wind cave hike

One of my goals for our week of Sukkot was to get some good hiking in. The campground, Usery Park was a new one for us, thus untromped trails. Somehow the week flew buy with a couple of rainstorms and a couple of storm-induced headaches so that it was getting down to the wire before I got my hiking boots tied.  The last day of camp we set out on Wind Cave trail and what my week lacked in quantity of hike was made up for in quality. Not the cave, mind you, as that was a bit of a shallow disappointment, but the view...priceless, and the company delightful.

The climb.

The cave.

The view

The end.

on top of ol' silly

 Now that the thermometer isn't sporting triple digits it's time to for Lily and I to resume our Silly hiking. Today was day three this week. I brought the iphone along for some picture fun along the way.

I wanted to try to get a picture of the two of us with the silly sign. Lily was acting silly by pretending I was choking her!

Then back home I had some fun playing with the free PicMonkey photo editing program.

 

 

this girl

I thank Abba daily for this sweet girl. She is such a good, happy, loving companion (along with a good guard dog).

Recently I tested to see if she knew the word HIKE. Typically I get my hiking boots out to announce that we are headed to the mountain. This time I asked her the question, 
"Do you want to go hiking on Silly Mountain?"

It was obvious from her bouncing and running back and forth through the house that she understood exactly what I said.

silly hike

One of Lily and my favorite things to do together is hiking up Silly Mountain. Because life has been so dog-gone busy we've missed the best hiking months this year.






Determined to not let all the season disappear without enjoying the fact that we have a trail head a mile from our house we (well technically I not we, as Lily's schedule is always open for hiking) made time this past week for three jaunts up our favorite Silly Mountain.

On the way up the hill we found this hiker's trail marker with and added thought. I looked to see if there might be more signs along the trail but didn't discover any more.

I love the trail names on Silly Mountain. Here we are at the intersections of Coyote Loop Trail and Jackrabbit Trail.

 

I've not yet perfected the art of selfies but have been trying to include the human element in my photos and the size of my hiking group made the selfies necessary.

The March weather encourages late afternoon hiking when the sun is fading. The bonus is the wonderful colors the scape takes on as the sun sinks in the west. The picture below is a view of Gold Canyon, the community that is visible from the far side of Silly.

Good Night Brittle Brush Flowers,
Good Night Saguaro Cactus,
Good Night Superstition Mountain.

tired tootsies...

but so worth the climb...

Superstition Mountain

Lost Dutchman State Park

Apache Junction, Arizona

up up up the mountain

 Lily loves hiking!

 Jay and David headed up higher at this point. Eventually Steph and then I joined them although Lily and I didn't adventure to all the nooks and crannies the rest of the crew explored. Our delayed assent (and the neon windbreaker) gave some good perspective to the climb.

up the mountain

The day before David returned to winter in Minnesota and another semester of school we spent hiking on our backyard mountain. It was perfect weather for climbing although in the shadow of the mountain the temps dropped the higher we got. My camera batteries died on the first (and only) group shot of the day but thanks to two smart phones we were not without picture taking capabilities. Here are a series of photos that I had fun playing photo shop with. While my thighs recover from the climb you can enjoy the view from the comfort of you computer chair.

up a hill, up a hill, up a hill

We have driven north to Payson and Show Low multiple times in the past two months. Sometimes it has been just a quick trip up and down in one day and sometimes spending a night or two. After several trips I finally got a chance to hike in the woods, by the water, ahhh. The green trees and running water are refreshment to my desert-parched senses. 

wednesday wanderings

Each time we hike Silly Mountain Natale eyeballs the trail that leads goes further around the mountain. And each time I tell her that one of these days we'll plan the day so we can go on a longer hike.

Today was that day.

Instead of hiking Silly we drove to the back of Gold Canyon and hiked the Hieroglyphic. After hiking for over an hour she did start to wonder why we were going such a long way and wouldn't it have been better to just stay on Silly Mountain. Her tune changed quickly when we reached the rocks where the ice-cold water cascaded through the canyon. Our socks and shoes came off quickly and all three of us had a wonderful romp 'round the water covered playground.

day two...

Hi-Ho Hi-Ho it off to hike we go...