Another day in the desert....

Our Location: Near Tonopah, Arizona

 

An okay sleep but not a great one. Oh well, it's not like it is something new, I've had sleep issues for many years. I guess that's just how it goes. A very cool morning, very overcast and a slight breeze kept things from getting hot. 

 

That's us way off over there.

An interesting Saguaro over there, don't you think?

 

After my hot drink this morning I immediately defrosted both the fridge and freezer as I've been putting it off for a week now. All finished within the hour and I am happy to strike that off the to do list. 

 

I am heading to the other side of that ridge line, I know there is a path over there somewhere.

One root but three trunks. The trunks have various arms coming from each one.

 

After a bit of breakfast I was out the door for a hike. I left at 10:15 AM and when I came back in the door it was 1:10 pm. So a 3 hour hike for me this morning. It was an okay hike, some interesting things to see and a few new sights as well. I've never been over on this side before so I'm seeing things from a different angle. 

 

I'm going to follow that path. It goes behind the ridge line I mentioned and upward, upward, upward.

 

My feet started to immediately take me straight away back to the ridge I mentioned yesterday. Of course it took me a while to get there as my eyes would lead my feet I off the path to look at some interesting Saguaros. I've noticed so many interesting specimens to look at that I added a good bit of walking to my hike with my wandering but kept coming back to the trail. 

 

That isn't us, but that is my favourite mountain over there.

That is the view when I made it to the top of the plateau with the turn around.

 

For all of you dog lovers out there ( and I like dogs) I would like to point something out. I appreciate that pets need exercise and you can't leave them  unattended for long, etc, truly I do understand this. However if you take your dog for a walk and find that after you've planted your feet firmly on the ground and the dog is still managing to pull you forward all the while sounding like he thinks I'm his next piece of steak then I truly think you need to do one of several things. Either train him better, leave him at home, have some one there that can HOLD HIM BACK or get yourself a smaller dog. Telling him to sit, stay or stop while he's dragging you along the trail toward the person unfortunate enough to be coming the other way really doesn't cut it. Granted he was on a leash but in this case I think a muzzle would have been an excellent idea as well. Fear for my body parts had me back off the path again very quickly and I made a very big detour to get away from the dog towing company. So if the dog is too big to handle, try downsizing, it's easier on those around you. Rant over. 

I'm getting higher and higher with each step.

From the turn around area back toward Courthouse Road.

 

The hiking views were not breath taking but they were nice. I basically walked a trail to a plateau that had a very nice turn around of the off road vehicles but any further trail turned into a trail fit only for those with sure, fleet feet or mountain goats.Since I have not the fleet feet nor the horns, I turned around and came back the way I went, or at least part of the way I went. 

Can you see the path I followed down there? It is much, much, much, much steeper than it looks.

This gives you an idea, but the path is rough with gravel that wishes to roll under foot, bare rock that has small caches of pebbles deposited by water running down here in the rainy weather.

 

I noticed on my last hike and on this one today that the blooms aren't nearly as prevalent and I think it's due to the fact that these last two hikes have been in more open country than my first hike in the area this year. The last two have been areas that is more open to the wind and the colder night air. The other area was more sheltered in a box type canyon area where lots of rocks would hold the heat and the mountains would block some of the wind. Still lots of colour in the more areas but not the promise of cactus blooms anywhere. 

Some interesting colours to the rocks here. There is a hint of a foot path on that green in the lower middle of the photo but I thought it was perhaps for something with four legs or some very agile creatures with two legs.

I followed this path, as you can see it's pretty steep. Down, down, down, and down again.

 

As I sauntered along the path home I noticed that Jack and Nancy were missing from their spot. Riley informed me they pulled out over the noon hour. I also noticed the clouds breaking up a bit and hint of blue sky showing here and there. 

Lots of Saguaros in this area. No two alike. We are parked near the low round topped hill off to the right of the pointy peak.

Riley was preparing lunch as I stepped through the door. Chicken Cacciatorie but instead of doing the chicken in a butterfly type fashion she simply cubed it before preparing the recipe and then served the whole thing over some nice hot spaghetti. Very good, cudo's to the chef. Riley also pulled out some frozen mashed bananas today and made her first ever loaf of banana bread. She's in a baking mood these last couple of days. The banana bread was good but she feels she needs a little more practice. I see more  banana bread in the future. 

 

Seen this guy just laying around on my hike.

 

As I was sitting in my chair late this afternoon editing photos I heard what I thought was a bunch of Razors or Quads going by on the road but pretty soon we realized they were going right past our windows. It was so interesting to watch dune buggies or Razors of various sizes, shapes, and colours. I didn't count but I think somewhere between 45 -50 units went whizzing past.  There were two separate bunches about 5 minutes apart. The first bunch easily had 30 units. Less than half were single riders, many were couples and even a few with 3 or 4 occupants.  The second bunch must have easily numbered over 15 units with more singles than couples and no more than 2 per unit. I noticed some lady drivers as well, even a couple of them solo in their units.  Some had music playing, some were passing in a swirl of dust and many of the friendly riders waved as they passed. We could see them coming and coming and coming and coming. A very nice addition to our viewing pleasure out the window today. 

The beginning of sunset.

 

A call to my dad tonight netted me a chat with his answering machine. I'll call again in a day or two. The sunset was amazing tonight and I had trouble selecting only a few photos. 

It just kept getting better.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've had an excellent day doing whatever it is you have been doing, where it is you may be. 

And better.....

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

And now you can see the grey starting to fade the colour....

Deb