Portal, AZ

 Portal, AZ, is very remote. It is in the Southeastern edge of Arizona on the Eastern side of the Chirachuas. Because of the mountains, You pretty much have to drive into New Mexico and then Back into Arizona to get there.
I have visited there a couple of times before. It is a famous bird watching destination. It is also so unspoiled that there is a lot of wildlife.There are also species that can only be found there. There is a Southwestern Research Center located there, that does a lot of work with the animals, insects, etc.
My friend, Tiffany, has been house sitting there for a while this summer. Although it is far for a day trip, I drove there and back today. It is such a pretty area.
I saw ten deer while I was there. Most of them just posed for me, like the one above.

The folks Tiffany is housesitting for, have a creek that runs through their property. It doesn't always have water in it, but now that the monsoons have started it does. It's a pretty little creek.

This guy is a Chirachua Leapord frog. They are endangered and native to the area. The research center has had several of the local residents build special frog ponds for them to live and breed in. The people that Tiffany is house sitting for have one of these ponds. We spent an hour watching the frogs, with me taking photos. I took a LOT of frog pictures. I am only blessing you with one. They were cute little guys.

There were also some dragon flies around the frog pond,

 The house that Tiffany is staying in, is modern and comfortable. But on the same property, are some older buildings. This is the original cabin. The owner wrote his doctoral thesis here.

It is decorated in period style.

 This is one of the two reasons Tiffany is house sitting.

 Tiffany

Can you see the garter snake in this picture? He was lurking around on the opposite side of the frog pond.We aren't sure what he was doing. He didn't look big enough to eat the frogs. Tiffany did not like him at all.

 Beautiful bark on an Arizona Sycamore.

Another old building.

Pretty cliffs.

Storm coming in as I was leaving.

 It rained so hard for a short while, that I couldn't see the road. Tiffany says it has been raining every day.