Brittlebush flowers light up Roosevelt Lake
April, 2014 – We had spent the winter months in Phoenix, Arizona, enjoying beautiful hikes and gorgeous waterways, and observing pretty birds and wild horses.
But the desert was heating up with the arrival of Spring, and so were we!
So we headed just a little further east to Roosevelt Lake where the temps are always just a few degrees cooler. Continue reading
Horseback riders on the dusty trail.
April, 2014 – The phrase “wild west” evokes images of horses and cowboys and wide open spaces.
While we were visiting Phoenix Arizona these past few months, we ran into lots of different horses and riders out on the desert trails.
Some suddenly appeared in a cloud of dust, materializing on the trail as if in a mirage, or as if walking right out of a movie.
Their cowboy hats and boots and spurs completed the picture to perfection.
Others rode a fine line between the modern digital age and the wild west of yore, holding the horse’s reins in one hand while chatting away on a cell phone with the other. Continue reading
An artist creates his vision in the desert
March, 2014 – The Phoenix area is full of beautiful hiking trails, and the Windy Cave Trail at Usery Mountain is just one of many lovely places to experience the Sonoran desert.
We wandered out into the desert on marked trails and unmarked roads to go hiking — or at least to go for a walk — every day during our stay on the outer eastern edges of the city. There was always something new to see.
One morning we came across an art class that had set up easels all through the desert.
Spring is springing!
The group of artists was huddled around the teacher as we hiked past, and we found Continue reading
An ocotillo greets us at the start of the hike.
Early March, 2014 – We had been enjoying the rivers and waterways and Saguaro Lake in Phoenix, Arizona, but the cactus filled desert was never far away.
Ready for hiking!
Usery Mountain Regional Park has a beautiful campground and some great hiking.
One hike in particular, the Wind Cave Trail, came highly recommended by our friends, Mike and Donna (FlyingTheKoop.com). They once called this area home and have hiked it many times.
The yellow brittlebush were in bloom all around us.
This is an uphill hike that climbs straight up for a mile and a half, making lots of switchbacks on the way.
The bright yellow brittlebush flowers had just started to bloom, and there were sprays of golden flowers everywhere.
There’s nothing like getting out on a warm, sunny, early spring day!
And the saguaros were standing around having their usual conversations too.
One cactus looked like it was whispering in the ear of another!
“Psssst…can you keep a secret??”
Wind Cave is a popular hike, and we met a lot of other hikers on the trail.
A large group came up behind us, walking sticks and cameras in hand. It was a beautiful day to be out.
We had lots of company on the trail.
What sets this hike apart is the lichen that covers the sides of the cliffs in a broad band along the top of the mountain.
The faces of the cliffs are shaded in the morning, though, so when we started up the switchbacks, the color on the cliff faces was muted at first.
Waving “hi” to his buddy down below.
The rising sun lit up one saguaro
In the shadowed lighting, it seemed like a rather ordinary, though lovely, Sonoran desert hike.
Then the sun began to peek around the edges of the mountain.
Its warm rays lit up a solitary cactus that stood away from the cliffs.
This guy seemed to be looking up at his saguaro buddy who was staning on a little higher ground above him and waving.
An ancient, pock-marked cactus has enjoyed this view for over a century.
As we climbed higher and higher, the views across the valley begame bigger and bigger.
The sun and shadows played hide and seek with the cactus among the rocks.
A lizard scurried past…
At our feet, we saw lizards scampering across the trail.
We listened to the Gambel’s quails and cactus wrens calling all their friends.
The Phoenix area is known as the “Valley of the Sun,” but as you travel around town, it doesn’t feel like a traditional v-shaped valley. Instead, it is a vast, flat, desert floor that stretches to eternity in all directions, broken up here and there by little pyramid peaks.
We were hiking up a pretty tall peak, and the trail didn’t take a break anywhere — it was up, up, up. We progressed very slowly. It was just too pretty to rush, and we ended up taking photos with every step.
There was a crowd waiting for us at the Wind Cave
When we finally reached the top, all the hikers who had passed us were taking a load off in the cool shade of the Wind Cave itself. It isn’t really a “cave” but is more of a sheltered spot that’s perfect for enjoying the views.
A little chipmunk peeks over a rock at us.
The rocky cliff has an inward curving wall, providing welcome shade and inviting people to sit for a spell, eat a little something, and catch their breath.
Lots of chipmunks live up here, and they have learned that hikers carry yummy snacks like granola bars.
The chipmunks kept us entertained as we ate a snack.
The beauty of the Wind Cave trail unfolds
as the sun rises.
These little guys were very brazen, and walked right up to all of us to see if we were had something to share.
Of course, who can resist a cute little furry face looking up at you hopefully? We all gave in and found a few crumbs to spare.
The chipmunks eagerly grabbed their snacks and ran off a few paces to nibble away, holding the treats in their little hands as they ate.
By the time we started down, the sun was hitting the lichen covered cliffs beautifully.
The cliffs are clad in orange and yellow lichen.
The craggy rock faces seemed to be showing off their bright yellow and orange wardrobe, and the vivid colors made a wonderful backdrop for the saguaro cactuses along the trail.
We wandered down the trail to the valley floor and noticed the clouds were moving very quickly across the sky.
A hiker takes in the view of the valley, but the backdrop behind him is just as stunning.
Fast moving clouds frame a trio of saguaros
Mark took out his neutral density filter and let the moving clouds create a kind of crown around a trio of saguaros.
While he was busy setting up the shot, he noticed a tiny hummingbird sitting on a wee little nest behind a thick veil of branches and leaves in a small tree.
He approached the hummer and she didn’t move. She just sat tight, watching his every move.
He hurried away to find me, because I had a long lens with me, and I rushed back to see if I could catch the little bird.
A hummingbird sits on her nest deep inside a tree.
