It was the last of them, it was the best of them, it came in stormy, and
we left it sick — the traditional meaning of the word, not as in, “Duuuuude, that park was siiiiiick!”
Sorry I’ve spoiled the ending, but there are a few chapters in between
the cloudbursts and the congestion that turned out pretty decent.
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| Beautiful skies above site #79 |
The intermittent showers brought a rainbow.
We managed to squeeze in a couple of short walks between the raindrops.
Much of this park’s exploration was to be
done by me alone, though, while TBG jetted off to Seattle for five days
for some business and to catch up with friends and family. Before
sunrise on our third day, I chauffeured him to meet a shuttle that
picked him up at a local Starbucks where I treated myself to a fancy
coffee drink to kickstart my solo week. It was the first time in a long
time that I’d driven in the dark, and I was relieved that I had no
trouble seeing. What I was hoping to see on my drive back were some of
the night critters that elude us during the day, but I never even caught
the glow of any eyes in the headlight beams. Outfoxed again!
Later that day, I revved up my private
party with a 5.6-mile bike ride in the desert. Many of the trails at
McDowell are nice and smooth with very little elevation gain. In other
words, my kind of trails! The surface was a little “sludgy” in some
areas due to the recent rain, and I couldn’t get much speed, but it was a
good ride overall.
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| What TBG was missing in dreary Seattle. |
The next day I slept in until 0730, enjoyed a quiet morning working on a computer project, and watched my hummingbird.
Around lunchtime, I set off on a 5-mile hike.
Missing my sign guy.
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| Stoneman Wash |
My favorite part of the hike was down in the wash that I only had to
share with the birds. I saw some fresh javelina tracks, but not the
snufflers themselves.
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| Someone couldn’t see our moon that night from under overcast northwest skies. |
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| And I was missing someone who was missing the view from our front windows. |
I spent another morning finishing my project, then had time for an even
longer bike ride. While I was looking at the Visitor Center’s snakes the
day before, I’d overheard a park worker tell another visitor that the
North Trail was a showcase for the area flora, and I let that chose my
route for me.
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| It was a humdinger! |
I was having so much fun — fun, I tell you! — that I didn’t stop to take many pictures at all.
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| Selfie I texted to TBG. |
On Friday the 13th, I met with a small group for a park-advertised
Fitness Hike. Four of the seven were comprised of local residents who
meet here frequently, and the other three of us were transients.
Unbeknownst to me, the “fitness” part of the hike was the speed, not the
12-mile distance, and most of the group was ahead of me at any given
time. I think they were a little worried about me, which I found
(privately) funny. I think they may have been a bit (privately) annoyed
with me. When I wanted to, I sped up and chatted with other group
members — one another full-time RV blogger,
Gayle, who had recently come off the road and settled in this area after
eleven years!
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| Red-tailed hawk taking flight. |
At one point, when we were coming through a wash, we stumbled into a scene from Tremors.
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| It’s a Graboid!!! Run!!! |
Wait, what? WTH is that?
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| Don’t BEE scared. |
It’s not a Graboid, it’s the Honeycomb Hideout looking for all the world
like something emerging fangs-first from the cliffside. As
creepy-looking as it was, it was the first wild honeycomb I’d ever seen,
which made the 12-mile run worth it.
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| Early light on the mountains. |
One of the things I had been looking
forward to was downloading a computer game while TBG was away so I could
play uninterrupted. The internet signal was not what we’d expected at
the park, and I spent two days leaving the computer running while it
tried to load my little $3 game. Finally, with text prompting from TBG
when I griped to him about it, I drove into the Starbucks again, got
another coffee treat that cost more than my game, and had it downloaded
in about two minutes. I wish I had done that days before because I only
had a day to play, and I won’t play all day. Oh well.
Other than that little adventure, I took an evening walk around the campground.
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| Missing my landscape photographer |
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| The sky put on a brilliant show for my last solo night. |
TBG was supposed to return around 4 p.m.,
but air travel being what it is, he didn’t get in until nearly three
hours later than that, and he’d brought a souvenir cold with him.
He said he was feeling well enough the
next day for me to take him on the 11-mile bike ride I’d done earlier in
the week, so I did.
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| Boosting immunity with vitamin D. |
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| Impressing TBG with my speed and confidence. |
Still feeling OK the next day but not wanting to push it, we drove out
to try to locate the Salt River wild horses, or more accurately, feral,
or even more accurately re-introduced native North American species.
