Winter Travels 2019--Part 7: Lookout Trail at Patagonia State Park

Saturday: The nice thing about staying a week or more in one campground is that it allows us to establish a comfortable and very laid-back rhythm to our days. We took time to make Black Bean and Salsa Bowls with a fried egg on top, and then took our coffee back to the Bird Feeders at the head of the Birding Trail. I made chili to cook all day in the Crock Pot and we packed a lunch to take a long hike for our afternoon. The Sonoito Creek Natural Area adjoins the State Park so we drove a mile or so into their parking area and climbed the Lookout Trail to the top of Partnership Hill, overlooking Patagonia Lake and the surrounding hillsides. All the land in both areas is free range for the ranchers’ cattle, so, like yesterday, we had to watch our step and look out for cow pies and the occasional cow or bull grazing the hard scrabble desert landscape. The trail was quite steep in some places but wrapped around the hill, getting ever higher. The sun was blazing but there was a breeze which made it quite pleasant. The hillside is dotted with barrel cactus, scrawny, stunted ironwood trees, agave, and mostly, ocotillo. Although there were two other trucks in the parking lot, we didn’t see another soul on the hillside and reveled in the view and the quietness as we ate our picnic of lox and bagels, left from last Saturday. When we had finished, the breeze had picked up and we were getting a little chilly so we made our way back down. At the parking lot we decided to continue down the Black Hawk Trail, towards the dam and spillway that formed the reservoir. The gravel road became poured cement just above the spillway and was extremely steep so we decided to turn back, having seen all we cared to see.

Back at the campsite we relaxed for a while and Marv made a repair to the apron on the side of the camper and made corn bread before we both took showers. The chili, salad, and cornbread tasted delicious after our strenuous hike, and afterwards we took a short walk around the campground to enjoy the brilliant stars as the temperature sank into the low 50°s. After a couple of Northern Exposure episodes, we were grateful to slip into bed. It had been a lovely day. 

Yep, we're going to climb that hill!

The trail was sometimes hard to find in all the rocks.

That's "our end" of Lake Patagonia and our trailer is somewhere down there.

This shows pretty much the whole reservoir that is Lake Patagonia.

Peggy poses among the ocotillo and agave.

The dam and wide spillway that form the lake.