Rockhound State Park, Deming, NM

Not far from Deming is Rockhoud State Park, the last time we went it was a very windy day, so we didn’t stay long.

 

The Big Florida (pronounced Florita) Mountains from the visitor Centre.

 

This time we returned to hike the Thunder Egg Trail, it’s only a short trail 1.2 miles all the way round.    Before we started up the trail we knew that we weren’t going to be coming back with any amazing specimens as to us one rock is pretty much the same as another. 

The Big Florida Mountains from along the trail.

The trail starts at the day use area and follows a fairly steep trail up the side of the mountain, I’m pretty certain the lovely volunteer in the office told us that you can more or less go anywhere in the park looking for rocks,  but you can’t remove more than 15lbs of rock a day. 

Looking back towards Deming and I10.

 The Little Florida Mountains.

Although it was only a short hike, we enjoyed it and there were some lovely views. 

Have fun, we are!

Tanque Verde Falls

Where Tanque Verde Road ends, Redington Pass continues and winds its way up the side of the mountain, turning from pavement to dirt.

 

There are a couple of trails heading down to the falls, we found a parking area and headed for one of them.   We had been warned that the falls can be dangerous, the bullet holed, graffiti covered sign didn’t pull any punches with its stark warning that people have been killed or seriously injured.

A little way along the trail we had our first view of the falls, very pretty.

The trail we took is steep with lots of horrible loose gravel the stuff that’s so easy to slide on.

Once at the bottom we couldn’t go far without scrambling across rocks and through water and as our water shoes are at home on the spare bed so I don’t forget to bring them……………

I can quite see why it can be so dangerous down here, on the left of the photograph below, there is a deep hole that you just can’t see until you’re practically in it and just where exactly would you go when those boulders started tumbling around in a flash flood?

There is a small rocky beach on either side of the falls

as the water wends its way through the boulders mini waterfalls are created.

The trail we took turned out to only be a ½ mile round trip and despite being steep, loose gravel it was well worth it and I’m sure we’ll find our way back there one of these days.

Have fun, we are!

Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?

No we didn’t take a wrong turn and end up on a Greek island we really are still in Arizona.   This is part of the Greek Orthodox Monastery near Florence. 

A friend told us it was an interesting place to visit, she was right, however, they do have a strict dress code.   Men are required to wear long sleeves and trousers.   Women are required to cover their arms, legs and head.  My skirt was deemed not long enough so I was loaned one, DB took one look, tried not to laugh, shook his head and asked where my donkey was!   Hmmmmm. 

The tour is self-guided and photographs are allowed of anything except the altars, monks and any guests. 

The first chapel as you walk through the gate.

The beautifully decorated inside, the altar is hidden from view behind the screen.

Beautiful walkways lead from one chapel to another. 

 

The only seats in the chapels line the walls and are for use by the monks, you are not allowed to sit on them.

The monastery was built from scratch over a 12 year period and has olive groves and citrus orchards and sells, among other things, home grown olives, homemade marmalade and delicious baklava.

It was an interesting and peaceful place to visit.

Have fun, we are!

Snow, lots of Snow!

It’s been a while since we last drove up Mount Lemmon, we stopped at the Babad Do’ag Overlook which has an amazing view across Tucson.

 

Babad Do’ag (and no, I can’t pronounce it properly) is Tohono O’odham for Frog Mountain and from the valley below the Santa Catalinas look like a giant sleeping frog.   The word Tucson also comes from The Tohono O’odham language and roughly translated means ‘at the foot of the black hill’. 

From there we carried on up the mountain stopping at the Seven Cataracts Overlook.   Quite often the falls are dry, but with all the snow melt water were absolutely pouring down, I think all of the falls are in this photograph.

This is a close up of just one of the falls, lots of ice cold water. 

As we drove higher snow started appearing in the shady spots and we were treated to more views over Tucson, and the snow covered Santa Rita’s in the distance.

 

As we drove down into Summerhaven snow covered the surrounding mountains

  

and although we were told that the snow was a bit ‘sticky’ there were plenty of skiers and snow boarders having fun in Ski Valley.

We parked and followed the road further up the mountain, we could see across to Oracle and Biosphere II.

After which we enjoyed a very nice lunch on the sunny terrace of the Sawmill Run in Summerhaven.   As we drove home, we stopped for a few last photographs at Windy Vista, which for once wasn’t windy.

