Lovely Arizona, How We've Missed You!

After almost four months in San Diego it felt great to move on...first stop, a couple of nights in Yuma at my sister and brother-in-law's sweet little retreat. We made a quick trip into Los Algodones to get our teeth cleaned at our favorite dentist, Dr. Maria Fonseca, plus I got an excellent $5 haircut at Saira's.

A stunning Yuma sunrise.

Next stop, six glorious nights at one of our all time favorite parks: McDowell Mountain Regional Park. We LOVE the huge campsites, big views and terrific site separation at this park. And best of all is the miles and miles of trails through wide open Sonoran desert..

Mountain biking is sublime here. Long, gentle ascents on mostly smooth decomposed granite trails lead to swoopy, flowing, exhilarating glides downhill.

Another gorgeous Arizona sunrise.

Long gently ascending trails bring us to the rocky eastern face of McDowell Mountain.

We hiked the North Trail for the first time, an easy three mile loop in the northern section of McDowell Mountain Park, one of the few areas of the park that was not devastated by the enormous 1995 Rio fire when 14,000 of the parks 22,000 acres was burned.

Shall we dance?

There are far more saguaros in the north part of the park, spared from the 1995 fire.

We hiked the Scenic Trail one day and enjoyed the fantastic long distance views from the top of the ridge.

Notice the lack of saguaros on the hills beyond Hans, the small pocket directly behind him was spared from the fire.

One of two crested saguaros I've found at this park.

Another day we walked the Bluff Trail and had a surprise visit from a coyote...can you see it?

This lovely creature popped up over the edge of the bluff about 30 feet from us.

Rain on the way!
It's been a very dry winter and the 12 hours of light rain overnight was welcome.

Big vistas everywhere you look at McDowell Mountain Park.

Six days at McDowell Mountain Regional Park went by way too fast and we never even left the park! Onward to red rock country and a visit from a good friend...

Happy Rosie in her element!

A Couple of Weeks on the Outskirts of Phoenix

We've spent the last two weeks hopping between some of the very nice parks surrounding the Phoenix metropolitan area. First stop, five nights at Lost Dutchman State Park, where we last stayed in March 2014. This time we just hiked some trails in the park (though not the intense Flat Iron trail), met up with some friends staying nearby, and spent some time with my dad who was passing through the area.

Hans, Lisa's dad Ron and Cookie overlooking Canyon Lake in the Superstition Mountains.

Harris Hawk.

Sunset at Lost Dutchman State Park.

On the feeder at Lost Dutchman State Park.

Our next stop was an old favorite, McDowell Mountain Regional Park. We first stayed here in November 2012 and discovered the amazing network of fun and not-too-hard mountain bike trails at this park. Hans managed to ride over 60 miles during our 5 night stay, I rode about 30 and we both enjoyed every minute of it!

New to us this time was adding some of the trails from the adjacent McDowell Sonoran Preserve to our rides. The Goosenecks and Saguaro Nest trails were fantastic flowing fun that should be on every mountain bikers list! We also enjoyed watching some great riders on the Cactus Cup 40 mile race held the weekend of our stay.

We love, love, love the sites at this park. Huge separation and amazing views. We loved site 62 last time and we loved site 56 this time. Even though 56 is an interior site, there are no close neighbors, views are wonderful, restroom is nearby and we had shade all afternoon...important as the temps edged into the 80's.

Sunrise at site #56, McDowell Mountain Regional Park.

Ragged.

Several hundred riders did the Cactus Cup 20 and 40 mile races at McDowell Mountain Regional Park.
Here we catch a little action on the race course!

Crested saguaro beauty at McDowell Mountain Regional park.

Our third stop outside of Phoenix was Cave Creek Regional Park. We last stayed here in March 2014 and had a site that was pretty and spacious but our patio area baked under the hot sun all day long. This time we got smart and booked the lovely site #8, with all day shade and views and privacy galore. We really hit the jackpot with spring flowers on all our hikes in this area.

Sunset at site #8, Cave Creek Regional Park.

Morning ascension seen from the Go John Trail.

It's the perfect time to stay at Cave Creek Regional Park!

Excellent bird activity around our site at Cave Creek Regional Park.

Is there room for me?

We once again hiked the fabulous eight mile lollipop loop at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area, following Dragonfly, Tortuga, Elephant Mountain and Spur Cross Trails. We also spotted our first rattler of the season...Hans would have walked right past him if he hadn't let us know he was watching!

Cave Creek.

Petroglyph and a view from the Dragonfly trail.

We'll make a loop around impressive Elephant Mountain....it's a pretty strenuous trail!

A little excitement along the trail...

The variety of flowers blooming in the Cave Creek area was stunning!

This javalina crossed the trail in front of us one morning on Go John Trail at Cave Creek.

Awesome site #8 at Cave Creek Regional Park.
Privacy, enormous separation, all day shade on the patio, views and birds.

Tomorrow we continue north to Camp Verde...into red rock country!

A Couple of Stops in Tucson

We've spent the last week and a half in Tucson. First, in West Tucson at Justin's Diamond J RV Park, followed by a few nights at Catalina State Park in the far North East section of the Tucson metropolitan area.

We've spent quite a lot of time in this area in both 2013 and 2014 (click on the year if you'd like to read about our previous stays). Now that we've been on the road for over four years we've made lots of friends on the road and Tucson happens to be a popular place for nomads to winter...thus, this stay was full of social time, including several happy hours and a few recreational outings.

Instead of rehashing trails I've written about before and going on about various social events, I'm going to let the photos of our outings tell the story of our stay in Tucson...

We arrived in Tucson under threat of rain. Though the rain barely materialized, the clouds were stunning on an early morning walk on the trails behind Justin's RV Park.

We hiked Bridal Wreath Falls in 2013, this time John and Pam joined us.

We thought Bridal Wreath Falls would be a little bigger than this due to the recent rains.

Enjoying water in the desert with John and Pam.

Eagle eye Pam spotted this crested saguaro.

We biked from Justin's RV park one day and found this crested beauty on the way to Gilbert Ray campground.

We hiked the Hugh Norris/Dobe Wash Loop with Steve and Mona Liza one day.

Photo break after climbing the zillion stairs on the Hugh Norris trail.

Since Tucson is so spread out it was great to move up to Catalina State Park and focus on trails in NE Tucson. We love the views at Catalina! Plus we got to spend time with our local friends Dennis and Sheryl.

We may not have gotten one of the prime perimeter sites at Catalina,
but the middle sites still have great views and plenty of space.

Dennis and Hans hanging out on Alamo Creek, a wonderful little unmarked trail at Catalina SP.

Sheryl photographing me as I photograph her!

Hans and I hiked the steep, rocky Romero Pools trail one day and were surprised to see this blooming agave...
the only one blooming of the many miles we hiked in Tucson!

Agave chrysantha

Romero Pools

Log surfing!

Mark and Bobbie clued us in to the new Honeybee mountain bike trail so we joined them on a 20 mile ride one day. What a fun ride! Long, gentle uphill on mostly smooth trail, followed by a long flowing downhill. The entire trail winds among cactus so you must constantly watch out for stickers, but every stop provides expansive views. We learned that the best place to park (currently) is the empty dirt lot at the intersection of Golder Ranch Rd and Oracle Hwy. Plus...Nico's Tacos (next to Basha's) are a great way to refuel after this ride!

Only one flat tire among four people on 20 miles of trail through cactus...not too shabby!

Hundreds of these ground squirrels at Catalina State Park!

Lots of birds too!

That's it for Tucson for this year. Today we moved north where we'll hop around the parks surrounding Phoenix for a couple of weeks.