Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Another Week–Another Hike!

We headed out about 30 miles north to Dove Mountain and the Wild Burro Trailhead.  The weather has gotten even warmer and has been in the mid 70s and 50s at night for about  a week with no rain.  Lots of blue sky and wide open spaces.  As we left the park in our cars, we saw another coyote like last week.  Only this one was right in town down by the on ramp to the interstate.  Strange to see one so close to people and traffic.  The area we went to today was up close to the mountains and there were some beautiful big homes as close to the mountains as they could get and surrounded by a golf course.   There were nice really big and tall Saguaro Cactus just close together and everywhere.  They were some of the biggest I have seen so far.  It was so pretty driving out there that it looked like somebody had landscaped the desert!  Many of the cacti had lots of ‘arms’.

cactrus 1 cactus 2 cactus 3

The trail was mostly up through a canyon so there was no climbing.  But much of the trail was down the wash, where the rain water flows.  Being so dry and so much loose sand and gavel, it was very dirty and dusty.  All the desert foliage was so thick and lush.  I had a new hiking partner today!  His name was Jack.  Jack Rabbit that is!  Neat the way the sun shines through the ears!  Lots of Gambil’s Quail out there as well.

Jan 22 hike 054  rabbit  Cartoon California Quail Stock Photo

This time we walked to the end of the main trail and then hiked out the same way.  It really warmed up fast so we took several water breaks and a longer break at the end of the trail.  At the end there were the ruins of a ‘line shack’ that cowboys used to use.  I guess they used it when rounding up horses or cattle that roamed the open range.  There was also a cement deep big round bowl structure for capturing rain water.  So another beautiful day for a hike and a bit of exercise. 

Jan 22 hike 014  Jan 22 hike 020

Jan 22 hike 044 Jan 22 hike 032

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