Desert Photo Retreat

Name: Desert Photo Retreat
Address: 6821 W Desperado Trail, Marana, AZ, 85658, US
Telephone: (520) 336-8242
Price range: $$
Rating: 5

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United States
Marana, AZ
Desert Photo Retreat

Sitting on 10 stunning saguaro studded acres, we have a couple of permanent photography blinds and a
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05/09/2024

A sad goodbye to the Desert Photo Retreat.

In March of 2016 while I was guiding in Antarctica we closed on a stunning, remote 10 acres in the Tortolita Mountains in Arizona. By April, Janine and I had our RV trailer on the property and began building a wonderful relationship with the land and wildlife. I made many mistakes along the way, such as building a much too fancy photo blind in a bad location, but had many successes as well including the evening blind with the stunning orange background thanks to alpenglow on the distant peaks, and the reflection blind. Seeing and meeting so many guests and seeing their images just added to the wonderful memories.

But, the memories the land provided will be with me as long as I'm alive. The stunning sunsets, rainbows, wildflowers and scenery. And the incredible wildlife. The mountain lion who brought her babies to the water hole last September, the javelina who always had to test me, but always provided a good laugh, the ringtail and gray fox who seemed more curious about us, as I was of them. The skunks - who I had know idea were so beautiful The rattle snake who was so comfortable with me I would worry about stepping on it. The list is really long, and being there day and night just exposed us to so much!

Unfortunately, due to a number of changes in life we decided to sell the property, in fact we closed a few weeks ago. This transition has been made much easier thanks to the wonderful couple who are buying the property, Jack and Elaine Uellendahl. Not only are they outstanding photographers, but they love the canyon as much as we do, and plan to operate things pretty much the same, although I'm sure they will make some great improvements. Soon, they will take over the Desert Photo Retreat social accounts.

So, as one amazing chapter closes, I'm excited for the next chapter and the opportunities the extra time will offer. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported and visited us out there over the years!

01/23/2024

We received a half of inch of rain last night, with a whole bunch more forecasted for tonight and tomorrow! It has been a fairly wet winter, we received an inch of rain on Christmas Eve, and a number of smaller storms afterwards

12/19/2023

One of four Harris's hawks visiting us at the Desert Photo Retreat yesterday. It is fun watching these cooperative hunters!

What was really interesting, these hawks like to bath in my water hole. This is about 30 feet from one of my feeders, and the hawks presence has no effect on the bird activity at the feeders. In fact, there were some birds visiting the water hole within a few feet of the hawks. Now has these been a bird killing raptor such as a sharp-shinned or coopers, it would have been lights out as the birds all fled for their lives. It in interesting how they can tell the difference.

I still haven't had a chance to share any photo from my second Costa Rica photo tour - a tour that was just as productive as my first. So hopefully you won't mind more Costa Rica photos!

11/17/2023

We got a quarter inch of much-needed rain last night! More is on the way this weekend. Of course, I had just done a fair bit of watering. :).

03/23/2023

The good news, I had my real camera trap set up tonight. The bad news, it was not at this little water hole. I stepped outside and walked by this 15 minutes after he drank, and had no idea he had just been there! He has come to this water hole 13 feet from our RV in the past, but always in the middle of the night when the lights are off and we were sleeping. this is the first time he’s visited where he could’ve seen us through the windows with the radio on. Super exciting and a bit scary. For perspective, that wod you see next to the water hole is 23 1/2 inches high.

03/22/2023

A wonderful morning at the reflection pool at the Desert Retreat near Marana, AZ. I have been to many places designed for bird photography and their reflection pool is the best one we have found. Lots of reflections this morning and I saw a new life bird but failed to get a photo of it. For the first time, I saw a Lucy's warbler!

01/20/2023

This big rock next to our RV and fire pit area has been popular with the wildlife over the years. I the Past, the gray fox, ring, tail, and skunks of all perched up there. This year the skunk has been using it for sure, but I wasn’t sure about our new gray fox pair. Now that we have Wi-Fi out here, I was able to set out Wi-Fi cams and low and behold, the gray fox pair went up and down this rock multiple times during the night!

01/17/2023

Nearly an inch and a half of rain last night! We have had lots of rain throughout December and January this year, should make for some good wildflowers

01/06/2023

Right now, another beautiful sunset!

12/22/2022

Right now.

12/21/2022

Another fun visitor this morning! Coyotes rarely visit this Rocky portion of our Canyon, although they do show up on the trail cams on occasion. This is the first one I’ve actually seen with my eyes on our property.

12/19/2022

Just returned from a trip to Costa Rica last night and this is our welcome home greeter! Not sure what it’s doing out and about during daylight hours.

12/02/2022

Javelina baby just wrapping up nursing yesterday!
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12/01/2022

Last night the water hole had visits from the javelina family with even more new born, the gray fox pair, striped skunk, hooded skunk, spotted skunk, ringtail, great horned owl, a small owl (just a blur) and finally a bobcat this morning! Having a year around water source here is really beginning to make a difference. If I wasn't packing for a Costa Rica trip, I would be setting up!

11/30/2022

Last night - a spotted skunk and the ringtail at the same time! The spotted has now become a nightly visitor to the waterhole and I'm really excited about that since I don't have a good camera trapping photo of it. And the ringtail is always exciting!

I'm traveling the next few weeks so won't have a chance to set up the camera trap until January - but looking forward to getting back into the camera trapping.

11/25/2022

Javelina babies outside right now. :).

11/21/2022

A couple of nights this past week we have had a ringtail to the waterhole! I hope it sticks around!

11/14/2022

Typically when we arrive at the Desert Photo Retreat there can be a bit of a lag before the wildlife shows up in good numbers. For whatever reason this year, we have hit the ground running. The bird activity is as good as it was when we left in the spring I think in thanks to my water system working, and the night mammal activity has also been busy. Both nights we have been here we have seen on the trails cameras a gray fox pair, 3 species of skunks and the javelina group grew by a fair bit over the summer and now includes two more brand new little ones! This is a photo from last April. It will be awhile before I'm set up to photograph.

11/12/2022

Getting the road ready.

10/29/2022

When I was checking on the property and refilling the water system and bird feeder, I also checked the trail cameras, I just haven't had a chance to share them here yet. Always fun to see what goes on while I'm away. Click on the individual photos for caption.

Address

6821 W Desperado Trail
Marana, AZ
85658

Telephone

(520) 336-8242

Website

https://desert-photo-retreat.com/

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Videos

Right now.

Just returned from a trip to Costa Rica last night and this is our welcome home greeter! Not sure what it’s doing out and about during daylight hours.

Javelina babies outside right now. :).

Rare to see one of these guys out before total darkness.

The Javelina passed through this morning and everything was fine, they showed up again this evening and low and behold, one of them had two brand new little babies! She was very skittish so I didn’t get any video, this was one of the other adults. At least one more has been looking pregnant so maybe we have more on the way!

Heard crazy squealing noises outside last night so went out to investigate and saw a hooded and striped skunks having a major fight. I couldn’t get my phone go in in time this is the tail end. One of them actually sprayed, I don’t know how effective that is another skunk :-). I have seen them together numerous times over the years but never fighting like this. Interesting. They both seemed fine.

Working the road to the property. The wet monsoon season did a number on it

RV problems has delayed our arrival a little bit, however, we went out to the property and were greeted by our Javelina friends! #arizona #tucson #wildlife