It was nice to drive up the mountain and visit the snow, but even nicer to come down and leave it there!

Have fun, we are!

Ruiz & Coyote Wash Trails, East Saguaro National Park

Back to the Loma Alta trailhead, this time in search of some bedrock mortars we’d been told about in Coyote Wash.

 

We followed the trail to just past Deer Camp before taking the Ruiz trail on the right.   This trail is only for hikers and horse riders.

 

The trail switchbacks sharply up the side of the hill and before long you’re looking back on the Hope Camp trail, Deer Camp and the Ridge View Trail

not to mention having an excellent view of Rincon Peak, I just love that view!

Further along the trail, we also had a great view across to the Tucson Mountains and Davis Monthan Air Force Base.

We followed the trail as it wound around the side of the mountain before heading steeply (I’m glad we walked it this way round) down into Coyote Wash.   A deep gash runs along the side of the trail before crossing it at the bottom as it joins the wash, not somewhere you’d want to be in the monsoon season.

As we walked further along we came across the remains on an old lime kiln on the side of the wash.

Walking further into the wash we stopped at the trail sign to have lunch.   DB hung his camera over the sign carefully hiding the mileage hmmm, why was that I wondered?   Probably because it was another 1.9 miles along the wash to the Hope Camp trail.   My short little hike turned out to be longer than I thought why did that not surprise me?!

We followed the boot and horse prints through the mesquite, paloverde and cactus along the sandy bottom of the wash.

I can’t quite decide which is harder on the ankles, walking along the bottom of a sandy wash or walking along a really rocky trail.

As we walked along the wash started to twist and turn, the bottom got rockier and the sides rose high above us.

We only found one of the bedrock mortars we'd been told about, probably because it was filled with water in the middle of the trail and we had to step over.

From here it wasn’t far back to the Hope Camp trail and the trailhead. 

Even though it turned out to be further than I thought, because I mistakenly thought we were just hiking up the wash a little way to see the bedrock mortars, (I should’ve known better!) it was a nice hike on a gorgeous day.

Have fun, we are!

Ridge View Trail, East Saguaro National Park

A couple of days after hiking to Hope Camp, we headed back to the Loma Alta trailhead and took the short hike along the Ridge View trail.

 

This time as it was a week day there were fewer people about and parking was much easier. 

 

The trail follows an old road bed along the side of a brushy wash as it climbs steadily up the ridge.

 

As the trail climbs higher more cactus varieties appear along with great views of Rincon Peak, the trail to Hope Camp

 and the Santa Rita Mountains.

This cactus was just off the trail, we think it’s some sort of barrel cactus, maybe a crested barrel cactus? we've never seen one quite like it before, interesting isn't it?

 

The road eventually peters out but the trail carries on a little further before ending among the saguaro and prickly pear near a deep wash, I’m not sure if you can follow the trail further up, but as we were wearing shorts, we weren't about to push through the prickly, spiky stuff to try and find out!

 

This would be a great hike to do in the late afternoon.

Have fun, we are!

Loma Alta Trail, East Saguaro National Park

Loma Alta is part of East Saguaro National Park and has been on our ‘to hike’ list for years, this trip we finally made it.

The trailhead parking was full, but as we’d decided to do the hike on a Saturday it was hardly surprising.   We parked in the oversize parking area and headed off up the trail, half expecting to be falling over people right left and centre, thankfully we didn’t.

 

The trail follows an old ranch road as it winds around the foothills of the Rincon Mountains.

 

It’s a wide easy trail well used by hikers, bikers and horse riders, on either side of the trail there are some dense stands of saguaros.

Cattle were pastured in Rincon Valley and before being driven to market they were gathered at cow camps.   At Deer camp the first of the old camps, the windmill was creaking gently in the breeze.  

The trail winds uphill and from the top we had an absolutely stunning view of snow covered Rincon Peak high above the valley. 

We followed the trail downhill, passing the trail to Manning Camp and through a shady wash full of old mesquite trees where the cattle used to lounge in the shade. 

At Hope Camp and found a shady spot under a tree for lunch, 

Old concrete water tanks remain along with old metal tanks and yet another old creaky windmill.

 

It's a great hike and we absolutely loved the stunning views of Rincon Peak high above the Rincon Valley.  

Have fun, we are!