We had 13 intrepid adventure seekers on this trip ready to try a new place and take on the challenge of climbing down into the canyon. They were Ed Jeter, Harold Henson, Sam Stearman, Jan Harding, Richard Theobald, Darlene Gatto, Chuck and Loretta Richards, Dick Fogle, George Drew, John and Judi Heath and Leader Dan Bohlmann.

When we reached the bottom of the canyon, we were greeted by lots of water in Sycamore Creek, lots of cool shade under all the trees and birds singing everywhere. The first one to greet us was a bright male Summer Tanager and then a Yellow Warbler. We must have seen at least five of each of them during the day, but we heard them in the trees around us constantly. It seemed as if there were warblers singing in every tree but we were only able to see and definitely identify four types – Yellow, Lucy’s, Wilson’s and Black-Throated Gray. From the canyon walls above us we keep hearing Canyon Wrens along with Rock Wrens echoing their calls through the canyon. We noticed Red Tails Hawks, Turkey Vultures, Ravens and finally a Common Black Hawk circling over the canyon looking for brunch. I think it was Harold that spotted one of the ravens land on a nest near the top of a cliff across the creek. We all looked and saw two young raven chicks there with the adult. We made our way slowly up stream about a mile scanning the tops of the trees and finally decided it was time for lunch. We took a small trail toward the creek to find a nice place to sit on the bank for lunch and found a tent camper and a green Mohave Rattlesnake wrapped around his ice tea bottle brewing in the sun. You talk about ice tea with real bite to it! We went on after pointing out the snake to the camper. We found ourselves a nice spot for lunch next to the 50’ wide creek in order to observe any interesting birds flying by. Sam spooked a Green Heron but the Great Blue Heron held his ground and stood there all during lunch. A Black Phoebe flew in as expected for lunch but that Belted King fisher that we heard earlier never did show up. Sitting in the shade next to the creek, it felt like it was 75 degrees. But on the way back to the top of the canyon, out in the sun, it felt like it was lots hotter than that. I expected that it would be around 10 to 15 degrees cooler than Phoenix (which it usually is), but it was pushing one hundred. Fortunately everyone had plenty of water and took it easy coming out. It sure helped everyone enjoy those wonderful car air conditioners.