Our final ATV ride before we store the ATV for the summer!

We went for a 4 hour ride yesterday out back into the Sonoran desert for our final ride of the season. We always do this ride with Ann & Trent and take a light snack with us and just enjoy all the cacti flowering. It was a very hot day, up in the 90's and even though I used 50 SPF sunscreen, I still managed to get burnt!!

 We started out our ride going out to visit our little great horned owl chicks and were amazed to see there were two of them and how big they had grown! Mom had just flown away from the nest before we got there so we had a wonderful view of the babies

 I could have stayed there and watched them forever but we didn't want to spook Mom so took some quick pictures and left them alone

 Down here in the valley, the Staghorn Cholla are now blooming and this is the yellow version - my least favorite

 The orange coloured flower on the Staghorn Cholla

 

The more burgendy coloured Staghorn Cholla

 The Bonker Strawberry Hedgehogs were flowering everywhere

 

The Hackleberry bush flower with beautiful white flowers back in early March and now the fruit are on the bush and they are a beautiful orange colour

 A close up of the Hackleberry fruit

 There were lots ofg Arizona thistle blooming and though you really can't see by the picture, they are huge in size

 Just a picture of the desert as we are driving along

 The Englemann Prickly Pear cacti are starting to bloom. They are at least 2 weeks behind this year most likely because of the colder winter we had.

This is a pink flowered hedgehog cactus. Their flowers are just as pretty although not as deep a pink as the Bonker Hedgehog

 

 A close up of the Bonker Strawberry Hedgehog flower

 More Englemann Prickly Pear flowers - yellow just isn't my favorite flower colour!

The Ocotilla bushes are now flowering and add a real burst of colour to the desert

We ended our day by washing our ATV really well, loading the ATV in our cargo trailer, taking the battery out, adding buckets of water to the trailer to keep some moisture in the air over the summer and moving the trailer over to our frind Jim's RV spot where he lets us leave it for the winter. Rather bitter sweet but Doug is ready to go home and begin fishing again.

Trent and Ann then took us out for a lovely dinner at Applebees so a great way to end the day with special friends!

Our recent dust storm and our last major ATV ride

Just a week ago, we had a major wind and dust storm blow through. It was quite something! it even cooled off a bit which made for nicer sleeping at night! The dust was unbelievable though. My allergies loved it.

This first picture is taken from our little golf course on the west side of our community looking towards the Superstition Mountains

 This is the same picture a couple of hours later when the dust is so thick in the air you can no longer see the mountains. The weather person says we are in for another wind and dust storm tomorrow, right when we will have our RV trailer here and starting to pack up!!

 These are the baby curved bill Thatchers in my neighbours nest. They are sure getting bigger and look more like birds now!

 

Since Ann and Trent are the only couple from our riding group still here, we decided to go for our last long day ride on a trail we were familiar with. Figured it was no time to try out a new trail and potentially get lost! We decided to go back to Walnut Canyon and see how high the Gila River was with the heat we have been having the heavy rain we had on Monday. We went on Wednesday this past week and the cold front that followed the dust storm was just leaving the state so the temperatures were back in the high 70's down from low 90's 3 days previous. 

The above picture is of a Firecracker Penstemon. You don't see this wild flower too often but it adds such a bright splash of colour to the desert

 There were lots of Mariposa lilies flowering along the trail

 I just had to take a picture of the rock formations with the clouds as a back drop. It gave such a nice contrast

 

Because we are at a higher elevation, south of Superior up in the mountains, the Staghorn Cholla cacti are starting to bud but no where near to flowering

 

 We saw another small Gila Monster, he/she is probably a yearling by the size of it. It just amazed us as we watched it climb vertically right up the sandstone cliff

 In places, the cliff face actually veared outward bu he just climbed right up and over the top!

 Another beautiful picture of the mountains and clouds with a roange blooming Ocotilla in the background

 We are now down at the Gila river and boy is it high and muddy. Big change from when we were here in February. Too deep and fast running to try and cross today

 This is looking at the river in the other direction

 We didn't have much of a shore line to sit and have our lunch at. It was a good thing there was only the 2 of us rigs!