Gosh, she was buried way back deep inside those branches. I moved closer and she flew off her nest.
Inside were two miniature little eggs.
They were so tiny, I was afraid they would get chilled really quickly while mom was off the nest. So I stepped away, and she returned and wiggled her tail end a bit as she settled back down on her eggs.
An early sign of spring!
The wildflowers are starting!
Then more hikers came down the trail and she flew off again.
Her nest site was well protected, but lordy, she could have chosen a spot a little further from the trail!
Oh well. I managed to fire off a few shots of her sitting on her soon-to-be family, and then left her in peace.
Spring was definitely in the air.
Not only were a few birds starting their families, but some wildflowers were beginning to show their colorful little faces too.
We were really excited by the early arrival of spring, and we were hopeful that soon the whole Sonoran desert would be alive with flowers.
Mark pauses by the Salt River
February, 2014 – We were really enjoying the waterways in Phoenix, Arizona, and we soaked in the ebb and flow of river life and all the daily patterns that surrounded it.
The rivers in Phoenix can be reached from many different access points, and we rode our bikes parallel to the Salt River, ducking in towards the shore at various spots to get a glimpse of the river.
We hiked and scrambled along the edge of the water too, marveling at the bright reds and greens of the algae, the surprising presence of all kinds of sea shells, and the thick, jungly nature of the scrubby vegetation that grew alongside.
Colorful shoreline of the Salt River
One morning we came across a fly fisherman, and we were mesmerized by the flowing and rippling action of his rod as he stood knee deep mid-stream.
He didn’t seem to catch anything, but the fun seemed to be more in the casting than the catching anyways, so it didn’t seem to matter too much.
Other animals and birds stood in the water up to their knees and were fishing too.
We spotted a lot of different kinds of birds, and we heard that there were even beaver here. We were really surprised when we smelled a skunk a few times too.
Peaceful banks at the river’s edge
I’d lived in Phoenix for a long time and wasn’t even aware that skunks can make a living here in the desert. They seem like so much more of a woods animal than a desert one.
A fly fisherman casts his line
The river was at a standstill in a lot of places, giving off perfect reflections of the trees above.
Shorebirds hope for a catch too
In other places, though, it rushed along at a good clip. One morning we watched three ducks taking a fast joy-ride down the river.
Three ducks take a joy-ride downstream
They slipped through some mini-rapids lickety split, and you could almost see the grins on their faces and hear them quack, “Wheeee!” as they effortlessly zoomed past at full speed.
Saguaro cactus give a standing ovation
In between the waterways, the saguaro cactus stood guard in armies that seemed to have been positioned with an almost military precision.
Saguaro cactus aren’t really loners at heart; they prefer to gather in groups. However, each cactus likes to have a bit of space around it.
They’ll stake out a claim across a valley or down a hillside, and stand at attention as if waiting for someone to issue a battle cry.
Or maybe they’re just cheering together in a standing ovation for some performer that just wowed them on the stage of the opposite hillside!
Trying to get the perfect cactus photo with mountains behind, I stumble across another part of the Salt River
We love these desert people and have ridden our bikes past them on these roads so many times over the years. Yet, little did we know — as we snuck through a fence into the open desert one day — that just a quarter mile in from the highway the Salt River flows full and strong.
I was hunting down the ideal saguaro cactus to photograph, staggering through the desert, tripod over my shoulder and eyes fixed on the horizon as I tried to line a cactus up with the mountains behind it, when I just about walked into the river.
What a surprise!
There it was: water flowing, ducks paddling, and saguaros right down to the river’s edge.
The drive to Saguaro Lake is just gorgeous
It had never occurred to me that the roads here are cut at such odd angles because they run parallel to the waterways.
And I sure didn’t know as I drove and rode my bike along these roads for all those years that a river was just out of sight to one side.
Whether by bike or car, the road from Fountain Hills to Saguaro Lake is one of the most scenic drives around Phoenix.
We kept finding ourselves taking detours to include this drive in our route, even when it sent us a bit out of our way.
Wild horses come down to the river for a drink
The road winds and curves and soars up and down, making its way between thick groves of cactus and casually stacked boulders, while a view of some rock cliffs in the distance slowly takes shape ahead.
After the road dips for a final dive down a steep descent — making you feel like you are being thrown into the open embrace of these stunning cliffs — it swings past a scenic overlook.
One day we spotted wild horses as we passed this overlook, standing in the water far below.
Cliffs along the Salt River spring to life as the sun goes down
But it is in the late afternoon when this special spot really comes alive.
As the sun falls low in the sky, the shimmering rock faces of the cliffs light up in brilliant hues of orange and red while the water at the base mirrors it all in vivid shades.
One afternoon, when the lighting at this overlook was just way to beautiful to drive past, we stopped to find a group of photographers hanging out with their tripods all around the water’s edge.
We joined right in with the group, savoring this golden hour and wondering what the sunset might bring.
The sunset didn’t materialize that night, but Saguaro Lake itself drew us back again the next day to scope out the scenic vistas there.
Saguaro Lake Marina — water toys in the desert!
Brittlebush bloom on the shores of Saguaro Lake
What a spot! We love all the Phoenix area lakes, but this has to be one of the prettiest.
The bright yellow flowers of the brittlebush had just come into full bloom, and the shores were dancing in their golden spray.
Saguaro Lake was formed by damming up the Salt River. It is wide and lake-like at the dammed end, but it wanders on a snaky, riverlike path upstream.
There is a marina in the widest part of the lake, and the boats were shimmering in the noon-time sun.
A funny little factoid is that Arizona has the highest number of boats per capita of any state.
There it is – a saguaro on the lake at Saguaro Lake!
This is odd for a state that contains so much desert land, but the low number of citizens in the state — and their very parched nature after they have lived here a while — surely contributes to this unexpected statistic.
