November 9 -- The "Welcome Wagon" And Fall Colors In Cave Creek Canyon

Well, more like the "Welcome Jeep" as that's what the ladies arrived in...Patricia and Vicki, both residents of the Portal area, greet people who've just moved here and give them a folder full of brochures and important phone numbers -- and a chocolate rum cake. As they'd never been inside Faranuf before -- few people have, as the original owners were gone most of the year, and pretty much kept to themselves -- I showed them around the house, and the back deck with its killer view of Cave Creek Canyon. Then we went back inside where Patricia and Vicki went over the folder full of business cards and phone numbers. An important one is to the Border Patrol, and when you fill out a form, and supply your GPS coordinates, they'll be able to come over to your place faster than if they didn't have the coordinates.  Services like calling for a back hoe, the phone numbers to the consignment store "Swap n' Shop", the Chiricahua Desert Museum, Chiricahua Galley, opening hours for the Portal Store and Cafe (I always have a hard time remembering that one),  a small listing (as it's a small town) of Rodeo, New Mexico's "attractions" and businesses -- I was given all the things that a Portal resident would need. And an important thing to remember deals with 911; if you call using your landline, you'll get the Arizona, and thus faster, service. If you call using your cell phone, chances are you'll get New Mexico's, and thus have a slower arrival time. For instance, if I used my Smart Phone, they'd go by my phone's area code, which is 928 and NM's Hidalgo County. So I have to make sure that I drag myself to my landline phone in case of a medical emergency...And when the power goes out, you lose your landline and depend on how long both the power outage and your cell phone battery lasts for staying in touch with the outside world. But there is a way of maintaining phone service, and that is to have an "old-fashioned " phone that is not plugged into an electrical outlet and just uses a telephone jack. As Faranuf has many phone jacks, I'll have to buy an older phone, perhaps at the Swap n' Shop...

As I'm mentioned many times, the scenery here is spectacular. However, the colors of autumn make it even more so. Bigtooth maples with their red leaves, Madrones and Pyracantha with red berries (which attract Trogons and Cedar Waxwings), Arizona Sycamores, and aspen are just a few of the trees here that blaze with color. Within the past week then weather turned to being warmish during the day and cold at night, so that temperature difference contributes to creating the intense color of the leaves. After the "Welcome Jeep", I'd planned on hiking up the dirt South Fork road to the actual hiking trail, but trucks filled with large rocks kept passing by me on the paved road through Cave Creek Canyon and going up South Fork road, probably for shoring up and repairing the road near the Forest Service cabins which had been damaged by last year's flood from Hurricane Odile, so I opted to stay on the paved road and take it easy for a day (I was still sore from the hiking anyway). I first took the 200-yard hike up to Vista Point, one of my favorite spots in the canyon, where you look out over the forest canopy and up the Cave Creek and South Fork drainages --

The strip of orange-red is Arizona sycamores, which goes all the way down to the canyon's entrance. It's just a magnificent sight, and pretty much untouched by the big fire of 2011, which mainly burned along the high ridges in the distance. Vista Point is truly full of vistas all around you; here's one -- 

Looking up to Cathedral Peak on the left

And closeups looking west down into the drainages -- 

Cave Creek on the right

A closer look at the Cave Creek drainage

While walking back to the parking area I pass an area with an autumnally-tinged plant (every time I take a walk here I wish I knew more about botany) next to yucca and oak -- 

Back down along the road I stop to take photos. There are very few cars coming through here, particularly during the weekdays (except for those large trucks carrying rocks),so I can stand in the middle of the road and not worry about getting run over -- 

Arizona sycamores and the canyon walls

South Fork Creek, near Stewart Campground

Looking north to the canyon walls, also near Stewart Campground

Cathedral Peak framed by autumn colors

It is truly beautiful there now...

I end up the day with dinner at Mark and Lori's, aka Casa Conrad. One of the hazards of many houses here is that creatures you'd prefer to remain outside, get inside. Lori shows me a small container with a spider inside; they'd found it in the spare bedroom earlier that day. It's tiny, and rather nondescript; if I'd come upon it, I certainly wouldn't recognize it for what it was -- a Recluse, one of the most poisonous to be found here. They're also found a centipede, also poisonous, inside the house a few weeks back -- and lost track of it. This is one of the reasons why I vacuum Faranuf at least once a week...

Back on November 9, 2014 I was hiking in Nevada's Overton Wildlife Management Area, and came upon a Merlin --