Mike in the Wild

After encountering my first bear in Arizona last weekend -  click here to see that story   - writing about finding a new bird seems rather dull.  But even though that excursion culminated in my first real bear story, it started off in its own right as an ambitious trip to a birding hot spot.   As I noted in that post, I was only several feet into my hike on the Dandrea Trail in the Bradshaw Mountains when I had my very first encounter with a red-faced warbler this far north in its range.  And like with the bear, this find came as a total surprise. I think I've seen one before in Madera Canyon, two hundred miles to the south.  Like many songbirds, it winters in central and southern Mexico and comes north in the summer to breed.  The red-faced warbler likes high mountain habitats for breeding and  lucky for us the peaks of Arizona and New Mexico are included.  Until now I thought they were limited to the sky islands in our state's s...

Dandrea Trail leads to some of the highest peaks in the Bradshaw Mountains, and on a hot day in June it might be one of the coolest hikes in the Prescott area.  I first hiked this heavily forested and bird-filled trail at the very end of summer last year, so it seemed like a fitting way to start a hike early this summer season.  While I was expecting to see the rich variety of birds I saw last year, I harbored a not-so-secret wish to see a bear for the first time.  Little did I know it would be a dream come true! I was reminded just how remote the trail was when I arrived on a hot Saturday at the trailhead and saw only one other parked car.  Spotting my very first red-faced warbler just several feet into the morning hike was yet another reminder of the area's rich birding habitat.   But it was higher up the trail, just before reaching  a saddle with its crisscrossing paths to higher peaks, where I had my once-in-a-lifetime encounter. Black bears po...

Start in Potato Patch and make a left on Yankee Doodle Trail.  Those names sound more at home in a television satire on country living than they do in mountain hiking.  But they are actually the directions that promise one of the most idyllic escapes for both the avid hiker and the experienced birder in the Prescott area. Dandrea Trail starts high in the Bradshaws, its trailhead nestled at the end of Poacher's Row in the summer community of Potato Patch.  It's Trail No. 285, beginning near groves of aspen trees that were starting to burst in their autumn yellows on my late September outing.   It cuts through thick woods of fir, oak and pine trees, and its rocky slopes are dense with grasses and wildflowers.  The ascent up Mount Union in Prescott National Forest is not terribly steep, but the pathway was an old miners' road, and has since been covered in large, protective stones.  This makes for a rough hike, so it's best to leave the running shoes at home...

While Prescott might be Arizona's mile-high city, some of the surrounding peaks climb closer to 8,000 feet.  They're all in the Bradshaw Mountain range that rises just a few miles to the community's south, where mountaintops offer high escapes to alpine environments that are mostly protected and managed through the Prescott National Forest. Mount Union is the range's highest mountain, followed by Mount Davis and Spruce Mountain.  These summits and surrounding slopes are populated with dense forests of ponderosa pines, Gambel oaks and Douglas firs.   Both Union and Spruce can be reached via forest roads, but a high-clearance 4x4 might be needed, especially if winter snows or summer monsoons have rutted and muddied the way.   A more rewarding way to experience the verdant landscape is to hike one of several well used and marked trails that access the peaks.  The surrounding forest creates a dense, cool canopy even during the hottest part of the summer.  Mea...