Cottonwood Trail - Gila Box RNCA Photoset • SkyIslander18 • 2012-08-12 • HikeArizona.COM

Cottonwood Trail - Gila Box RNCA, AZ

	2012-08-12
	15 by SkyIslander18

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Cottonwood Trail - Gila Box RNCA

Tucson, AZ

Cottonwood Trail - Gila Box RNCA

Tucson, AZ

Hiking	4.75 Miles	350 AEG

Hiking	4.75 Miles	3 Hrs 43 Mns	1.93 mph
	350 ft AEG	1 Hour 15 Mns Break

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Gila Box RNCA

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Arrived at Gila Box just before 2am to catch the last few hours of the Perseid meteor shower from the entrance overlook. Set up my camera for a little astrophotography and after about 30 1 minute shots, I was finally able to get a streaker across the lens :DANCE:

This shower didn't disappoint and produced several dozen sightings across the early morning sky!

As the sun started it's way up at 4:30am, I drove a few more miles into the box and parked at the watchable wildlife platform above Bonita creek for the morning's hike. Bonita creek is still dry so I chose a clockwise loop along the Cottonwood trail. I don't often get to see the sun's first rays hit the Gila river & Box so this was like hiking the trail for the first time and it was very nice! I was surprised at the amount of flora along the trail, there are tons of blooming barrels throughout the entire area and the trees along the river are very lush & green! The highlights (as always) in the Box was the wildlife sightings, today I saw - Crows & hawks in the sky, a baby Gila monster, huge buck in velvet, ghost beetle, plains lubber grasshopper, thousands of sphinx moth caterpillars and finally for the first time this year (8/12/12) a rattlesnake!

I am so not a morning person :zzz: