Walking through the Scars of Fire and Drought: Hiking at the Heights of the Chiricahua Mountains

Yellow-eyed Junco

 

 

Date: April 17

Place: Rustler Park, Portal, Arizona

Coordinates: 31.907114, -109.277168

Length: 2 miles

Level: moderate

 

We had lovely birding hike in the morning of our first day at the Cave Creek Canyon area of the Chiricahua Mountains. In the afternoon we drove up the long and winding dirt road to Rustler Park in the height of the  Chiricahua Mountains.

We were told by the docents at the visitor center earlier that day that the area there was severely burnt, but seeing it in person was very sad indeed. The fire not only destroyed a large area of the forest but also the campground, leaving only charred remains. 

We arrived fairly late in the afternoon and there weren't many people around. A few people, obviously birders if to judge by the paraphernalia they carried, were looking at a unburnt grove tree nearby. Pappa Quail and the elder chika joined them, and so even before going on any hike, they already got to see another lifer bird - the Grace's warbler. 

Grace's Warbler

They've seen already familiar birds too in that grove and while they shared and discussed their findings with the other birders I wandered off with the young chika around the campground ruins.

Brown Creeper

My path was a bit divergent from that of Pappa Quail and the elder chika. They folloed the other birders' directions to where birds were seen - a clearing south of the campground. Meanwhile, the young chika and I wandered around the campground, me looking for anything living and she sharing her feelings that this place evoked in her, and her desire to return promptly to our lodge.

When I saw enough of the campground I motioned my young chika and we slowly wandered to the clearing, following the others who reached already the trees on the other side.

My family birders took a long time in that clearing. When we regrouped they were pleased with their bird sightings, but a bit less so with the photos. The birds weren't very cooperative. Perhaps they were weary of all the day's birders by the evening.

Despite the birds' reluctant cooperation, they were pleased with what they saw, especially with seeing the yellow-eyed junco (header photo) that was on their 'wanna see' list for this trip. Now they were ready to head back down the mountain, but I wasn't going to be cheated out of my promised hike.

Hairy Woodpecker

I wanted to hike a loop trail that would take us over the ridge and around the nearest peak south of the campground, but I wasn't sure where that trailhead was exactly. Pappa Quail pointed out that we didn't have much daylight left and that he didn't want to drive down the winding dirt road in the dark.

Our 4/17 afternoon hike as captured by my GPS

Eventually we settled on hiking a dirt road trail that went behind a research center building (which was closed) and up the eastern side of the peak. Along this trail, we were told by another birder, we might see hummingbirds. we decided to go to a view point about a mile up.

Indeed there were humming birds - quite a few of them too. All of them were humming inside a large gooseberry thicket by the side of the trail about half way up to the view point.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird, female

 It wasn't only hummingbirds that made the gooseberry bushes their home. Other little birds found shelter in this thorny thicket as well. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch

While Pappa Quail and the elder chika were busy searching the bushes I looked at the view, which was very impressive. I was looking out to New Mexico to the vast desert far below. Other than a few irrigated fields that stood out in their out of place green, everything else was yellowish-brown arid.

View east

A bit more to the south I had a nice view of the southeastern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountain Range. I was glad to see that this area wasn't affected by the fire. The air quality below the mountains was too poor to see any further.

View southeast

We continued on up the trail. The bloom display so far was pretty week so I wasn't expecting any wildflowers there. I was surprised to see a few ephemeral violets by the trail side, and other than the gooseberry bushes, these were indeed all the flowers I saw on that hike.

Violet, Viola sp.

Spotted towhees are fairly common birds but are usually hard to photograph because they normally hide in the bushes. Here however, they were more out in the open. Perhaps it's what spring time does for them.

Spotted Towhee

The elder chika was the first one going uphill. Almost at the turn to the view point she exclaimed, "Gopher!" but by the time we joined her the gopher had already retreated into its burrow. She did get a single photo of the rodent, blurred a bit by the dry weeds at the burrow's opening. This gopher was the only non-bird vertebrate that one of us got to see on that hike.

Botta's Pocket Gopher

The trail to the view point was very narrow and uncomfortable. It seemed more like an unofficial foot trail created by hikers rather than the park's authorities. I'm not even sure we reached the correct vista point but we did stop where the view seemed to be the best in all three directions. From there we had a nice view also to the northeastern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountains.

View northeast

It was nice to be in a zone less affected by the fire. Some of the trees there were pretty impressive, including this interesting pine that's exhibiting branch reiteration growth.

The elder chika was the quickest to start back from the vista point to the main trail, where she waited for us slow pokes and meanwhile photographed a flicker. It was however, a regular northern flicker, same species that we see in the Bay Area, and not the gilded flicker that can be seen in south Arizona and was on my family birders' wanna see list for this trip.

Northern Flicker

Returning downhill on dirt road was a quick affair. I got some more wide view shots, with the image clearer now that the sun was further down the west.