Saguaro Lake Marina
We wandered along the waterfront, and dined at the wonderful Lakeshore Restaurant where we got seats on the patio overlooking the action on the water.
What a great way to while away an afternoon!
We didn’t take the little excursion paddle boat ride on Desert Belle this time around, but it is a delightful outing we did once, years ago, to celebrate Mark’s birthday.
The paddleboat Desert Belle goes
upriver on enjoyable outings
We watched folks eagerly lining up now just as we had done way back when.
Happy days together!
At the further end of the lake there is a small, gravelly beach where tall, very undesert-like trees grow.
This isn’t much of a beach, as beaches go, but it is an intriguing spot in the desert. The trees are very large and it is a great spot to launch a kayak to explore the lake and the river upstream.
Saguaro Lake has a wonderfully natural feeling to it, even though it is a lake that was made by damming up a river.
A lovely cottonwood tree spreads its branches over the beach
In contrast, the lake in the center of nearby Fountain Hills is totally manmade without the help of a river.
It was made by digging a hole, lining it, and filling it with water. At its center there is a fountain that shoots water way up in the air every hour for a few minutes.
This lake is an urban lake, with a paved walking path encircling it, and pretty landscaped lawns all around.
Whereas the desert around Saguaro Lake is natural, and you have to guess what kind of cactus put all those sharp needles into your hiking boots, there is a garden by the Fountain Hills lake where all the desert plants are labeled — and de-thorned.
An unusual “desert scene” on the beach Saguaro Lake
Each lake is lovely in its own way, the one a bit wild and free with towering cliffs for a backdrop and seagulls and powerboats punctuating the scenery, while the other is small and civilized and boasts one of the tallest fountains in the world.
The most intriguing thing about both lakes is that their presence makes it seem like water is plentiful and in total abundance in the middle of the Arizona desert.
Not exactly “natural,” but the fountain at Fountain Hills is very cool
Water is flung about with carefree abandon, shooting into the sky and supporting a myriad of boating activities.
This seemingly endless supply of water may be an illusion, but it is an illusion that is alive and well in Phoenix.
Illusion or no, we were enjoying ourselves in this part of Arizona so much that we felt utterly content and felt absolutely no compulsion to go anywhere else.
Mark channels Ansel Adams in the Sonoran Desert
The days ran into each other pell mell, and we basked in the unusually warm weather and even warmer friendships we were forming with other travelers we were meeting everyday.
At the end of each day we looked at each other and said, “Wow, what a great day that was!”
The days streamed by in a happy blur
We were busy from morning til night and each day was completely different from the one before it.
The buggy says “goodnight” to the sun
The more we saw, the more we wanted to see, and do, and experience, before we moved on.
So we settled in and relaxed and made the most of this very special and unusually summery winter in Phoenix.
The Sonoran Desert is a special and unique landscape
February, 2014 – We had been living among the saguaro cactus on the outer fringes of Phoenix Arizona for a few weeks, loving life in the sweet Sonoran desert.
One of the most elaborately shaped
saguaro cactus we’ve seen
The weather continued to be stunningly warm, with temps in the high 70’s every afternoon, and we hiked and biked all over the place, soaking in the beautiful views of the aged and stately cactus whose personal histories reached back before Arizona achieved statehood in 1912. Heck, these guys were saplings in the 1800’s!
Peeking through the trees at the Salt River
While visiting friends in nearby Fountain Hills, we took a bike ride through the Fort McDowell Indian reservation. Poking around the back roads, we took a turn down a lane and suddenly found ourselves standing next to a flowing river.
It’s funny, even though we’ve called Phoenix “home” for a long time, it hadn’t really sunk in for me that there are rivers here that flow year round.
You just don’t notice them as you drive around town.
The Verde River joins the Salt River
These are vibrant riparian habitats where long legged birds go fishing, animals of all kinds come down for a drink of water, and tall reeds grow by the water’s edge.
Several rivers flow through Phoenix, and we spent a few weeks exploring the shores of two of them, the Verde River and the Salt River.
In the Phoenix area the Salt River runs east-west and the Verde runs north-south.
Kayakers fly downstream
The scenic confluence of the Salt and Verde Rivers
They converge in a corner of the Tonto National Forest tucked between Fountain Hills and Mesa.
This confluence is a very special spot where kayakers paddle up and downstream, fishermen stand patiently by the water’s edge waiting for a catch, and people of all ages picnic and hike along the craggy shoreline.
What a surprise it is to see a river that flows non-stop through the desert
After being immersed in the Sonoran desert for a few weeks — a landscape rich with flora and fauna that can thrive on just an occasional spritz of dampness — we loved watching the leaves and algae and twigs floating lazily downstream on this steadily flowing body of water.
Red Mountain forms a beautiful backdrop
Fishermen wait for the catch of the day
Whether stalking that next beautiful photograph with camera and tripod, or riding our bikes on a road that paralleled the flowing water, or hiking along the rocky banks at the river’s edge, we were floored by the change of scenery from the classic Sonoran desert to this watery world, a transformation that takes place in just a few steps.
A little girl in pink boots tries her luck with the fishing rod
In the late afternoons the shoreside trees and reeds come alive with the raucous clamor of birds singing and calling each other and deciding who is going to roost where (and with whom!).
The Salt River doesn’t flow fast, but it is steady.
A long legged egret waits for fish among the reeds
“It sounds like I’m in the Amazon,” Mark said to me one afternoon. We had staked out a spot to catch the late afternoon light, and the shrubs were alive with exotic squeeks and squawks.
There is easy access to the south side of the river, but the north side doesn’t have any roads or trails, so I was surprised when I suddenly heard the loud crunching noises of branches breaking from across the water on the north side of the river.
It sounded like the deliberate movements of something very large that was cracking tree limbs. I stared into the reeds wondering who the heck was over there.
