Our weather is finally warming up into the 80's and we can enjoy our patio and all the wildlife that live in our park! We have gotten so good at making our cholla bird feeders that all the neighbours want one also. I made a feeder for the backyard and the birds love it.
The big one infront is for me and the smaller one behind is for our neighbours Norma and Don who live across the street from us. I buy bols and plates with southwestern patterns at garage sales and we glue them to cholla branches so they hold, water, bird seed and fruit for the birds.
Doug says I am getting tacky but i also made myself a wind chime with a branch of cholla and odds and ends I pick up at garage sales. I love it!!
My sister Kathleen and Brad flew in for a visit from Vancouver and we took them on an ATV ride to Montana Mountain. It was a blistering hot day and we actually had to put long sleeved shirts on the protect our arms from sunburn!
This is us heading out on our trip. Note how green the desert is. We had so much rain and cool weather this winter that the desert is incredibly green right now.
Kathleen, Ann and I. Note how Kath and I are dressed and how Ann is dressed! She thinks it's still winter and we are raosting!!
I just love this silhouette of a burned oak tree in Sherwood forest. There was a fire here last summer and it was pretty devestating to these beautiful old trees
We are heading up into the Superstition Mountains
The scenery is spectacular on this ride
If you look way up between the crags, you can see saguaro cacti growing up there
A hawk roosting on top of a dead saguaro
See how green everything is - so beautiful and unusual
Looking back from where we have come
Hard to see in this picture but there was water running down this wash creating a waterfall. All the years we have done this trip and we have never seen water and today we saw so much!
Kath & Brad standing by a running creek
Doug and I in the same spot. My foot was actually getting wet but it felt good as it was so warm
The views as we got higher up the mountain
We were forever driving over little creeks of water that crossed the road
Trent spotted a little horned toad and picked it up for us to take a picture
Our picnic spot at the top of the mountain
This was our view from our picnic spot. Note the filled pond down the hill
Kath & I with the valley behind us
Doug, Sharon, Kath & Brad
After lunch we headed down the far side of Montana Mountain and through another area that had a fire 2 years ago. We were surprised at how little has started to grow back in that time. I expected it to be greener.
A few patches of California poppies, not as many as I thought there would be
Our whole group: Doug, Trent, Ann, Sharon, Kath & Brad
A few more wild flowers
Coming down the other side of the mountain and we could see a group below us that had passed us as we stopped for lunch. That is where we are going
We came to wash with lots of running water and it was so warm, off came my shoes and socks and into the water I went to cool off. I was a bit disappointed as the water was so warm!
I decided there was some pretty interesting black sand in the creek so got out to the gold pan and decided to try panning for gold
Doug figured he could do better than me so he took over, needless to say, we still need to collect our pensions to survive!
It was a gorgeous spot to stop for a break and cool off
We had to travel down the wash a ways to catch the trail again and every other time we have done this trip the wash was dry!
It made for a cool part of the ride as the air was cooler while we were in the water
More poppies on the hillside
We saw our first rattle snake of the season. It was in the middle of the road. It was also lucky we didn't drive right over it!
He finally decided to move off the road so we could pass
Safe and sound heading up the bank. We had a great day but it was so hot by the time we got home, we immediately got into our bathing suits and were into the pool to cool off.
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