Luna Lake

Posted on by kritterspaw

Just East of Alpine nearly to the New Mexico border is a 75 acre beautiful lake at close to 8,000 feet elevation. It’s home to huge herds of elk, turkey, and a variety of waterfowl.

Campers, bicyclists, fishermen, four-wheelers, and hunters flock to the respite. It’s just off Highway 191, otherwise known as the Coronado Trail National Scenic Byway, which follows the trail of the explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who in 1540 sought the fabled “Seven Cities of Cibola”.

Wildflowers abound during the summer following monsoon rains, attracting birds, butterflies and other flying pollenators.

The Wildlife area provides a riparian area enjoyed by osprey, bald eagle, weasels, and tree frogs.

Whatever your allure, Luna Lake offers a little bit of everything for anyone who enjoys the outdoors and nature.

Greens Peak

Posted on by kritterspaw

North of Pinetop / Lakeside is an area known as Greens Peak. At over 10,000 ft, it gets plenty of snow in the winter, and is lush green in the summer. Hidden back along a well marked dirt road is one of our favorite places to camp, Carnero Lake.

I used to leave it’s actual name out of my posts, as it’s ‘our’ place. But it seems it has been discovered and become a bit over populated for our taste. Nonetheless, it remains a weedy haven for ducks and coots, and the occasional eagle and osprey.

For us, it’s a peaceful respite and place to relax and enjoy nature in all it’s glory.

Dog Town

Posted on by kritterspaw

Dog town Lake is one of the many little lakes that litter our desert state of Arizona.

We knew we were in for a good time when we saw an osprey on the tree just outside our camp.

We had a great time watching the osprey fish, and were even gifted with a bald eagle.

Dogtown Lake is situated just outside of Williams, AZ, and has a great view of the Bill Williams Mountain.

It’s definitely a place worthy of another visit, if only for the osprey watching.

Osprey hunts for fish

Tucson to Greens Peak in 45 degrees

Posted on by kritterspaw

We got a tip that we might be able to find coatimundi at Cluff Ranch in Pima, AZ, a locale they had been seen many times before. Having never seen a coatimundi, we were anxious to follow up on the lead and hopeful to get a great shot.

We stopped at Tucson Mountain Park along the way. It was sunny blue sky the entire time, but we weren’t there for sunsets, we were there for the animals.

At Tucson Mountain Park we were delighted and entertained as we watched these little ground squirrel brave the ocotillo thorns just for a taste of it’s ‘candy corn’ fruit.

When we got to Cluff Ranch in Pima, AZ, we hiked in to the spot we thought we might see coatimundi, parked ourselves and hid for several hours, waiting in silence hoping for an encounter. Unfortunately, not all animal outings are productive. They work to their own schedule and don’t tend to appear on command.

The heat was intense at 97F, particularly for us mountain dwellers, so we made our way back through Hannigan’s meadow toward Greens Peak in hopes of catching some osprey fishing.

We were rewarded with a 53F day, nearly 45 degrees from the previous day in Southern AZ, and fortunate to see some osprey, yet unable to catch that illusive shot of them fishing… but I’ll keep trying.