I couldn’t imagine there could be a person weed-whacking their way through the dense vegetation. It had to be an animal.
We had heard reports that wild horses had been spotted down by the river, and I studied the shore across the way, hoping for a glimpse of a wild horse.
A cow comes down to the river’s edge for a drink
After a few minutes, the tall reeds parted and a big brown cow emerged and slowly made its way down to the water.
Well, it wasn’t as cool as a wild horse, but it was still pretty darn cool considering the concrete jungle of freeways and humanity that were the essence of greater Phoenix all around us just a few miles away.
A little reckless driving in the early morning
The cow took a long drink, stared at me for a while, and then dipped its head for another sip before slowly vanishing into the reeds once again.
Dusk on the riverbanks was beautiful and different every evening
This incredibly beautiful and peaceful spot can’t keep the insanity of the city at bay all the time, though, and one day while we were out on a bike ride we saw the bizarre sight of a car flipped upside down on one of the small national forest roads.
For us these were happy lazy days
We found out a young fellow had come blasting down the tiny, twisty roads of the area at breakneck speeds.
Luckily, he escaped breaking his neck when he lost control of his car.
Mark took this wonderful photo of our friends Mike & Donna’s rig
and they put it on their blog banner at www.flyingthekoop.com!
He was seen walking off into the desert, although police later found a loaded gun in his car.
Trouble in paradise, I guess!
The Golden Hour on the river
For us, however, life was full of contentment, and we enjoyed a steady stream of quiet, happy days.
Mark got the barbecue going in the evenings, something we had not done in our boating lives and that we had missed sorely, and we met up with new friends of ours, Mike and Donna, whom we had met in San Diego.
They began full-timing last July and have a fun blog, www.flyingthekoop.com, with the delightful motto, “From real estate to wheel estate.”
Rain nearby gave us beautiful orange cloud formations
The late afternoons and evenings continued to lure us down to the water’s edge every day, and we were treated to some glorious sunsets.
There is a “golden hour” just before the sun leaves the sky when everything seems to be lit from within with a truly golden glow.
We caught this heavenly light one afternoon when the water was totally still. This created a perfect mirror for everything on shore.
Rain was falling in the distance, and the clouds were streaked and heavy with moisture, creating a mystical air in the twilight.
River reflections
The light turned from a crisp, radiant yellow to a burnt orange and finally to a soft pink blush that lit the river’s edge in a luminous warmth. There was a peace here that soothed our souls.
We loved the mirrored hues of late afternoon
The last blush of sunset
A fisherman amid sunset reflections in the river
We didn’t realize what an unusual sunset this was until we after we had tried to recapture it every night for a week.
Every afternoon, as the sun began its final descent, we ran down to the water’s edge, tripods in hand, hoping for a repeat of that ethereal light.
However, the special light we saw that night, that warm glow that faded from gold to a pink blush to a lavender mist was never quite the same again.
Many sunsets were spectacular, but that fleeting moment where the whole river seemed to hold its breath as everything shimmered in a rose colored halo had been utterly unique and never happened again.
So it is with nature, and we are learning to savor every day that comes.
The buggy is at home in the desert.
January, 2014 – It was so great to be back in the Arizona desert in Phoenix. Once we got set up and acclimated to life in the rig, we instantly got caught up in the beauty of our surroundings.
The cameras got a workout here!
Whether it was sunrise or sunset or sometime in between, we found ourselves running in and out of the trailer to catch this image or that and then pour over it on the computer.
Some pics are best taken from the roof!
During the last few months we have changed all the tools we use for photography. We moved up from Nikon D5100 cameras to D610’s, and we switched our computer software from Apple’s Aperture to Adobe’s Lightroom.
Mark has loved learning post-processing, that is, working with photos on the computer, and he has become very proficient with Lightroom.
Fire in the sky! Mark loves creating dramatic effects with Lightroom
I, on the other hand, have spent a lot of time being totally lost!
I could never seem to find the buttons I wanted on the camera, and Lightroom was a vast maze of clickable things that generated totally unexpected results in the images on the computer.
This was the beginning of a very long learning curve — for both of us.
We had a few truly stunning sunsets
Whereas Mark had spent the last few years getting to know the mechanics behind photography in a very intimate way, I had been focused entirely on getting the hang of composition.
And each of us was at sea in the other’s territory.
“What buttons do I push?” I would ask.
“Where do I point my camera?” He would respond.
It was very funny — and very enlightening.
We decided that we needed to teach each other all we knew and learn each others’ skills.
I complained bitterly as I fumbled with the knobs on the tripod and missed shot after shot because I couldn’t get the legs, or the head — or any of it, for that matter — to do what I wanted.
An Arizona sunset
I’d look over and he would have gotten set up in an instant. But sometimes he didn’t seem to line himself up to get the most exciting image.
“Try moving over this way a bit more,” I said one time, “and zoom in so you get the saguaro, barrel cactus and the mountain balancing each other.”
“Oh WOW!” He said. “Here I was trying to put that pile of dead roots in the foreground and you’ve got this great image…”
Mark is at ease with his tripod.
Very funny! But I was still flummoxed over my own issues. “How do I get the camera on and off of this thing?” I sighed. I felt so silly asking for the umpteenth time. I vowed I’d remember this time as he showed me yet again.
We came across an old saguaro skeleton
What a miracle it was to discover that we each had something really valuable to give to the other.
A big saguaro and a little barrel cactus converse
This became apparent again when Mark ran out to get some night shots one balmy evening. I had had enough trouble with the tripod during the day — and now we were going to do it in the dark? Are you kidding?
BFF’s
Mark captures a saguaro with the moon at dusk
He gleefully set up the camera and promptly got a beautiful shot of a saguaro and the moon before I’d even gotten my camera secured on the tripod and turned it on. He made it look so easy.
