After the outstanding views from Mt. Lemmon, then the discovery and birds at Gordon Hirabayashi Camp, we next went… well, we went to EAT! But then after that, we went to Tucson’s Agua Caliente Park.
Lightning struck inside the park September 28, 2022 and burned 265 trees in this 100 acre wood I mean, park. Most of the trees burned were palm trees. Just two seasons later, and look at how well they are recovering. Forty palms were cut down, and you can still see their stumps.
The spring is not robust here, and yet valuable due to its history and the location in the desert. After the fire, efforts were made to clear the source and build up the banks with rocks, to preserve the tiny spring, for which the place received its name.
As you may have guessed, this place originally became famous for it’s hot springs (agua caliente = hot water in Spanish). The land was homesteaded in 1873, and then turned into and farm and a health spa in 1878 when the flow was measured at 500 gallons per minute. Today, the spring is only a trickle assisted by park pumps.
Adjacent to the parking area is the original farmhouse that has now been turned into a Visitor’s Center and museum, showing the way the rooms may have been used when it was a home…
…and pottery from an excavated archaeological site on the homestead…
…and in a long narrow room to the side, we found a traditional-type gallery.
Back outside, we began our exploration of the park grounds. It was lovely and we constantly had our eyes on the horizon, looking for wildlife. We found it!
All around the pond and the farmhouse museum are manicured lawns with domestic flower gardens and picnic tables. We left that area and headed into the adjacent grounds that brought more stereotypical desert scenes.
Out in the desert, we found another pond! When this property was a farm, there were three ponds, fed by the spring and assisting in irrigation. The ponds are kept today, but not the irrigation, though there is still evidence of the old rows of farmland. Today, the comparably wet land provides a thriving bushy forest.
At the pond we saw ducks that felt more comfortable in this setting vs. the pond with all the palm trees and people and dogs.
We will finish with a rather seductive pose. I took this one from the Redhead’s Tinder page:
Bird Count: We saw some pretty new birds, five in all. That brings my Arizona bird total up to fifteen birds on the afternoon of day four.
Conscious Engagement 
Another great place Crystal. The Painted Turtles always seem permanently grumpy. The Great Egret photos are awesome. So love the number of ducks, some I’ve not seen before. The Tinder profile photo made me laugh 😍
Thanks Brian! I do love ducks and I’m fortunate to live around so much water and get the chance to see them often. I’m glad to see you like them as well. I think I have photos of more ducks the next day, when we made our way down south to the Mexico border. I think if that sexy Redhead put that photo up on Tinder, it would totally attract the ladies. It worked on me. 😉
Ahhh yes, a sexy profile pic may lead to a good ducking 😂😂
Even for you, this is a superb range of photos. If only humanity could emulate nature’s regenerative qualities.
Thank you Derrick. I believe humans have amazing recovery skills, but sadly, as you point out, not the regenerative abilities. I am simply fascinated with the studies being done right now on starfish and lobster and such, trying to discover how they regrow limbs, with fantastical hopes that someday the knowledge can be used to help humans.
Turtles and cactus and egrets. Oh, and a red-headed duck! Very cool!
It feels a little less impressive to find birds in a park, like this one, but they were such wonderful birds I’m still so pleased. That redheaded duck is just sumptuous. ❤ And the turtles were great. The two I got most of the shots of were following me as we walked around the shore of the pond, hoping we would feed them treats. Seeing a bunch of baby turtles was pretty fun, too.