Tucson - Part 2

Saturday, January 18 - Today Mom and Dad drove south of Tucson to a place called Madera Canyon.  It is near Green Valley, Arizona.  Mom and Dad took a 3 mile hike with 450 feet of elevation gain.  Mom said the bad part was that the entire elevation gain was in the last mile that's a nearly 10% grade.

The view down Madera Canyon.

Mom and Dad on their hike.

 After their hike, they drove to Tubac, Arizona.  Tubac is an artsy town with lots of fun shops and galleries.  One of the things they have on right now is Javelinas on parade.  A Javelina is a pig-like creature that roams in the desert around here.  There were Javelina statues all over town, each one decorated in a different way.  Here is one of the Javelinas.

They had an early dinner in Tubac at Tubac Jack's and then came home to me.  

Sunday, January 19 - Today Mom and Dad drove to Nogales and crossed into Mexico.  There are a couple things they want that they thought they could find in Mexico, so they decided to go across the border and check it out.  As a shopping trip, it wasn't very productive.  They came back empty handed.

Waiting to cross the border back into the USA.  You can see the border
wall, at the left edge of the to USA sign.  Fortunately, Mom
and Dad got to go through the gate.

.

Even with the Border Fence, Mom and Dad saw
these at several locations between Nogales and Tucson.

Monday, January 20 - Today Mom and Dad decided to hike the Bren Peak Loop in Tucson Mountain Park.  It's only four miles, so they thought it would be a nice hike.  They found the hike on Mom's new All Trails App and it said the trail could be hard to find at times and that it was rocky.  They decided that was a HUGE understatement.

Mom taking a break along the trail

In places, the trail was a steep scramble.

The trail collapsed here.  Mom says that it doesn't look like that
big a deal, but that piece of ground that Dad is standing on is
really skinny and it's pretty much straight down from there.

Once they got the top, there were great views of everything but the trail ahead.

More nice views.

Tuesday, January 21 - Today was a rainy day.  Mom and Dad stayed with me in the RV in the morning.  It stopped raining in the afternoon, so they decided to go to Sabino Canyon.  They said it's a very cool place.  

They rode a tram into the canyon and got off at the last stop.  You might be able to see the tram in the middle of the photo.

On the way, the tram went through several low water crossings. 

Once they were off the tram, they walked to a place where
there was a natural dam that created a waterfall.

A closer look.

Below the falls.

After a fun week in Tucson, we will be moving on to the Phoenix area tomorrow.  I'll tell you about that next time.

Love,

Doolin