On another night he said, “I want to do some star shots,” as he dashed out the door. I hurried behind and watched as he effortlessly got set up and hit a few buttons on the camera.
He played with 30 second exposures and 90 second exposures while I looked on trying to memorize which buttons he’d just hit and why. But the images lacked spunk.
The Orion constellation rises behind our buggy
“Hey, let’s try to get Orion rising over the rig!!” I suggested.
“Ooooh! I never thought of that!” He came running around to where I was and helped me get some of the settings going: long exposure, fixed ISO, noise reduction, manual focus, self-timer. Yikes! I took a few shots and finally got a keeper.
Collaborative photography. I love it!
How many people live here?
The next day we decided to go hiking in the desert.
How funny it is now, after living barefoot on a boat in the tropics for so long (to the point where we forgot what shoes felt like on our feet), to look down and see this pile of hiking, running and cycling shoes at our door.
“The trail goes thataway”
We hiked Daisy Mountain trail at the north end of Anthem, a pretty and easy trail that goes through some beautiful desert scenery.
This is a hold up!
What I love about the Sonoran desert is the crazy saguaro cactus.
Each one has a unique personality, and some seem to be deep in conversation.
As we tromped around, I felt a little like I was eavesdropping on some of these guys, listening in on what they had to say to each other.
A male barrel cactus
Of course, nature has its whimsical side too, and Mark was laughing when he came over to show off his picture of a very male cactus.
That’s what you get when you stomp around in the desert
It’s a prickly business, walking in the desert, and when I looked at the bottom of my hiking shoes, they were filled with cactus needles.
This reminded me of an intriguing woman we had met a week earlier at a supermarket Starbucks one morning.
She was wearing a bulky, navy blue down-filled snow jacket, the northern states kind that you never see in Phoenix, and she had on grubby, mud-encrusted hiking boots. There were mud splatters on her pants, and her eyes were red-rimmed and tired.
She approached me and asked in a strong British accent if she could borrow my cell phone.
She gestured helplessly at her phone and sniffed from the cold. “This English phone can’t get a signal…”
Mark lines up a photo of a saguaro…
…his favorite shot was from the other side!
Saguaros grow all different ways
This made me laugh, and I explained to her that although I’d be happy to lend her my phone, we were the only people on the planet who don’t have one.
She gave me a lopsided smile and sat down with her coffee, clearly savoring the heat and steam coming from the cup.
Classic Sonoran desert
She piqued my curiosity. Where was she from and what was she up to? I got up the nerve to ask.
“I’m here for a week,” she said. “I just flew in yesterday afternoon, and I have been out in the desert all night.”
My jaw dropped.
“Yeah, I was walking in the desert all night long.” She said, seeming not to believe it herself. “I don’t normally look like this. I clean up really well! I had a marvelous time out there.”
She went on: “I’m on a spiritual journey, and I had a series of rituals to do during the night. I saw a lot of animals out there, some javelina and jack rabbits. I saw a cat-like animal too. I don’t know what it was. It had rings on its tail…”
I shook my head in amazement as I listened to her. You don’t hear English accents in Phoenix too often, and I’ve never met a desert night wanderer, especially one who’s been out communing with the desert spirits and running into coatimundi in her meanderings.
Probably this guy’s life history wasn’t quite what he expected!
One of my favorite things about our travels is the people we meet, and especially having the time to talk to them.
“I forgot how cold it is in the desert at night!” She was saying. Brrrr. I can only imagine!
Like the saguaros, we are all so unique.
Some of us grow straight and tall, but others of us have special curves and bends, especially as we get older, because oftentimes life doesn’t turn out quite the way we plan.
The sun peeks out from behind a saguaro
Mark set up a gorgeous photo of the sun peeking around a saguaro in a starburst. Wow!
When I saw a beautiful sunset developing I was bound and determined to get a stunning shot of some kind too.
The clouds looked like they were going to explode in color, and I chose a pretty ocotillo that would make a perfect silhouette spray across the red and orange backdrop.
I set up the tripod so the camera was hanging upside down just above the ground, got it all focused, and then stood and waited.
The much awaited ocotillo sunset shot… oh well.
This is not my way. When the sun hits the “golden hour” just before sunset, I usually run around like a madwoman shooting everything in sight.
But I wanted to learn more technically, so I folded my arms and bit my lip while I saw miracle photo after miracle photo glowing gold all around me. Arghh!
Then, to my horror, I watched my beautiful cloud pattern completely dissipate. The sun went down, and the clouds vanished! Not fair!
I took a few of my upside down ocotillo shots, with one lone cloud hovering to the side. What a disappointment.
Gathering up my gear, and wondering where in the world Mark had disappeared to, I trudged away.
After a hundred yards or so, I looked up and discovered a brilliant sunset had materialized out of thin air, and off in the distance stood the most perfect saguaro!
I ran full speed down to the cactus hoping to catch it in time, my loaded fanny pack, camera, tripod and Hoodman loupe bouncing around as I ran. With the camera still attached to the tripod, I lifted the whole thing into the air to get my shots, laughing along with the chortling cactus wrens that were scurrying around me.
My impromptu shot taken with the tripod dangling from the camera
This tripod technique is strictly verboten, totally amateurish, and hopefully in the future I’ll learn to react fast enough to get the composition I want with the legs of the tripod still firmly planted on the ground. But, for now, it worked!
In my excitement, I had set my sunglasses down somewhere, and I searched around but never found them. Meanwhile, Mark was calling me on the radio from the trail head wondering what had happened to me.
Home sweet home.
I was totally elated, totally out of breath, and I chatted away on the radio with him the whole way back down the trail as darkness stole over the desert. By the time I saw his flashlight waving at the trail head, the world was pitch dark around me.
