Hiking in Arizona

The Chiricahua Mountains in November are beautiful, as I am sure they are year-round. Hiking at sunset was especially nice. Not only is the weather very mild compared to home and the scenery spectacular, but it's common to see all kinds of wildlife while you are out wandering. We saw a group of coatis crossing the river.  I've got a picture of one but it's kind of blurry - they were moving fast. They travel in packs of females and juveniles and are related to racoons. They are common in Central America and their northern-most range is in Southern Arizona.We  also chased a pack of javalinas ( native wild pigs) out of the yard where we were staying. It was like chasing a herd of thundering miniature buffaloes. They like to eat people's ornamental prickly pear cactus. We also saw a gray fox crossing the road, caught some glimpses of a ring-tailed cat, ( also a raccoon relative) and saw numerous birds of many species, including hummingbirds. This area is a very popular place for birders.

To see a better picture of a coati see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati.

To find out about javalinas see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary

And the especially cute ring-tailed cats:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-tailed_Cat
Miners in the old days used to make pets out of these.