View southeast

The trail was completely shaded now by the mountain side. The evening was coming down fast. I tried to take more shots of the violets but the illumination was already too low to get any sharp image. The distant eastern desert seemed even bigger now that I could make out the outline of the third mountain range over.

View east

Back by the burnt campground the elder chika noticed two birds perched on a still standing burnt tree. These were American kestrels, or 'so cute!' as she calls them. Probably they were a couple.

American Kestrel

It was Pappa Quail behind the wheel on the way down. I asked him to pull over by a patch of blooming lupine that I've noticed on our way up. I took many photos in the fading light hoping that some of them will come out okay.

Lupine, Lupinus sp.

Just before getting back inside the car I saw another blooming shrub and I snapped a quick photo of that one too. This one didn't require more than that one shot to come out clear.

While my family birders were very happy with today's sightings, I wasn't satisfied by the end of the day. I wanted to explore the higher area a little better than the small hike that we did, under the time pressure of the imminent nightfall. So on the following day, after successfully seeing the trogon bird at the South Fork Cave Creek Canyon, and after spending several hours of sitting by numerous bird feeders, we headed up the dirt road to Rustler Park once more. This time we arrived there earlier, and we also didn't linger by the ruined campground but headed right up to the loop trail that I wanted to hike yesterday.

 

Date: April 18

Place: Rustler Park, Portal, Arizona

Coordinates: 31.907114, -109.277168

Length: 2.6 miles

Level: moderate

 

Our 4/18 afternoon hike as captured by my GPS

Yesterday I had some difficulty fining the trailhead for the hike. This time it was easier because I felt less pressured. Even so, the trailhead wasn't all that obvious because of all the ruin left by the fire. It was uphill on the west side of the campground and if there used to be a sign there, it had burned down with all the trees whose charred remains dotted the hill side.

The hike started with a short and a bit steep uphill walk on a narrow, and very eroded trail. I was pleased to see evidence of recovery all around, sprouting from the ground between the dead trees.

Near the crest of the ridge were also patches of bushes and small trees that were not burned - mostly gooseberry and aspens. The aspens were still bare, not having budded out yet. Without foliage it was easier to spot the spotted towhee that was perched there on a thin branch.

Spotted Towhee

The last bit of trail leading up to the crest was particularly steep and slippery. Pappa Quail thought it cannot be the actual trail but I insisted it was so we all went up there. At the crest I turned and looked down behind me. The line between the burnt and the spared areas was striking. That fire must have been

Everything west of the ridge seemed to have succumbed to the fire/ All the larger trees, that is. The smaller aspens looked completely bare, but didn't look burned. 

Beyond our immediate surroundings I also had a wonderful view of the western side of the Chiricahua Mountains.

View southeast

Directly to the south was the peak we planned to encircle. It looked damaged and sad, even in the brilliant sunlight.

A view northwest revealed the vast desert stretched between us and the next mountain range over. Considering the big desert we saw on the east, it was quite apparent why would the birds were coming to the Chiricahua Mountains - it is a reliable oasis with water and shelter, a great place to pass the hot summer months and to breed.

View northeast

As soon as we reached the ridge we were whipped by a strong unpleasant wind from the west. I hoped that it'll ease once we descended below the ridge line. 

The trail down was very narrow and clearly not maintained by the National Forest authorities. It was impossible to follow the trail with our eyes so we started down it hoping for the best.

Lizards that were sunbathing along the trail seemed surprised to see us. I don't think too many people were using that trail. Judging by the trail's poor condition I would not be surprised if that's indeed is the case. Most of the lizards darted off as soon as we approached but a few did stay long enough to be photographed. 

Clark's Spiny Lizard

The trail's condition deteriorated from bad to worse with each step. In parts it was really hard to tell that there even was a trail there. The path we walk did match a trail line on my navigator map however, so we did go on further. Soon I took the lead, testing the trail and verifying that we were going in the correct direction, a thing not easily done on a switchback section where the directions switch with each turn. 

Eventually the going became such a struggle that we decided it wasn't worth the effort and turned around, walking back up to the ridge. Now I was once again in the rear, and not having to scout the path I could notice other things, like that the aspens on the west side were already showing initial budding. 

Aspens greening up

When we arrived back at the ridge we resigned to the wind and stopped to rest and to snack. I had the time to check out the northwest view more carefully. What I saw were a few very familiar-looking rock formations - the erosion-formed pillars known as hoodoos. The hoodoos I saw previously were the famous red ones in Bryce Canyon National Park. These hoodoos were grayish-brown. These hoodoos were on the edge of the Chiricahua National Monument on the northwest side of the mountain range. We were planning to visit there on the morrow and those far away hoodoos were a bit of a preview.

View Northwest

Another thing I had the chance to see now that we were sitting on the crest was the few lupine plants that were just beginning to bloom. One of them was a completely white morph.

