Paceyn and I took a short hike in Florida Canyon this morning.  The USFS trail guide said that this was a lightly used area but by the time we got to the trailhead, the parking lot was packed.  There were license plates from 9 different states.  We met lots of people on the trail and there was evidently some rare bird spotted in the area.  So much for lightly used.  We followed the main trail for about 1/2 mile then took a smaller one up the wash.  

I had been here in 1995 or so and had collected a bunch of Scaptomyza.  My goal for today was to see if they were still there and to try and collect some ephydrids as well.  There was a surprising amount of water in the canyon and we ended up at a small dam that was packed with moss, algae and aquatic plants.  The Scaptomyza were still there, as were some leaf mines.  I got a good mixture of different flies including Scaptomyza, ephydrids, bibionids, tipulids and syrphids. 

Paceyn was a great help.  She loved scrambling around on rocks in the wash and collecting plants and rocks.  We had a great picnic and made our way back to the car with plenty of time to explore the neighboring Madera Canyon.  There weren't any opportunities of collect there but hopefully on a future trip I can find some good spots.

Chelsea, Paceyn and I did a short drive on Sunday out toward the town a Arivaca.  Our first stop was the Longhorn Grill, just off I-19.  Although this place is closed now, it still attracts a lot of attention and is good place to stretch your legs before heading west on the smaller roads.  The road heads west from Arivaca Junction to the town of Arivaca.  This is one of the oldest settlements in the area and has a great coffee place.  The Buena Vista National Wildlife refuge is also just outside of town.  From Arivaca, we took Ruby Road toward the ghost town of Ruby, AZ, the site of an extensive silver mine.  We stopped for some collecting just past Ruby where California Gulch crossed the road.  There was some water in the wash and I was able to collect ephydrids, dolichopodids, chironomids, chloropids and several other families of flies.  It was a good trip and I hope that the ephydrids are useful in some of the biogeographic work I've started in the western US.  Paceyn was a huge help spotting flies and "fishing" in the wash.