Escaping the heat from the Phoenix valley, I rode about four hours away into the white mountains on the border of Arizona and New Mexico. The landscape is a clash between open fields and growing forests. It is a mountain that was a massive volcano thousands of years ago but now it has been weathered into rolling hills and a treeless peak. 

 

We spent four days here at the end of July. I saw many small mammals and birds in our camp: American robins, woodpeckers, crows, and even two ospreys.  There were large blue herons on the shore of the lakes we visited. During one of our drives, we were fortunate to see a herd of elk with over 30 members. It looked to be all mares with their young. You could hear the babies mewing whenever their mother walked too far. It was such a joy to see such a healthy herd. We also saw a couple of horses feeding near the lake. I took the most American picture I have ever taken of the horses with the cumulus clouds behind them.

 

 The weather has been temperamental, with frequent bursts of rain and lightning. The nights have filled with thunderstorms. I didn’t film the worst of the rain but took time lapses from a safe distance. I learned that the mountains form a rain shade from the heated air from the desert valley rising against the cool air, forming thunderstorms.

 

I slept in a hammock and have been mostly staying dry. I used a lean-to setup above my hammock with an orange tube tent tarp. I have found the tube tents too fragile and have holes that allow rain drips to seep through. 

 

Overall the trip has been extremely relaxing, and the sites have been beautiful. I highly recommend that anyone looking for a peaceful weekend in the woods consider going up into the white mountains.

 

I planned this trip months ago in the hope that I would see some pronghorns. I have lived in Arizona for most of my life, and I have never seen them in real life. Driving away from our campsite on our last day, I was a little disappointed that I hadn’t seen them during the trip but was consoling myself with having been able to reconnect with that sense of peace I find in the wilderness. That was until we were driving away from the camp towards home, and I saw a flash of white and screamed, “PULL OVER.”

 

I am stupendously happy to say I captured these images of pronghorns in the mountains of Arizona. Their fluffy white rumps made it happen.