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)

Hoodoo Rock Formations

"Duck Face"

Scenery at 8,000 feet

Mt. Lemmon - Ski Valley (9,157 feet)

More hoodoo rock formations on the way back down

Casa Grande

My dad picking me a fresh grapefruit off of his tree! :)

Scenes from the flight home...

The Grand Canyon

Welcome back to the cloudy/rainy PNW!

Mt. Hood ❤

Twin Lakes and Mt. Hood
I've hiked to both of those lakes so it was fun to see them from above. 

A message from a friend on my birthday. :)

Love it!

Labyrinth-Coyote Wall Loop Hike

Today Lidia and I were headed out to a climb in the Gorge that is known for its spectacular view from the top. However, it was raining (shocker!). The area was socked in with dumping clouds and as “fun” (challenging) as the hike would have been, we decided to save it for another non-rainy day when the view from the top would make it worth all of the effort we put into getting ourselves up there. We don’t mind hiking in the rain and do it quite often but the reason for this particular hike was the rewarding view. Today we weren’t going to see anything from the top… except for the blur of millions of plump little raindrops.

 

We passed our turnoff and continued driving east knowing we would be able to get beyond the rain clouds and enjoy a dryer hike. We decided on the Labyrinth-Coyote Wall hike on the Washington side of the Columbia River. The terrain further east in the Gorge is a lot different than the terrain we normally hike in. It is much more open with fewer trees and the trails are a lot less rocky and root-y.

Our hike didn't involve a great deal of elevation gain (1,326 feet) but we had beautiful views of the Gorge. The flowers were blooming and very fragrant and the old trees were nothing short of a-m-a-z-i-n-g.  It was a perfect day! We enjoyed a very casual hike and stopped to take a gazillion pictures along the way. 

 

2019 Hike 10/52

Miles: 6.89