(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Daily Bucket- A Nine Hour Drive Across Arizona [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-13 The north face of Four Peaks Last Wednesday I was finally prepared to hit the road and check out the super bloom of the Sonoran desert. Accept there was no super bloom. At least not where I drove through. Everyone out west knows this has been a tremendous year for moisture. Well, along with that moisture comes the chaos of turbulent temperatures. The morning I left it was 36 degrees at 3500 feet. As always I have to go up hill a fair amount to escape the clutches of my little river valley. I headed east and topped out at around 7000 feet. The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns. We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow. Any north facing slope with shade still has anywhere from 3 to 6 feet of snow. To find any flowers I had to drop off the Mogollon Rim, take the roller coaster ride over the upper reaches of the East Verde River and drop into the Tonto Creek Basin that flows into Roosevelt Lake. That’s the upper reaches of the Sonoran Desert and I had no idea if I was going to find any flowers that high up. I kinda did. The title photo is taken there. Along the lowest point of the valley, the lupine and California poppies had just started to open up. These are usually the first to open in the Spring. Ok. But not what I would call a super bloom, a term people use to describe what happens every ten years or so when we have a really wet winter and the flowers go nuts. But you probably knew that. So I continued on along the lake and climbed the hills leading down into the Salt River drainage that feeds most of the water into the lake. Here at least the sunniest warmest sides of the hills were starting to show their potential. I crested the Pinal Mountains and dropped down into the Gila River drainage that is a bit lower than along the Salt. That’s where things started looking thick. And that was about the high point of the flowers. At Hayden I left the Gila River and started up the San Pedro River valley. Fans of Arizona might know that this river is one of a kind. The last free flowing river in the southwest, it has been called the most endangered river in America. It hosts Jaguars in the only place they can be seen in America. Take that Jacksonville. Eroded alluvial fans from the Holocene Epoch (very new). I took a dirt road I’ve never taken before. It takes a lot for me to say that in this state. I just replaced my struts on the Tundra the Sunday before and was anxious to break them in, so I took a 50 mile dirt road that connects San Manuel to Benson, Arizona. There are a few places on the map in this area. All of them ghost towns. No schools or post offices for the ranches stretched out along the river, but they have cell service. The Rincon Mountains had a lot more snow than I would have guessed. The river flows north along the back side of the Santa Catalina and Rincon Mountains that define the east boundary of the city of Tucson where my brother lives. I normally come in from the north but the only way into town now has nothing but stop lights mile after mile and no alternate route. 50 miles of washboard dirt road is more appealing to me. The San Pedro hosts 100 species of domestic birds, 300 species of migratory birds, 83 species of mammals and 47 species of reptiles and amphibians. Beaver were reintroduced to help restore river flow by retaining water, raising the water table and to support the regrowth of historic vegetation. They have spread far and wide and are helping if the cattlemen will shut up long enough to let them do their work. Most of the area along here is in the narrows between ancient alluvial fans that have petrified to become rock solid. This pushes the water table really close to the surface and I was surprised at how lush the Cottonwood groves were along here. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a world of pain to watch out for. I stumbled across a neat place that I read about like 25 years ago. It’s along this road, so no wonder I never made it there, but now that I know it’s only a couple miles past the end of pavement from the south, I will certainly make another trip. So, if you are a parrot maniac like Besame, check out the link. I don’t want to spoil it for you. Cienega Creek facing west towards Tucson So I got into Benson and turned west to hang out at my favorite train watching location in Arizona to wait until my brother got off work. But that’s a different story. Getting into Tucson around 6 pm, nine hours after I left. Sure, I could have taken the freeway through Phoenix and all the traffic and threats to life and limb (freeway wise) and got there in three and a half hours, but no. Arizona can only be felt from the bumps of a good dirt road. 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