It’s complicated.
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| A hillside packed with ponies. |
We didn’t have to go as far as we’d planned before we saw them spread out along the hillside. I counted at least 50.
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| Mama and babe. |
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| Snoozing in the warm sunshine. |
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| Plenty to eat out here. | | | | |
After communing with the ponies, we went a bit further up the road and
pulled off at one of the many roadside day-use park areas for a short
hike along the river.
The weather was cooling a bit, but it was still clear, and there was one
more hike I wanted to do before moving on. TBG waffled on whether or
not to go, but decided that since it wasn’t strenuous, he was up for it.
We headed to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve to try to find another Michelin Man cactus and what was said to be a spectacular cristate along the way.
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| Too cold for snakes, but now this. | |
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| Beautiful beginnings |
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| with cool rock formations |
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| and lots of naturally balanced rock features. |
Locating the crested saguaro was easy.
It was huge and practically in the middle of the trail.
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| I should have taken a video of it. |
Even with twice as many eyes as I’d had when searching for Cave Creek’s Michelin Man, we were unable to locate the one here, much to our great disappointment.
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| Ice puddle! |
The back side of our 7-mile route was chilly.
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| And I caught a chill, indeed. |
Of course being cold doesn’t really give
you a cold but that along with traveling, losing sleep, and sharing less
than 300sf of living space, creates a cozy environment for one.
On the bright side, we are in a new
location as I write, where we will be until the new year, and we have no
plans that have to be canceled. In other words, we can stay put and
take it easy until we feel better. That gives me plenty of time to play
that game and work on my absolute favorite blog post of the year. 🙂
COMMENTS
Anyway, I didn’t know there were feral horses in Arizona, and just loved your photos of the horses and birds. What a great wildlife spot! We hope you guys are in an equally interesting spot to enjoy the holidays (up to and including the new year) and recuperate. Merry everything!
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I didn’t know there were horses there, either, TBG discovered that one. It was cool enough to see them all over the hillside, but when we spotted them in that wash having a bit of a lie-down, that was the best.
We are in a great spot for our recuperation and the holidays, fortunately. Happy Holidays to you both!
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Sorry about the cold. It’s so miserable being sick in tight quarters. But, at least you got maximum sunshine while you could, and now you can hunker down with the really important stuff – video games!! And year end blog posts… obvs.
As for that magnificent crested saguaro, I do wonder whether videos like that were the original inspiration behind Tik Tok???? Get it done, my friend. Get it done!
PS: LOVE the napping horsies!!
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Yeah, these colds are kicking our butts! People underestimate how crappy the “common” cold can make you feel. We are so glad our schedule naturally accommodates the time and activities we need to recover. A nice balance of unlucky/lucky!
That’s so funny you mentioned Tik Tok. I had never heard of it until I saw it mentioned on one of those year-end recap typed shows just the other day. But now that I know about it and have something to contribute, I really should get it done, haha!
Those sleepy ponies were just the cutest, huh? That was such a fun surprise 🙂
Merry Christmas to you two crazy kids!
So glad you were able to enjoy so much biking and hiking, even with the obstacles of not having your favorite trail sign guy along with you on some of your expeditions, and then fighting nasty colds. I’m glad you didn’t let TBG get carried away by an aggressive hawk, LOL.
I hope you’re feeling much better now. At least you have the distraction of writing my favorite post of the year!! I can’t wait to see how many critters you come up with. Merry Christmas!!! OXOXO
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My birds kept me good company in TBG’s absence, but my sign photos really aren’t as good as usual. That’s why I had to be sure an aggressive hawk didn’t get him LOL!
Right this minute, we are not feeling much better — these colds are AWFUL, WTH?! but! we are powering through, and are determined not to let this gunk follow us into the new year. I am having fun assembling the 2019 Round-up, but paring it down is really hard. I hope you will enjoy those that make the final cut!
Merry Christmas to you two turtle doves!
I did not know there were feral horses in that area not until when we drove to a trailhead, the road was marked with “watch for horses in bold letters,” every 500 ft!
I hope as you keep looking at the Superstition Mountains both your colds are out the door. Feel better, its Christmas eve!
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Aren’t those horses something? Even knowing they’re feral, it’s hard to see them as wild since we’re all so used to seeing horses often. But it is so fun to find them just the same.
We have a great view of the Superstitions from our front window — they just might be my favorite little range of all time, I am so taken by them! Merry Christmas to you and Steve!