Portal, Rodeo, and Paradise!

I’m not sure how Portal, AZ came to be.  Probably a mining town back in the day.   Now it consists of the Portal Store, post office, library, and numerous bed and breakfasts providing lodging for the many birders that visit the area.  Portal, and Cave Creek Canyon lie at the juncture of the Rockies and the Sierra Madre mountains, as well as the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts.  Making Cave Creek Canyon one of the top birding destinations in North America. 

The Elegant Trogon is one of the reasons for its popularity.  This photo, which hangs in the visitor center, was taken only a month ago.  A resized photo of a photo, and it’s still a beautiful bird.

               

Cave Creek Canyon visitor center.

The Portal business district.

Another assumption I made is how it got its name.  Maybe this.

Or this rock feature we saw between Portal and Paradise.  Both look like a portal to me.  It was noon, under bright skies and a mile away.  This is the best shot I could manage.

Now, Rodeo is back in New Mexico.  It doesn’t have much going for itself, in my opinion. Possibly an old railroad town back in the day, it’s now a small village made up of a few blocks of rundown homes interspersed with one decent looking house per block.

One of the better looking business’s we saw in town.  It and the small RV park were the highlights of the town.

Just North of Rodeo was this promising development.

Someone sank lots of money developing this place, then apparently the market failed them, or they just walked away.

On to Pardise.  This is the sign one sees upon arriving at Paradise.

Not much there but a few homes in different states of construction/deconstruction.  A warning sign on the other edge of town.

Pretty obvious, wouldn’t you think.

We stopped at the Paradise cemetery on our way back to Portal.

Almost frogotten.

I still have lots of interesting pictures of Cave Creek Canyon.  I’ll try and get them together for a later post….jc