We started yet another sunny (we know~ it's getting boring for all of you back home to hear about the sun every day) with a lovely breakfast on the patio.
Then we ventured to Cave Creek Regional Park to hike.
The woman at the trail head suggested a route starting with the Slate trail, connecting to the Quartz trail and finishing on the Go John (for real) trail. This won't shock anyone ~ but we were hiking for a while before we came upon some slate and realized the significance of the trail name. And when we turned onto the Quartz trail, there it was ~ quartz everywhere. When we got to Go John, what's a go John???
Neither words nor pictures can describe the beauty of the desert mountains today. But alas, we (Lynn) turned a 1 1/2 hour hike into a 2 1/2 hour hike because she and Gail had to stop every ten steps to take a picture and try to identify the wildflowers we found. Coincidentally, we just happened to find an 81/2 x11, TWO SIDED pamphlet of "Spring Blooms" at the trail head. We think we did a pretty good job of identifying every one!! (Hence the two and a half hour hike).
We have been told that it is an exceptional year for the desert flowers and Gail and Jim agree ~ guess we picked the right year to come. We also found a dense forest of beautiful, huge saguaro.
We took pictures of every flower and most of the saguaros however the sun was so bright our pictures were all faded out. ( might help if we actually knew how to use the camera). So here is what we got ~
THEY call this one "the Michelin Man"
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| WE call this one Bert |
"The Saguaro is limited to the Sonoran Desert. It is common throughout the desert in Arizona and in the western half of Sonora, Mexico. In California, populations are sparse and found only near the Arizona border."
Saguaros start getting "arms" after they are about 15 feet tall or about 40 -50 years old. Some saguaros are almost 200 years old.
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| Saguaro skelton |
These Mexican Poppies were in magnificent, full bloom ~ just breathtaking
The yellow in the next few pictures will be these poppies (such a shame we couldn't capture it.)
The poppies were EVERYWHERE !
What a great hike!
We worked sooo hard on that hike we certainly deserved lunch at the Horny Toad ~ just a great, funky place!
Cave Creek is farther out and the homes here are tucked away into the desert or mountains. People living here like more privacy and open spaces. But it was "fiesta" weekend in Cave Creek so there was a lot going on. We missed the parade the day before but we were able to stop at some crafter booths and at Frontier Village.
One quick stop at Arizona's attempt to match Wegmans ~ Fry's.
Pretty good actually ~ they even have a Cold Stone Creamery and a wine bar (you can have a glass while you shop!)
Because of our long hike, we barely had time to shower and be ready for dinner ( just had to eat again). We were graciously invited to Gail & Jim's "Arizona Friends' " house for appetizers and to see their gorgeous home!
All we can say is ~ amazing, beautiful. But better than that, Karen & Ed were lovely and a lot of fun.
We all went for pizza after that and had a great time!
(Forgot to take the camera in)
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