Walking the Miles ...: Arizona

Monday, April 22, 2019

Arizona

My sister and I went to Arizona to see our dad and Carolin over the Easter weekend. It also just so happened to be my birthday weekend too. J I can't remember the last time I spent my birthday with my dad. We acted like tourists on this trip and really enjoyed the visit. I took the picture above from my dad's backyard.

Picacho Peak State Park

I wasn't able to hike while in Arizona this time because the temperatures were already too high for me. I'm not used to that kind of heat and to hike in it would be dangerous. I climbed Picacho Peak on a previous visit and really want to do it again. I will have to plan a trip when the temperatures are cooler.

Saguaro National Park

I love saguaro cacti! Actually, I love ALL cacti. We only saw a small part of the Saguaro Nation Park because it was 103 F and much too hot to walk around for very long. To my delight there were lots of blooms adding beautiful splashes of color to the hot, brown desert.

Mailboxes. Yep.

Lines of mailboxes, as you can see. Why did they interest me enough to take pictures? I have no idea. I thought they were cool and had to pull over. There were so many of them in a row! (We have lock boxes in my neighborhood, not mailboxes.) I can only imagine what the people driving by thought of me on the side of the road taking pictures of MAILBOXES. Crazy woman!

Mt. Lemmon - Scenic Byway

You look at Mt. Lemmon while in Tucson and you can drive nearly all the way up to the top of it. Tucson sits at 2,389 feet above sea level. Mt. Lemmon's summit is at 9,157 feet. As we were driving up I could feel the elevation change. We started on the desert floor with the saguaro cacti, went through an area with hoodoo rock formations (I definitely need to go visit Bryce Canyon National Park to see more of these!) and topped out in the pine trees! We even saw snow (!!!) at the summit and an area called Mt. Lemmon Ski Valley where people snow ski... in southern Arizona!

Windy Point Vista (6,634 feet)