Black Cyn City AZ, Allie and the BCTrl

Allie, at 21 months, is modeling her new vest, twirly scarf and slippers that I made for her.  She is a natural:)  What a beauty!

And a few pics from out latest segment of the BCTrl:

Black Cyn City AZ, sights along the trails

On this segment of the BCT it was cattle day.  I could smell them before we saw them and I don't mean their droppings... the cattle smell.  Sometimes they get up or come a little closer to take a better look at you and sometimes they run away.  These two were a bit curious about us but bored quickly:

a very colorful baby saguaro 

looking down on a ranch in the town of Bumble Bee 

Black Canyon City AZ, Hope You All Had a Merry Xmas!

No I haven't gone anywhere;)  We drove out to Vegas in the Jeep for Christmas with Mike's family and it was a surprise to Mom/Joyce as we had told her we were not going to be making it this year.  So we crashed the annual Christmas Eve at Mom's house and surprised several family members!

So as not to disturb anyone, we booked 2 nights at Sams Town cause it was cheap!  Less than $40 a night.  This is a good time to pop into Vegas.....not next weekend however!  Anyway, I took my computer so I could post on Christmas Eve and found out that we could not get wifi without paying $5-$10 per day for it.....so no post:(  for Christmas.

I want my kids to know I thought about you and yours the whole time and miss you so much!!

It is a beautiful time of year in the desert and the drive out and back was lovely so I just took a few pics through the care window for this post of the "countryside":

always nice to start out a trip with a rainbow!

yes it's winter but that means time for autumn colors in the desert!

even Vegas looks nice and clean this time of year

on the way back to Black Canyon City 

Black Cyn City AZ, We can find snow....if we want!

As there is great hiking, there are also lots of dirt roads for ATV's....and jeeps!:)  We took a drive out of town on one that led us through some great scenery and we eventually ended up in a very small town called Crown King up in the snow.  Had a great day of off-road driving and, of course, saw some unusual things:

Off we go!

Heading toward the snow and Crown King

Looks cold up there!

Here we are in Crown King, just an occasional building tucked away in the woods.

We had to turn around when we ran into unplowed road.  It was time to head back anyway

We drove by several decorated trees and bushes by the road side.  I liked this one right in the canyon cutout.

This young buck stopped to check us out

We stopped here, in the 3 building town of Cleator, to have a beer....

One section of this "fine" establishment was built in 1902.  Then it was added on to for a while......and obviously let go into disrepair.  Did not stop the locals from coming in for a beer though!

This was the heat and it is only burning because I mentioned how cold it was inside to Steve the barman.

The town of Bumble Bee had a few more houses.  Not noteworthy, but the sign was!  

Sunset from the door of Paradise at the end of another great day!

Black Canyon City AZ, Another part of the BCT

I believe I have mentioned that the 76 mile Black Canyon Trail runs through this area.  This is where the majority of our hikes take place because we can hop on the trail at several different points and the trail is so extensive!  So here is another section.  Notice the pics of cactus.  Most grow right in the rock. Who needs soil?

Mike crossing the Agua Fria

no, not our art work

Caught this guy on the way back into town sitting on a flag pole, nice red tail hawk, beautiful bird