Camping in Cutie RV: Grand Vista RV Park, Willcox, Arizona

It was a chilly night but blue skies as we drove back into Willcox and found the number one restaurant open for breakfast. The downside was their coffee machine was out but we got delicious chips and salsa with our breakfast burrito. We found the local coffee shop and sat in their cozy game room warmed by a large coffee. We headed over to Grande Vista RV Park to get set up before the rains came and we just barely did. There are several winery tasting rooms in historic Willcox and The Willcox Wine Trail to more wineries close to where we spent the night. We headed off to the Community Center when Registration opened at 1 pm and then to the historic downtown Birds and Barrels Tasting Room. We enjoyed a flight of dry red wines before we headed back to the community center to board a van for the Sand Hill Cranes Sunset Tour to the Twin Lakes Golf Course nearby. The sun came out after the rain, sleet, and snow for a fantastic birdwatching trip to the ponds and the golf course where the sandhill cranes were flocking in and roosting. After the sunset we headed back to the Community Center for the Festival Reception at 5 pm which included a delicious spread of meats, cheeses, crackers, veggies and fruits, and live music but unfortunately no wine. We enjoyed a preview of the exhibits before returning to the campsite anticipating a hard freeze.

Beautiful scenery on the drive back into Willcox

Great Mexican restaurant and look at those margaritas glasses up top

Our campsite during the festival at Grand Vista RV Park

Outside Birds and Barrel Tasting Room

Sleet turned to snow looking outside at Railroad Park

Not sure what bird feather on the label

Birds flocking to the golf course

What looks like a stone wall is the flock of sandhill cranes

Sandhill cranes continued to land as the sunset

On Friday morning, we woke up to frost on the car and frozen puddles on the roads as we headed with our coffee to the same Mexican Restaurant. We mistakenly got the eggs and green chilis breakfast plate instead of burrito so we had chips and salsa, scrambled eggs, rice and beans, and tortillas. We headed to the Community Center and loaded up into two vans for the day-long Hawk Hunt. We had a beautiful sunny day as we went on the back roads in search of raptors. We spotted seven species along with other Southwestern birds as we hopped in and out of the van. We had a delicious picnic lunch at Apple Annie's Orchard which was closed for the season. Following the tour, we went back by the exhibits and then took our two-for-one wine-tasting coupon and headed to the historic Willcox. We had an enjoyable time as we were the only folks and then walked to Isabelle Mexican Restaurant for dinner.

One of the two spotting scopes as we pulled off the road to birdwatch

The 6-story observatory on top of the mountain

Ferruginous Hawk

Roadrunner the state bird

Deer

Harris's Hawk

Reptile exhibit with live animals

Great exhibits including a sandhill crane

Great winetasting in the historic district at Soaring Wines

This morning we had an early start so went to the coffee shop for an English muffin with sausage and cheese sandwich and coffee before boarding the van to the Chiricahua National Monument to meet up with two volunteer Park Rangers for a birding and geological hike. The park was amazing and we had a local sanctuary caretaker who spotted many birds for us. It was a beautiful sunny day and they had just opened the road to the top which was still icy from the snowstorm so we did not risk going to the top. We had a great picnic lunch and then headed back to the community center to board a school bus to take us on the wine-making and tasting tour. We visited two wineries and got the agricultural viewpoint and the manufacturing perspective on wine production and tasted some great wines. We headed back to town and then headed back to the historic district to use our coupon for wine tasting at the Strive tasting room. We headed back out to Twin Lakes for another sunset but the sandhill cranes landed elsewhere.

Chirichua National Monument Park

Still snow on the ground and ice on the road to top

Faraway Ranch

Civilian Conservation Corp fireplaces

Willcox Wine Country

Our agricultural lecture by the owner

Three great tastings

Wine production lecture by winemaker

The fine print says: Do I want a glass of wine? you bet your Shiraz I do

Wings over Willcox (WOW)

Sandhill cranes swooping in to roost

Sunset over Twin Lakes Golf Course

Our last tour started at daybreak as we boarded the school bus for the Southwest Speciality Birds tour starting at the driving range of the gold course followed by the dump and then the old city cemetery with all stops producing a variety of birds. We then set out towards the vineyards and pulled over multiple times again seeing many birds in their habitat. We drove for an hour to the Whitewater Draw Wildlife for a picnic lunch and then a nature walk around the water. The views of the sandhill cranes and other birds were stunning. We drove back to historic downtown for another wine tasting followed by doing laundry at the campground and packing up for an early start in the morning.