 A couple of hillbillies we found a long the way!I actually have my jacket on as there was a breeze and it was cool

 We are heading home back out of the canyon

 Red Coachwhip snake in the middle of the trail. This is a non-venomous snake

 This is my neighbour Rena's Blue Curiosity cactus blooming. It is right along side of her carport so we get to enjoy the flowers. We also have one of these cacti but as ours is in front of our house, it gets less sunshine and doesn't flower till after we leave

The flowers is so beautiful but it only opens in the early hours of the morning for one day only and then that is it. If you are a late riser, you miss its beauty!

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Our friends Beth & Bill have a season's pass to the Arboretum that allows 4 people entry so they invited us to come with them yesterday (Friday). They were predicting a 93 degree day so we decided to get up and leave early and be at the gates right when they opened at 0800 and beat the heat. The Arboretum is on Highway 60 just west of Globe so took about 35 - 40 minutes to get there. The arboretum is spectacular right now as everything is in bloom. It has miles of trails all through the gardens so you can look at all the flora and fauna and appreciate this very special micro-system that exists in the desert.

 This is just as we are starting out our walk looking towards Picket Post mountain

 As usual, the scenery is spectacular. Don't ever let anyone tell you Arizona is an ugly coulourless desert! They must never have visited if this is what they think!

 A little ball cactus in flower

 As usual, I can't remember the names of a lot of the wild flowers without my book handy!

 The Palo Verde trees are beautiful bright green right now as they are getting their leaves back

 Some of the wild flowers and cacti we saw as we walked the rails. We were sure glad we went early as it was so hot!!

 This is a Bonker Pink flowered hedgehog cactus in bloom

 Mariposa poppy flowering right in the rocks on the side of a mountain

 In the distance you can see The Boyce Thompson mansion. It was left to the Arboretum by the family but is not in use at present

 Bill, Beth, Sharon & Doug on the viewing platform over looking Ayer Lake. This was a man made lake created to store water to water all the plants at the Arboretum

 Sharon at the cliff edge as we are now hiking down into the canyon where the river runs through

 If you look carefully, you can see the river down below that we are hiking down into

 We decided this was a good time to obey the signs!

 At one point they had to extend the trail over the canyon wall so you could get around and continue down to the river bottom

 We are nearly at the river now

 Doug coming across the suspension bridge

 

I had caught up to him here

 Looking down the river from the bridge. The scenery was spectacular

 The apricot desert mallow was blooming everywhere

 Can't remembee the name of this bush - some kind of rose but again a beautiful scent that required me to pull out the kleenex!

 

Doug coming out the doorway of an old stone house built into the mountainside where a family of 5 lived in a very small 3 roomed building. They were farmers

 The inside of the house. I guess they spent a lot of time outside because there sure wasn't much room for 5 people!

 The different agave plants flowering along the trial

 Here I go again! This was a type of climbing rose (forgot the name) that had grown up the trees and the side of the mountain next to the rock house. it was spectacular to see it in full bloom and to smell the scent

 Bill and I in the rock maze. Doug and Beth were taking a rest on the bench watching us

 It was fun walking it though I tended to get dizzy if I looked down at my feet as I went in circles!

 I think at this point I was saying "which way do I go now?"

 

I thought this was a great picture with both Bill and I with a foot in the air!

 This was further down the canyon/river. An old farm site with the buildings still intact

 This was one of the bedrooms

This was looking into the kitchen

 Bil and Doug walking past the windmill

 The coral and farm truck still standing

 We then went into the demonstration garden where drought resistant plants were on display

 All the diffeernt agave were in bloom and their flowers were so pretty

 Agave blooms

 More wild flowers

 Not sure what this tree was as their wasn't a stake naming it but just coming out in purple blooms

 Honeysuckle growing up a trellis

A close up of the honey suckle flower

 A Cardinal sitting on a branch looking at us

 Another type of barrel cactus in bloom

 I am not sure what Beth tok this picture of us looking at?? Maybe the cardinal as he flew away??

 a type of wild spreading geranium

 A black throated hummingbird - don't you just love the long red beak?

 Don't know what this wild flower is but the plant itself looks like a dandelion - so as the old saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover' as this flower is gorgeous!

The last picture - more flowering cacti and flowers! We ended our day by having a picnic in the shade. A great day with good friends!