto Highway 19 — either south towards Nogales or north towards Tucson. This post covers our southern explorations to date. (Side note and rare fun transportation fact: Highway 19 was built when the US was considering adopting the metric system so travel distances listed on road signs are listed in kilometers and not miles. This is what you get for being proactive.)
Anyhoo, I’m not sure the rest of this post will top that fun fact, but here goes. . . We have not yet ventured south all the way to Nogales, but we have checked out some natural wildlife areas, state parks, and cute wine and art areas south of Green Valley. Going south always means that we will hit a border check stop on the way back. A couple of the places that we have visited sound like we have made it as far south as Argentina.
Roadside exit off of Hwy 19 heading into the little community of Arivica. The longhorn skeleton is even more impressive in the rear view mirror as you drive away from it.One of the boardwalks at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge — a 117,000+ Acre refuge area for the protection of wildlife.Patagonia Lake at Patagonia Lake State Park. We were sure there wouldn’t be any water since all the rivers/creeks/washes up this way are dry , so this was a treat and many families were enjoying the beach area.Boat on Patagonia Lake near where we started our Creek Hike. The hike was well shaded and brought us close to — cows and turkeys.We walked the whole park to check out campsites, the general store, and this fun, steep bridge over the boat docking area.After the state park, we drove to Elgin (not Texas — or Illinois!) to the southern AZ wine region to partake of a tasting and a glass of white at Kief-Joshua Vineyards.Closer to Green Valley, we hiked the 4 mi (each way) Anzac trail from the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park to Tumacacori State Park. It was, happily, much more shaded than we were expecting!The mission at Tumacacori.You can buy any kind of yard art in Tubac.How about this yard art?
Peckish Travels 