Difficulty: Moderate. Some mild hiking on fairly flat and rolling trails or gravel roads with some incline. About 50 minutes to destinations. Bathroom on-site.
We’ll head to beautiful Oracle State Park, located at 3,700’ to 4,600’, with landscape dominated by rolling hills and panoramic vistas as it transitions from desert grassland to oak-woodland. There, we’ll likely encounter common desert species, such as Harris’s Hawk, Gila Woodpecker, Say’s Phoebe, Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay, Curve-billed Thrasher, Canyon Towhee and summer visitors such as Summer Tanager, Lucy’s Warbler, and Brown-crested Flycatcher, among others. Then we’ll move onto Peppersauce Canyon, an oasis mostly shaded by huge sycamores, where Bell’s and other vireos, plus Acorn Woodpeckers and Western Wood-Pewees are common, amongst a variety of lovely summer surprises. Limited to 9 participants.
Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay by Alan Schmierer