mnkcusa

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Wrapping up Tucson

Not having internet the past week sure was a bit of a challenge! We made the move today to Las Cruces, NM and it is cold here! We will be here a week before heading south to the border where we will be staying in Terlingua, TX, near Big Bend NP for a month. Already looking forward to daytime temps in the 70s!

We very much enjoyed our week hiking and visiting with Lisa and Hans. Do not know when we will see them again but I'm sure we will! Our last hike together was a trail right out of the back of our RV park to a very interesting saguaro....it had over 60 arms though they were small and a bit funny looking! I did a bike ride in the same area yesterday morning and saw two very healthy coyotes running across the path ahead of me, very nice!

Mike and I checked out a few breweries yesterday afternoon to round out our stay in Tucson:)

Hans, Mike and Lisa lead the way......

...to the most interesting saguaro!

Hans and Mike checking out the scenery

very nice

a group of 'baby' saguaros around a palo verde, they are probably 50 years old:)

colors isn't good but looks like a woodpecker

the trails out back were very nicely marked...

love the little paintings!

close up of the "fruit" on top of a barrel cactus

house finches enjoying the sun

in the middle of this pic is one of the coyotes I saw

time for tasting some new brews.....new to us anyway:)

Monday, February 3, 2014

Saguaro NP

We ventured into Saguaro National Park to do a wonderfully scenic hike and get a good leg stretch. We started on the Hugh Norris Trl which took us up, what seemed to be a thousand steps, to a ridge line with fantastic views. Made even more beautiful by the cloudy day washed clean by rain in the area. Rather than finish that trail which was too long, we cut back down the mountain on the Dobe Wash Trl. A lot of sand in the wash but it was down hill so not so bad:

following Lisa up the steps

Mike and Hans further up on the trail

through this blooming ocotillo you can see far across the valley

I call this the Hershey Kiss rock:)

some nice contrast!

checked out an old mine along the way

just a shell of spines remains but still pretty!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Hidden Canyon, Yetman Trails

Tucson Mountain Park has a lot of wonderful trails and the area is very scenic so it is hard to go wrong with any trail!

We started this hike on the Lorraine Lee Hidden Canyon Trl and then joined up with the Yetman Trl where we checked out the ruins of a wonderful stone house. Easy to see why people would have wanted to live in the middle of this beautiful area!