From April 22-26, 2026, Ellen and I camped at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ and attended this festival. We attended a couple of great presentations and volunteered for the Family Nature Day on Saturday. The following are some of the images I took of some of the critters we encountred from the weekend. Enjoy!
Camping with Fred and Zoey
That's Fred and Zoey's rig across the way.
This year we had the great fortune of Fred and Zoey (housemates of our friends Alison and Ali) join us across the campground road for the weekend. We toured them around one afternoon to show our favorite places both in the park and in the Cotttonwood/Clarkdale area. We stopped for lunch at an old gas station turned burger joint in Old Town. It was delicious.
We parked for the weekend and rode our bikes to all of the events, including to the Rec Center for two of the presentations we attended.
Walking around the Lagoons
The early morning mist burns off and reflects the deep blue of the Verde Valley sky. The lagoon on the left, we were told, was hosting a flock of American White Pelicans. Sadly, they circled up on the thermals until they reached their cruising altitude and headed off to their next destination before I could get a picture.
Photographing the resident Great Blue Herons was fun as they were constantly taking off due to humans either on the walking paths or floating by in the water in their fishing kayaks.
Great-tailed Grackles.
Mama duck and her brood. To the right she is chasing off this Drake who was up to no good.
He just looks irritated.
Gila Woodpecker
Family Nature Day
Ball Python
A shedding Chuckwalla
American Kestrel
At the Out of Africa booth.
In the kids play area.
At the Sonoran Reptiles booth.
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Crested Carara
Skunks can be brown, especially in captivity.
Blooming Cactus
On my mountain bike ride. It was such a difficult ride, lots of hike-a-bike that I thought, "Why not photograph flowers!"
Hedgehog Cactus
Brown-spined Prickly Pear
Ocotillo
Sonoran Reptiles Presentation
Yes, that's a Black Rattler that later was hanging out on the floor in front of us.
A Bearded Dragon.
A Gila Monster, described by Brett as a potato with legs.
California King Snake
Calm down, it's just a gopher snake.
Armchair Birding from 8-10 am
There were seven or so feeders set up in front of us. Eric, the owner of The Lookout (used to be Jay's Bird Barn) in Prescott, was wonderful at locating, identifying and sharing information about all the different birds that came to the feeders, roosted in a tree overhead or did a fly-by. This free event FAR exceeded our expectations.
Lesser Goldfinch
Lazuli Bunting
American Goldfinch
Anna's Hummingbird
A beautiful Cottonwood tree near our station.
Add comment
Comments