Ramsey Canyon Inn - a Bit of a Bust!

August 2012 - Item#55 

Southern AZ

I knew I was leaving the good weather for a hotter and drier one when I left southern California for southern Arizona.  After a one night stop in Yuma, AZ – HOT! HOT!! HOT!!! – I drove the next day to Sierra Vista, AZ via beautiful Sonoita, AZ.

Ramsey Canyon Inn B&B

I was booked at the Ramsey Canyon Inn B&B.  It is at the end of the road next to the Nature Conservancy Ramsey Canyon Preserve; the nation’s humming bird capital. I arrived at 3PM and was informed that I was the only guest that night.  But where were all of the humming birds???  Although no humming birds were in sight, we did get a late afternoon thunderstorm which pleased me.

My first impression of Ramsey Canyon Inn was not a great one.  The host greeted me at the dark door.  She showed me my room and quickly asked if I wanted an upgraded room.  I checked it out with her, although a larger room, it was not as visually appealing and I returned to my original room.

Typical of outside & inside,
some TLC is needed!

After unpacking, I returned to the common areas only to find Shirlene (the host) busy doing her past two year taxes.  Papers were strewn everywhere making for a messy dining table, a bad first impression of the common areas.  Why not do the taxes in her house which was next door?  She explained that the Inn is for sale and a young couple is trying to get financing to buy it; her taxes must be in order!  At 72 she was tired of the B&B chores and wanted to retire to Hawaii with her son, daughter and grandson.  Actually, the B&B did need some TLC.  New owners will be a good thing…

The current family has owned the Inn since 1960 and as a result of a bumper fruit crop one year, Shirlene’s mother started the tradition of afternoon pie at the Inn. The guests have come to expect it.  I am sure a warm piece of pie and many humming birds flitting about is a great combination.  Unfortunately, I only got to enjoy the pie.  Were are the humming birds???

To sum up the B&B, I just feel like their heart is no longer in the business and it shows.  It is in a great location with a babbling brook running through the property and it is steps from the Ramsey Canyon Preserve Visitors Center. Reality - it's For Sale!  (note sign in photo below)

The next day I donned my new binoculars and joined the 9AM Ramsey Canyon Preserve hike.  It was a small group; a couple from Colorado, a woman from Newport Beach, CA and a mother from North Carolina visiting her daughter who just moved to Sierra Vista, AZ from NC.  Her husband is in the military and is currently stationed at the local army base, Ft. Hauchuca.  Finally, the volunteer docent; a retired teacher from Wisconsin.   He says he will never go back!

The hike was very s-l-o-w paced, but very informative.  We saw a few deer including a doe and her new fawn.  The fawn still had it's spots.  According to Tom our docent in the orange shirt, because of the dry springs the fawns are not born in spring but instead in the summer when the monsoon rains give way to grassy hillsides.  

Ramsey Canyon has a colorful history and was donated to the Nature Conservancy in 1974 by the owner James Blodsoe, a retired doctor.  

  

We stopped at a 260 year old sycamore tree (the University of Arizona recently cored and aged the tree) and was told this was the dance hall for those who lived in the canyon others who left the valley to beat the heat in the 1800's.  Below are pictures of one of last standing cabins.  The Nature Conservancy has removed most of the buildings to return the canyon to it's "native" state. I just might paint this cabin...

On our hike we saw a "man made" pond where the endangered species "Chiricahua Leopard Frog" breed. We actually talked with two young female scientists from the University of Seattle that were out counting tad poles. I think they were Master's students.

In summary, it was a lovely hike and we met several birding groups along the trail; most in search of the 15 different species of humming birds that migrate to Arizona from South America.  Again we saw very few humming birds.  So why not???  Apparently there was a fire last summer in an adjacent canyon.  Some theorize that the humming birds have lost their markers to Ramsey Canyon.  Perhaps the humming birding will never be the same...  I am sorry that I did not visit years earlier when the little 'hummers", as the birders call them, were in abundant supply!  Check out these 55 facts about huming birds. 

After much thought I decided to cut my stay at Ramsey Canyon Inn short by one night and completely cancelled my over night in Bisbee, AZ.  Since there were no humming birds, it was just as hot as home and I had time to visit Bisbee during the day, I saved myself some money and headed home early...  But not until after one of the best things about Ramsey Canyon Inn B&B, the breakfast.  Oh, and two birding women arrived the night before I left.  They are in this picture...

Not sure I will ever get back to Ramsey Canyon, just wish I would have seen the many humming birds this canyon is famous for!!!  Oh well, that's life!