The desert is a magical place at night… and I understand its spiritual lure… but it sure was nice to see our cozy warm buggy waiting for us after being chased down that last bit of the trail by the cold, searching fingers of the night’s icy air.
Apache Wash trailhead at the Sonoran Desert Preserve
Phoenix, Arizona, is a huge sprawling city that seems to creep further out into the desert with every passing day.
Each time we return to our old stomping grounds, we are surprised anew at all the changes.
Every saguaro cactus has its own personality
Roads we used to know like the backs of our hands now leave us utterly lost because we can’t find any of the old familiar landmarks.
With that kind of growth, and with new construction gobbling up the precious Sonoran desert at a scary-fast pace, it often seems that there can’t possibly be any open space left for the leisurely enjoyment of nature.
We didn’t get far before we stopped to take some photos
Everything within many miles of Phoenix has become either a master-planned community or a strip mall.
So we were utterly astonished when our friends Charlie and Cathie, who spend every free moment riding their bikes around town or hiking the many nearby mountains, asked us if we’d heard about the new road called Sonoran Desert Drive.
The Sonoran desert is very lush with
rich (and prickly) vegetation
New roads go in all the time, but they seemed truly excited about this one. “It’s eight miles long, has a great bike lane, no traffic, and is surrounded on both sides by open desert as far as you can see.”
In Phoenix? Impossible! We had to go check it out.
Sure enough, this beautiful, brand new parkway runs between Cave Creek Road and Dynamite on its eastern end and Dove Valley Road and North Valley Parkway to the west, without a hint of housing or development or urban living of any kind except at the cluster of homes tucked into its far western end.
A “jumping” or “teddy bear” cholla cactus
For about 8 miles, this parkway bisects a huge, square tract of open desert. Whoever knew that was there? When you are scurrying around the housing-lined city streets, zooming up this road and down that one, there’s no way of knowing what’s in back of it all.
Better yet, right smack in the center of this vast piece of land is the brand new Apache Wash trailhead that is now part of the Sonoran Desert Preserve system.
The sun peaks around a cactus in a starburst
The first time we drove along this parkway and hiked the trail, in December, the trail had been open for just a few weeks.
Groups of people with water bottles, hiking shoes, fanny packs and safari hats stood around in front of the brand new trail maps deciding which of the many choices of routes to try first.
The hummingbirds need those long beaks to drink the nectar without getting spiked!
Near the shade ramadas, a sun dial looking statue turned out to be a pointer system to the mountains in the distance.
This is a very beautiful trail to hike
The McDowells, Four Peaks and other mountains that surround Phoenix at distances of ten to thirty miles could all be spotted by lining up the pointer.
What a cool park! And what luck that we happened to visit just after a big rain. The air was as clear and crisp as could be, and the views to the horizon were haze free.
We set out on one of the trails at random, and of course we didn’t get very far before we had to start taking pictures.
This is a lush part of the Sonoran desert, rich with saguaro cactus, ocotillo and the many scrubby low lying bushes that always blanket the desert in pastel shades of gray and green.
The trail is open to mountain bikers…
Jumping cholla, or “teddy bear” cholla (pronounced “choy-ya”), are the short, cute, pale, fuzzy many-armed cactus that look so cuddly.
But if you get some skin, or clothes, or hiking shoes anywhere near their barbed needles, they will cling to you for all they’re worth. That’s how they got the reputation of jumping!
…and they were all having a blast on the trail!
If you step on one of their little round balls of needles that they shed so freely all around them, you will need a pair of pliers and a lot of patience to get all the needles out of the soles of your shoes!
I looked up when I heard the sound of wheels crunching the dirt, and suddenly saw a mountain biker barreling down towards us.
The trails are open to mountain bikers, and they all seemed to be loving their ride.
A saguaro tells a funny tale to an audience of barrel cactus
Turning 360 degrees at the summit we saw wide open desert in every direction
Horse shoe prints in the hardened mud.
Vast openness…
Ahhh… you can breathe!
The trail snaked around the backside of a hill and made a gradual climb.
As we ascended, I was astonished to look out across the valley and see nothing but desert vegetation.
We were in the middle of pristine Sonoran desert, and there wasn’t a home to be seen except right along the edges of the mountains on the horizon.
I heard a bird singing the most beautiful song.
He was just chirping away in the warm morning sun. I finally spotted him sitting in the branches of a Palo Verde tree on the hillside.
A horseback rider comes past.
It wasn’t a song I recognized, and I switched lenses really fast hoping to get his picture.
But my rustling around frightened him and he flew off. Or maybe it wasn’t the noise I was making…maybe it was the noise of the horses coming down the path!
We had seen horse hoof footprints in the hardened mud, and we had seen horse trailers down in the parking lot, but it was still pretty exciting when they came walking down the trail and passed us.
What a classic western image it made when they walked along the trail and off into the distance!
How beautiful to watch the horses walk off the “movie set” scene into the distance!
A cholla flower
As we took a different route back and wound our way down the mountain towards the parking lot, I kept thinking how wonderful it is that a place like this has been built.
Reflections on a beautiful walk in the desert…
Later, a little online research revealed that this trailhead was funded in part by the neighborhoods that abut the land, and that the Sonoran Desert Preserve is still expanding. Just a week prior to our first hike there, another 600+ acres had been set aside.
The Sonoran desert is a rare treasure that exists only in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and my heart breaks every time I see it being bulldozed for housing.
Bravo to the city planners that decided to create this park, and even better still, to make it open and available to everyone.
We have been enjoying getting reacquainted with the Phoenix area so much this winter — and we have been blessed with such unseasonably warm and sunny weather — that we’ll be sticking around a while and doing more desert explorations!
Arizona’s beautiful scenery beckons us
December, 2013 – After saying goodbye to our sailboat Groovy in San Diego, we pointed our truck towards Phoenix, Arizona. The truck bed was piled high with all of our stuff, and a new life waited for us down the road in our trailer.
