Thanksgiving 2018: The Dragoons, Bisbee and Whitewater Draw
March 25, 2018
The west side of the Dragoons is our traditional holiday hideout.
Traditional Thanksgiving dinner: Leftover turkey on bagels, potato chips and huckleberry soda.New potatoes and gravy from a package. Yum!This year there are hundreds of campers here — plates from CO, UT and TX —
even though the road is in terrible condition. And nobody — not a single hiker — on the Stronghold Trail.Indian paintbrush, blooming in November!A type of sumac & mdash; I'm not sure which one.Next day it was off to Bisbee for the historic homes tour. So inspiring! Bisbee really is the beating heart of creativity in southern Arizona,
and I will always have a soft spot for this mountain town since this was one of the first places I was able to hike again. Six weeks after
hip surgery and still walking with a cane and hanging onto walls and railings, we nevertheless climbed 500 steps in Bisbee, following the route of the famous Bisbee 1000. On this glorious fall day
a year later, we hiked more than 1000 steps and visited a dozen spectacularly restored and decorated historic homes.
We camped that night at Whitewater Draw, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cranes. We've camped here several times,
but always arrived at the wrong time or the wrong date or the wrong year. This time, long after we thought all the cranes must have already settled in for the night, this happened.
Up at 5:00 the next morning, we huddled on an ice cold bench under a full moon and waited. Sandhill cranes and snow geese, too! What a show!
