A Good First Hike

Each day we try to walk 10,000 steps.  Thursday we wanted a change in scenery from what we see walking around our resort.  The trailhead for the hieroglyphic trail isn't very far from our home and we have hiked this trail a number of times so we knew it would be a good place to start this winter.

At the end of the trail there are a number of hieroglyphics or petroglyphs on the stone wall.

Phoenix is really dry after the past summer.  This pond usually has water higher than the white lichen on these rocks.  Most of the lichen in the Superstition Mountains is usually fluorescent green so I was surprised to see this white growth.

The weather in southern Arizona has been spectacular for the past couple of weeks so we didn't leave for the hike until about 8 am.  We didn't have to get out earlier to avoid the heat but we could still wear shorts.

If you click this photo John took of me to enlarge it, you will see that there were a bunch of people sitting around on the hill.  In fact, I counted 14 people I could see from where we were sitting.  We learned they were from a college science class.  We must be hiking too early in the season or on the wrong day or something.  This trail is popular but we have never seen this many people in one place.

The flora on this trail includes prickly pear cactus, ocotillo, and cholla cactus.

We even found a bush with pink/magenta and orange bougainvillea flowers.

We enjoyed the hike, which is about 2 miles each way (8,000 steps or so total). We intend to try hiking once every week this winter. We went on very few hikes last year.

Friends and Flowers

Thursday, we joined our friends Ron and Barbara for a hike on the Hieroglyphics Trail in the Superstition Mountains. Barbara's sister, Diana, also joined us. We have known Ron and Barbara for several years and have followed Diana's blog, Life on the Open Road, for even longer.

You certainly can tell these two women are sisters, can't you?

John caught the three women with their cameras in their hands.

There was this interesting saguaro--partly dead and partly thriving.

Early in the hike, we saw several saguaro cactus plants loaded with buds at the top. Wouldn't it be fun to be able to fly or levitate to where you could see the flowers when they bloom?

But what else were we looking at and taking pictures of? Flowers, of course. It is spring in the desert.

After the hike, we returned to Gold Canyon for lunch. We decided to visit the Cactus Deli in Superstition Views, where we live. Since it was cool and a little breezy, we thought it would be more comfortable inside than out, so we walked to our house to eat.

You can tell the food was good. We did a pretty fair job of cleaning our plates. March 31 was the final day of the season for the grill. It is closed over the summer. We're glad we could go there one more time.

Hiking with Friends

Tuesday we met blogger friends Jim and Gayle for a hike on the Hieroglyphic Trail in the Superstition Mountains. We have been on the trail several times, but they had never hiked in that area. It is a beautiful part of the Sonoran Desert.

As we hiked up the trail, a woman was coming back toward us, carrying a very small puppy. What a friendly, and really cute, animal. Jim and Gayle spent some time saying hello.

We had some rain in the past week or two, so there were pools below the heiroglyphics.

The hieroglypics are on the rocks on the other side of the pools. Both John and I were using our camera phones and didn't get very good photos of them.

When we hiked this trail in 2011, I got some really good pictures of them. You can see them here.

After our hike, Jim and Gayle followed us back to our new house. We showed them around, the went across the street to Rosati's Pizza for a good lunch and more good conversation. It was a great day.