We decided to take it slow on our way there.
We were both quiet and lost in thought as we began to climb through the hilly area that separates the moist and green San Diego coast from the flat, brown, dry deserts to the east.
Strange alien spaceships and motorhomes on I-8
It’s a region of towering hills made of huge boulders that look like a giant bulldozer just dropped its load of rocks.
Yup, that’s an alien in there!
We had driven through this area many times, and every time we noticed a very strange collection of aliens, spacecraft and RVs parked off the side of the road.
This time, rather than keep going as usual, Mark decided to pull off the highway.
“I’ve always wondered about this place.” He said as he parked and reached in the back seat for his camera. We both hopped out and began to roam around.
Aliens in a motorhome too…
This funny place is a classic little piece of roadside Americana.
Someone has put alien figures inside of spaceships, motorhomes and assorted chairs and cars all along a frontage road.
They’re the kind of aliens that have the slanted, almond eyes and small mouths set in lightbulb shaped heads. So strange!
We wandered among these weird creatures, mystified. Who put this here? And why? It’s crazy, but it’s fun!
And there are some aliens sitting around in chairs!
There’s a tower at the top of the hill that appears to be a museum, but there was a sign saying “Sorry, we’re closed today.” Oh well, next time!
When we got to Phoenix, we went straight to the storage facility where our fifth wheel had been patiently waiting for us for over a year.
I think it was very excited to see us, but when it saw the load in the back of the truck, its knees appeared to buckle a little.
Our buggy has waited patiently in storage
It was already a fully outfitted home, and now we were bringing endless boxes of stuff back to it that had absolutely nowhere to go.
Yet it was all great stuff that we couldn’t bear to part with. Ugh!
How do you combine two households into one, especially when the one you’re moving into is 350 square feet? You’ve gotta make some tough choices.
The buggy gets a bath
And so it was. This spatula or that spatula? This set of socket wrenches or that one?
And what to do with all those awesome but unused stainless steel fasteners and spare parts we’d bought for the boat? They might prove useful out on some remote road someday.
We made many trips to Goodwill!
And all that clothing. Oh my goodness! We could have dressed an army — in bathing suits and tank tops!
Over the ensuing weeks we became regulars at the Goodwill drop-off center, and slowly our mountain of bins in the back of the truck dwindled to the point where we could actually find homes for everything inside the trailer.
A Mercury bared its teeth at us!
This isn’t the kind of project that makes either of us leap out of bed in the morning with excitement.
So we took our time as the holidays approached and did lots of other things.
While out driving around in Cave Creek one day, we bumped into a car show.
Smooth ride…
Mark can never pass up a chance to mingle with muscle cars, so we stopped to have a look.
Arizona is a mecca for car enthusiasts, whether they are buying new exotics from the row of Maserati, Lotus, Ferarri and other dealerships in Scottsdale, or primping their old cars for shows like this.
There were hot rods and rat rods and souped up cars of all kinds from yesteryear.
There were even some unusual motorcycles, including a few trikes that rumbled down the road.
A dirt biker does acrobatics over the crowd
What really caught our attention, however, was the dirt bike jumping show.
As the announcer began his patter on the microphone, we looked up to see a dirt bike flying high above the crowd.
Wow! Those guys are crazy!! They were all young boys in their late teens — one was only 16 — and with every jump, they soared higher and higher, doing wild and daring tricks in the air.
I was awestruck. We’ve seen this kind of stuff on TV, of course, but it was different to be standing so close that when they landed we could reach out and touch them.
These daredevils were amazing
At the end they all did wheelies past the crowd.
A more peaceful way to take to the skies around Phoenix is to go up in a balloon, and every morning the horizon was filled with them.
Balloons soaring…no acrobatics!
With a pretty cactus
Sometimes we could hear the roar of their flame heaters before we saw them.
The balloons make beautiful patterns in the sky
The balloons made wonderful, everchanging patterns in the air. Floating around in slow motion, they’d move up and down and drift past each other.
We were both so happy to be back in the desert. There is something about the Sonoran desert that is really appealing.
We just love the Sonoran desert
The cactus are so stately, and the sunsets are so colorful and varied.
Our son went tent camping at Cave Creek Recreational Area campground, and we spent a few hours with him at his campsite.
The campground was filled with RVs, and they all looked so snug and homey. Many of them had Christmas lights on.
We hung around the campfire, relishing the smell of mesquite wood that filled the air.
Even a brief downpour didn’t dampen our spirits, although we scampered off into the truck for the worst of it.
Cave Creek campground was full of RVs — and they looked so cozy and inviting!
And what a great campfire too…
We suddenly had such a longing to get back into our fifth wheel. “Soon, soon!” we told ourselves.
The little fake fireplace set just the right mood next to the tree…
Santa brought joy to everyone
In the meantime, though, the holidays were here and were wonderful. This was the first Christmas we had spent with our family in five years, and the coziness around the little fake fireplace in the living room was just as intimate and heartwarming as the real thing outdoors.
Santa came with a bountiful array of gifts for everyone, and we spent a marvelous holiday season immersed in the world of our young granddaughters, where innocence, iPod games, Wii dancing, pizza and Barbie rule. Whew!!
Our urge to set up housekeeping in our beloved buggy couldn’t be put off any longer, though, and the arrival of the new year saw us squeezing ourselves into the trailer alongside the last few boxes of unsorted stuff for an overnight, even though it was still parked in storage with no room to open the slides.
Our buggy was glowing when it found out we were going out adventuring together.
…and we were glowing too.
Within a few days we were out on our own again, the slides pushed out, the last boxes of things sorted and stored, and our spirits sky high.