Lupine, Lupinus sp.

We sat there for a good long break and then it was time to head back east down that steep flimsy bit of trail. While we were sitting I also had the chance to check my navigator for an alternative route and instead of going back to the trailhead we would take the trail that was going along the east side of the peak  that we were supposed to encircle from the west. 

As we started down the eastern slope I had a nice view of the desert below with the irrigated green fields there.

View Northeast

We made it down to the lower trail and started southward toward the peak. Sure enough, after a few steps we came upon a much nicer trail that was leading up to the crest ... Pappa Quail shot me an 'I told you so' look to which all I could do was shrug. 

There were supposedly springs near the trail. We didn't see any above ground water but the vegetation was considerably thicker around that area, and our trail cut through a crowded stand of aspens that barely started budding and thorny gooseberry bushes that were already well on their spring action. A single came down the trail towards us. He didn't carry binoculars or a big lens camera but he was well versed in the knowledge of the local birds. He told us that he had heard a red-faced warbler in the area although he couldn't see it. We didn't see it either. Not there, anyway. We did see other birds though, including an orange-crowned warbler. 

Orange-crowned Warbler

My family's birders would eventually find their red-faced warbler up at Marshall Gulch near Tuscon, on our last hike of that spring vacation. 

Past the springs area the trail started climbing up again. Not too high or steep, but certainly uphill, right toward the cliffs of the peak. Way up on top there were a few conifers standing, alive and green.

The signs of the awakening spring were still few, perhaps because this spring was following yet another drought winter. But there were these few, still.

At the base of the cliffs we were surprised to find a snow patch covering the trail. The snow was slanted in a perilous way, and only a narrow line of footprints indicated that people had crossed it already and that it was possible. My elder chika crossed quickly to the other side but my young chika was hesitant, she didn't feel she could cross it without falling down. I gave her one of my hiking poles and with the help of Pappa Quail she slowly crossed to the other side. 

I waited patiently until everyone else crossed before going across the snow myself. While I was waiting I looked around and took photos. From that point I had a much better sight of the northeast slopes of the mountains, with a clear view of the fire-affected zones and the sharp line that separated them from the areas of the forest that escaped the decimation.

View Northeast

There were a couple more snow patches on the trail but those were much easier to cross. After the snow  we found ourselves walking on a really narrow foot path that eventually paralleled itself above the wide dirt road that we had hiked the day before to the view point.

As we curved around the mountain slope I saw a few more blooming lupine, and some were even close to the trail.

Lupine, Lupinus sp.

We walked nearly half a mile above the dirt road that would be our way back, in hope that the narrow trail we were walking on would meet it. The navigator showed a connection point a considerable distance ahead and we didn't want to get that far up. Besides, once again we were in the late afternoon time and had we continued we were likely to drive down in the dark once again.

View Southeast

We didn't want to backtrack either so we kept our eyes open and eventually found a place where we could safely step off trail and descend to the dirt road. One didn't need to be a master scout to see that we weren't the only hikers doing this at that spot. 

We connected with the dirt road a bit above the path to the view point that we hiked to yesterday. From there, it was a quick and easy walk down.

It was quick and easy for me and the chikas, that is. Pappa Quail was bothered by a blister on his foot and near the bottom he sat down and took off his shoe to apply a band aid to the blister. Since the chikas were far ahead already I went ahead too and followed them to the parking lot. 

Pappa Quail took a long time to arrive. Long enough for me to start uphill again to see if he was all right. I didn't have to go far though, for he was already close to the parking area. Apparently he was not far behind us but got sidetracked by a bird in the grove where he and the elder chika had seen the Grace's Warbler yesterday. 

This time it was a Greater Pewee. Also a lifer. Pappa Quail was very pleased with his sighting and kept taunting the elder chika that wouldn't return with him to look for it again because she was too tired.

All I saw was a little gray bird. I could have never told it apart from any other little gray bird in that forest.

Greater Pewee

The elder chika seemed wiped out by today's events. She seemed to have had enough birding for the day, and was ready to eat dinner and go to bed. Or so I thought. On the way down the mountain, in the fading late afternoon light she spotted a small hawk perched on a tree not too far from the road. It was all too fortunate that there was a pullout right there so we stopped and after a few attempts to take photos from the car window, she went outside with Pappa Quail following her. The hawk turned out to be a Cooper's hawk, a common species that we know from the Bay Area (and from our yard whenever one of them makes an attempt on our backyard chickens). Still, it is a beautiful bird.

Cooper's Hawk

It certainly was a very full day, and very successful birding-wise. As for the hikes ... the area does have potential but the fire damage, the unmaintained trails and possibly the less than optimal season made it a bit less exciting for me. This feeling of dissatisfaction would change 180 degrees on the morrow, on our hike at the Chiricahua National Monument.