Travel with No Boundaries: Patagonia Lake State Park

We departed Sierra Vista and Beth and Aaron last Thursday after the worst of the cold and snow flurries were over. It’s about an hour to Patagonia Lake State Park, so not far away. It’s a beautiful ride through golden grasslands.

That green ribbon is Sonoita creek

The campsite I had chosen was not very level, so we asked at the visitor center if they could move us and they graciously did. Patagonia Lake is 256 acres. It is dammed but it is fed by Sonoita (so-noy-ta) Creek, which is spring fed and runs all year, amazingly. The green corridor this creates is just a tremendous resource for birds and wildlife. The park offers guided bird walks on Friday and Monday, which we took advantage of. Couple new life birds for us and great to see and hear spring songs.

Arizona Cardinal - bigger crest, more orange

Yellow headed black bird

Brideled Titmouse in action

There are a couple of Tucson Audubon properties, other state lands and Nature Conservancy areas to explore as well. We hiked in the state park and in some of the state lands as well.
The little town of Patagonia, 5 miles down the road is very cute. Lots of art studios, restaurants and a good bakery. There is also the Paton Center for Hummingbirds, set up by the Paton family who then opened their land to the public. We saw a Violet-crowned hummingbird there. What a beautiful bird.

Not our photo. Look at that bill color!

We had dinner and lunch in Patagonia on separate days. Really good food. No pics though. We also had Sunday Breakfast in Nogales, 15 m south of the park. We ate at El Ramffels, a family run small place. Grandmother (abulea) waited on us. She almost had to go get her daughter to translate but we got it figured out.

Dinner in Patagonia

El Ramffels menu. yum.

The border wall runs right through the middle of Nogales, separating neighborhoods and no doubt families as well. I can’t imagine what it was like when that was going up.

Nogales border wall

Aside from the bird walks, we took a short hike up hill to an overlook, and then I took a longer one looking for the park's petroglyphs. I did find some, but they were so faded I didn’t even take pictures. We did not see either of the two things I really wanted to see there, green kingfisher and coatimundi. Oh well.

Campsite with mesquite trees

Dogs :-)

Lake from overlook

Lake shore

Big bridge over the marina

Steep!

This week being president’s week, I was not able to find any open campgrounds, so we are back with Beth and Aaron for the week. They are so gracious opening their home to us.

Stats: $30 for five nights with water and electric, with Golden Age pass, which Arizona honors. Sort of heated bathrooms. Nice new baths. We did not try the showers but they looked good. No cell service to speak of.