We grabbed our bikes, suited up in our new Mexican “Bi-Zihuanas” cycling jerseys — gifts from our friend Alejandro who owns the very cool Bi-Zihuanas bike shop in Zihuatanejo (story here about 1/2 way down the page) — and we set out to ride the fabulous bike lanes of greater Phoenix into the far reaches of the desert.
It was our first real bike ride in ages, and it felt so good.
The wind was at our backs, the sun was on our faces, and we were so thrilled be alive and so excited to be looking down the road towards the fun of travel and exploration once again.
The beautiful tidepools of Sunset Cliffs in San Diego
The boating world is full of tradition, ritual and quite a bit of superstition.
Of course, any endeavor where you take your life in your hands — or, more accurately, hand your life over to the whims of Mother Nature and King Neptune — is worthy of all kinds of superstition, blind faith and silent prayer.
Certain wise truths are written in the hearts of sailors:
— Never start a voyage on a Friday
— Don’t change a boat’s name
— If there’s a red sky at morning, take warning!
Sunset Cliffs is a magical place where many people feel great peace
and a strong connection to the universe
Although, in today’s age of science and skepticism, some boaters look a little askance at these pearls of wisdom, all it takes for many to change their minds and take heed is to start a voyage on a Friday and subsequently run into some big challenges at sea.
Along with cracking a bottle of champagne across the bow, some new boat owners go through special ceremonies and rituals to change the names of their boats and circumvent the wrath of the sea gods.
And most sailors, even those on Navy ships, go through unique rites for crossing the Equator for the first time.
It is a place for communing with nature
and expanding your soul…
But I’ve never heard of a nautical ceremony for saying goodbye to your ship, and wishing it fair winds and safe voyage, when you pass its command on to new masters.
As we prepared to leave our sailboat Groovy behind at our broker’s docks in San Diego, she was in as pure and virginal and showroom-ready condition as she would ever be.
Down below the cliffs, near the rocky shore,
we had an unusual encounter…
She wasn’t sold yet, but we had moved everything off of her and we were leaving her behind so we could resume our land-based travels in our trailer.
Our truck was ready and waiting in the parking lot, stuffed to the gills with our remaining personal belongings, and we were polishing our way out of the cabin and into the cockpit.
“I want to do something special before we leave,” I said mournfully to Mark. It didn’t seem right just to walk away from the boat. I wanted to recognize the occasion somehow, to say goodbye to her, and to wish her well in her future adventures
Suddenly his eyes lit up and he ran off to a dock cart that was overflowing with our last boxes of stuff. He rummaged through a little container of knick-knacks and then came back into the cockpit.
This little stone came to us in an intriguing way
“I have just the thing,” he said, holding a very round rock out towards me in his palm. Hand painted on its face were the words, “LOVE – Living One Vibrational Energy.”
Some weeks earlier he had been given this odd stone by an intriguing, nature loving, free spirited woman we had met while we were prowling around at nearby Sunset Cliffs.
We had noticed her doing some reverential poses on the rocks, her long hair and soft dress billowing out behind her. She had seemed to be summoning the spirits of the sea by the water’s edge.
It was a classic California sighting, and we chuckled to ourselves. But then she turned and began to engage Mark in conversation.
She was loving this day — the ocean and the sky and the beauty of everything — and she wanted to share her good feelings with all the world. Suddenly she cupped her hands around this little stone and pressed it into Mark’s palm. Then she wafted away. He slipped the stone in his pocket, amused and touched by her unusual gift.
A woman on the shore appeared to be invoking the spirits of the sea
Now Mark put the stone in my hand, and I rubbed its round, smooth surface. There was something appealing about it and the funny way it came to us.
“I’ll toss it in the water right here below the boat,” he said. “That will definitely give Groovy good vibes.”
With that, he knelt down by the hull while I grabbed my camera. He held the out stone and let it fall.
Such a simple gesture. Such a fleeting moment.
But the gravity of it caught us both off guard. Suddenly we were embracing, tears in our eyes.
We devise an impromptu goodbye ceremony for Groovy
A neighbor on a newly purchased Hunter 46 spotted us from his cockpit. His Mexico cruise was still ahead of him, and for the few days we had been docked side by side, he had been as excited about loading up his boat up with goodies as we had been about unloading gear from ours.
“It has to be bittersweet…” he said as we walked past him on the docks. His bright smile oozed happy anticipation of his own adventures ahead.
We nodded with a sniffle and trudged up towards the truck.
.
We promptly bumped into our broker who greeted us with a great big salesman’s grin.
But his expression changed to a look of surprise when he saw us blowing our noses and wiping our eyes.
“I guess you really loved your boat!” He said incredulously. “So many people just hand me the keys and say, ‘Sell it!'”
Not so with the Groovy boat. She was our little home on the sea, a fabulous cruising platform and our dream boat.
I have never cried when I moved out of any other home. I have always been excited to leave. I’ve never felt a deep emotional attachment to any house I’ve owned. But saying goodbye to our little pad on the water was really hard for both of us.
We had poured our hearts and souls into making her as ideal for living aboard at anchor as possible. We had lovingly polished every inch of her, inside and out, over and over, and we had worked on every system, from the tiniest pump to the largest sail.
Groovy was a wonderful little floating home for us.
That’s the way it is with boats. You get to know them on a very intimate level!
She had delivered handsomely on all the promise we had seen in her when we first laid eyes on her. Steadfast and secure, she had taken us to all kinds of new sights and experiences, in safety and in style.
With hopes that some caring new owners will discover her and be as inspired by her as we were, we waved goodbye from the top of the dock ramp and climbed into our truck
There were lumps in our throats as we drove the city streets out onto the highway in the morning light. But by the time we crested the hills that separate the lush coast of San Diego from the desert to the east, we were smiling again and talking excitedly about the future. We had closed a beautiful chapter in our lives and were now turning the page to see what would happen next.