The best of AZ

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Good morning everyone! When we left Kartchner Cavern State Park for the West side of the area, we had no idea what we were in for. We came across 82 and it was an incredible drive! I am sorry that Arizona has had a hard winter this year, but I gotta say that it is showing us a side of Arizona that I think we are very blessed to be shown. The drive was all rolling green hills - very pretty and not what I expected in AZ. It was a different green than Washington. A deep deep dark green and then just a dusting of green on the lower elevations. We are at DeAnza RV Resort in Amado now. It's a fairly new park created from an old Greyhound race track and is still in the preocess of being created. It's right near several little towns above Nogales at about 3500 feet elevation: Tubac; Rio Rico; Arivaca; and Carmen. We drove what is called the Arivaca Loop a couple days ago. It goes through the little tiny town of Arivaca, then up to Arivaca Lake where it turns into a dirt road and goes another 21 miles through the hills on winding and sometimes steep roads back to Nogales. There were several side trips too - to other little "lakes", ranches, and an old mining town called Ruby mine. There was a crotchety old caretaker there that (for $24.00) would take us through the town giving us his historical interpretation and a tour of the buildings. We ran into the owner on the way out who told us that they were in the process of refurbishing the buildings but that it would be a while before they were complete. We didn't do the tour, maybe some other time... At any rate, the sights were just crazy beautiful. Yesterday we headed for the town of Tubac which is comprised primarily of artists. Some of the artwork was really incredible and very original. It took almost all day to go through the town but it was really worth it. I've included a couple of pics of pieces that we really liked. Today we are just laying low. I had laundry to do and I cleaned the Cameo. Bob cleaned out the truck and is getting us ready to head out tomorrow. There are still a lot of things we want to do in this area so we are going to come back for sure. We are heading for Catalina State Park just north of Tucson. There are several things we want to do up there, so we plan to stay for at least a week. Hopefully we will be able to do everything we are planning - If not, we'll put them on the list for next year... We'll keep you informed!

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Photos

Arivaca Lake
In the desert even... wow

Arivaca Loop view
This is just one of many we took on the loop. There are mountains for as far as you can see! And it's hard to tell but there is a lot of green.

Montana peek
We were able to see this peak for most of the drive. It was really incredible

Arivaca Loop
This is another view that we saw on the trip. The views were just amazing and the pics just don't do it any justice at all.

Tubac horses
There were actually 3 of these - the tallest one was up to my shoulders.