We are in our 2nd week in Queen Valley and It’s been wonderful. We went to our old spot near the canyon and set up camp. There were a couple of redundant fireplaces, some of which were filled with ashes, broken bottles, and charcoal. Also a lot of scattered rocks. We got busy and cleaned up the fireplaces and an old dead Saguaro. We gathered up all the debris and dumped everything but the garbage into a wash. That left us with a lovely grassy area under a Palo Verde tree and a couple of giant Saguaros.
The land was flat with a beautiful view of the mountains beyond. We spent a couple of days riding around on our UTV and also did some brass (spent bullets) collection. There are still a lot of shooters up here especially on the weekends. We were almost completely alone at night since most of the visitors were were day trippers. We did meet a couple who were tenting down the road and spent some fun time with them.
I was able to purchase a local book about cacti and succulents of Arizona and am thoroughly enjoying learning more about the flora and fauna of the region. We lured in our first Hummingbirds of the season with our feeders but can’t seem to get any other birds. I put out a suet feeder but found it aways from camp ripped open and the suet gone. I suspect something other than birds enjoyed the suet.
On the night before Valentines we drove over to Queen Valley Townsite which is slightly more than a golf course with houses around it. They advertized Prime Rib dinner for $12.95 so we took them up on it. It was an inside/outside bar/restaurant/grocery store/ propane station. But the food was good and the place was lively with background music played by an older gentleman/cowboy with a guitar and a collection of old country tunes. The staff was very friendly although not completely familiar with the menu. We had fun.
It’s been quite hot, the temp up into the high 80’s. Of course it drops down to the 40’s at night so we spend most of the time opening all our windows and then closing them all up. As well as changing our clothes three or four times a day.
We hope to spend another week here and the head up to Hot Well dunes for some time in the hot springs. I am looking forward to soaking away some of my knee pain.
More to come….
