For the long Memorial Day weekend we are drive to South Arizona to an area we have not visited before near the Cochise Mountain. However there are no restaurants nearby so we decide to stop near Tucson to stretch our legs and buy some food. In order to stretch our legs we choose Sweetwater Wetlands with its relatively short hiking loops that always promises interesting birds or mammals.
As we start hiking we are surprised that the water is covered with algae. You can literally not see any water and with the lack of free water there is a lack of waterbirds. Bummer. At least on land we see an impressive Desert Spiny Lizard getting annoyed by us watching him before moving on.
We decide to hike the shortest loop, it is hot outside and due to the lake being covered by algae the birds are at a premium. At least we see a mallard mom with some chicks as we go out to the overlook over the lake.
We continue on around the lake seeing also a cottontail along the way but otherwise nothing that special. And we are hungry so back to the car we go to drive to a restaurant nearby that we visited already a few times before.
We get takeout from the restaurant, it is Covid season after all but also we want to eat it at our secluded AirBnB. We have booked an AirBnB in a religious compound with multiple cabins, we hope there won’t be any forced conversions tonight. And then we drive to the compound and check in in our cabin described separately, here.
