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About
our Area
Santa Cruz County
of Southern Arizona is where you will be visiting. This is mostly
a rural area except
for the few towns along I-19, Amado, Green Valley, Tubac, Tumacacori
and Rico Rico. Santa Cruz County was created by Arizona's 20th
Territorial
Assembly in 1899 and is named after the Santa Cruz River - which
mean "holy cross" in Spanish.
While on trail we will be traveling through
a wide variety of cactus, desert shrubs, mesquite trees, oak, woodlands
and beautiful canyons. These canyons are filled with historical
significance and western legends. This land of the old west is
where Apache Indians attacked settlers and Geronimo and his band
of renegades made their last raids until his final surrender to
the U.S. Calvary in 1886.
One area that we will be camping is near
Sycamore Canyon which extends to the Mexican Border. The canyon
is surrounded by steep slopes and rugged cliffs, but at the bottom
are beautiful grasslands, watering holes, all shaded by the white-barked
Arizona Sycamores and oak trees. It's a perfect spot for making
camp, playing horseshoes and eating hearty meals under a canopy
of stars.
While in Rio Rico staying at the resort
you may want to go a little farther down the highway to Patagonia.
This is a great little western town to visit, and has one of our
favorite cowboy bars, the Wagon Wheel.
For more outdoor pursuits the Patagonia-Sonita
Creek Preserve is one of the best birding spots in the southwest.
The 265 acre preserve on lower Sonita Creek provides habitat for
over 200 species of birds. The unique variety of birds can be found
in the surrounding cotton wood, weeping willow, pine and mesquite
trees as well as high desert shrub and grassland. Patagonia is just
a short drive from the Esplendor Resort.
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