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!