Tucson

We arrived in Tucson on February 3 and spent two weeks at Catalina State Park on the north edge of Tucson.

Our campsite at Catalina State Park

The night we arrived, Mom and Dad went to see the Broadway Musical "Wicked" at Centennial Hall on the campus at University of Arizona in Tucson.  I stayed in the Jeep in the Parking Garage.

One day, the three of us went for a hike in Catalina State Park.  We met "Spike" on the trail.  I think I made him mad when I said he had a small head.

Hikes wear me out.

Another day Mom and Dad hiked to the Romero Pools.  Mom says that this was the rockiest trail she has ever been on.  The trail starts in the State Park, but I didn't go because the hike goes into the Desert Big Horn Sheep Management Area and I'm not allowed there.  Mom thinks the trail was made by the sheep.  There were potato size rocks everywhere and lots of big steps, but she did it.  You can now call her Baaah Brah.

 

There was water in the Romero Pools

Mom said the pools reminded her of Tide Pools, but with water from the stream, rather than the ocean and no anemones or star fish in the pools.

They had to climb pretty high and could see a long way.  I'm down there somewhere in the RV.

I've never seen a cactus doing "the twist" before.

Another day, Mom and Dad went to the Sabino Canyon Recreation area to hike to Seven Falls.  They have wanted to do this hike for a few years now.  It's kind of a tricky one to plan because the best time to go is when there is lots of water in the falls.  However, the more water coming over the falls, the more water in the creek below the falls.  The trail crosses the creek seven times before it climbs out of the canyon to the falls.  As one hiker said, those seven creek crossing give you seven opportunities to fall 😆 Ok.  Enough hiking humor.

There are several starting points for the hike, which means that it can be varying lengths.  Mom and Dad decided to go for the shortest option which is to park at the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area parking lot and take the shuttle two miles into the Canyon to the trailhead.  From there, it's about 4.5 miles and 950 ft of elevation gain.  They arrived at the parking area early to buy tickets for the 9:15 shuttle.  They were told that the first available tickets were for the 10:15 shuttle.  Apparently tickets are available on-line, but they didn't know.  They decided to skip the shuttle and hike the 2 miles to the trailhead and take the shuttle back.  

I'll tell you now, the shuttle only runs once an hour.  They arrived back at the shuttle stop about 10 minutes after the shuttle had left, so they decided to hike back, too.  Total for the day 9.5 miles of hiking.  😵 I'm glad I stayed home.

The first part of the hike was through Bear Canyon and along a stream.

One of the stream crossings.  The more water in the stream, the fewer rocks are exposed.  Wet rocks are slick rocks.

The first 3 miles were pretty flat along the creek.  After the 7th stream crossing, they started the climb.  The blue arrow in the middle of the photo points to people crossing the last stream crossing.  They sure look little WAAAY down there.

This is a view of the falls from the trail on the far side of the canyon.  See that little pool in the middle?  I'll show you another picture of that in a minute.

Beautiful views back down the canyon.  The Jeep is in a parking lot outside of this canyon FAARR in the distance.

The trail came along a narrow ledge above the canyon and then wrapped around the end of the canyon to the falls.  Above the white arrows are little tiny people hiking behind Mom and Dad.  Mom was up there when she took the first picture of the falls (about 2 photos back in this string).

The falls mostly flows down through crevices cut in the rock and then into this pool.   It's the same pool that I told you about a few photos back.

A tired hiker taking a nap.

Another view of the falls and the pool at the base.

More beautiful scenery near the falls.

A mini waterfall in the canyon on the hike back to the parking lot.

Mom and Dad and I took several other hikes around the area, but for some reason, we didn't take any photographs.  Then, after a fun 2 weeks in Tucson, we moved to Lost Dutchman State Park near Phoenix on February 17th.   We were there for 2 weeks, then yesterday, March 3, we moved again to Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ.  We are about 20 miles from Sedona and will be here for a week.  From there, we plan to head for home.

I'll tell you about our adventures in Phoenix next time.

January, 2022 (Part 2)

When I blogged last time, we had just arrived in a place called Benson, Arizona.  That was January 23.  A lot has happened since then.

I've developed a keen interest in TV,
especially shows involving dogs.

This is where we stayed in Benson.  It's a large Co-op RV Park associated
with Escapee's which is a camping club Mom and Dad belong to. It's on a
hillside and terraced so everyone gets a view of the Dragoon Mountains
(seen in this photo).  This picture is taken from the water tower on
the hill behind the park.  All of the RV lots are owned by people
and when they are gone, other members of the club (like us) can stay there. 
There are lots of activities in the park - Mom and Dad went to Happy
Hour a couple of times and they went to a concert where they heard
a guy who used to be part of the New Christy Minstrels. I'm too
young to remember them, but they were a folk group popular
 in the 60's and 70's.  They also met people in the park and went to
other people's RV for dinner and had new friends over to our place for
dinner. The RV Park has it's own Dog Park and I made a few friends, too. 
It was a busy 10 days.

One day we went to the Cochise Stronghold and
went on a 5.8 mile hike with about 950 feet of elevation gain.  

I got a new backpack a few weeks ago.  I'm still disappointed the
Prada store was closed when we came through Marfa, but I
found this one at a charming little boutique (Pet's Mart)
in Las Cruces.  It's a saddlebag style in Aquamarine with
Dove grey accents and reflective piping.  Mom says it's
what all the best dressed poodles are carrying this year. 
I'm now carrying my own water, bowl, and snacks when we go
hiking.  I also have to carry my own poop 😬😖

We came to this really cool pool behind a dam and saw
lots of interesting rocks.

Even looks cool in black & white.

Mom liked this cactus.

and this agave.

Another day, Mom and Dad went to Chiricahua National Monument for a hike.  Since it's a National Monument, Canine children can't go on hikes and it was too hot for me to wait in the car, so I stayed in the RV.

They hiked in Echo Canyon.

This tree picked a really tough spot to put down roots.

Another tree that leads a rough life.

Lean on me, brother.

On the way back to me, they stopped at a Wildlife Refuge where
they saw a bunch of Sandhill Cranes that spend time there in the winter.

Another day we went to Tombstone.  I've never been to a place where the streets are dirt and the way to get around town is a Stagecoach.  

There is a Jeep group at the RV Park in Benson.  They go out every Wednesday.  We met up with them and went to a place called Empire Ranch.  There were a few places where Mom and I were really worried, but we kept our mouths shut and Dad did a great job.  He said that he's really happy with the performance of our Jeep.

 

Us following one of the other Jeeps at Empire Ranch.  

Watch out for wildlife 😁

Mom's smiling because we made it back to relatively smooth road
 and Dad didn't break the Jeep.

This brings me to February 3, the day we left Benson and moved to Tucson for two weeks.  Today (February 17) we moved again to Lost Dutchman State Park on the east edge of Phoenix.  We will be here for two weeks.  In my next post, I'll tell you about Tucson.