Well Glenda and I discovered we love the Desert! Even after the beauty of the California Coast we have both been captivated by the Arizona desert. It may have to do with the Saguaro Cactus – they are an amazing and sometimes hilarious iconic Arizona desert tree. Like people they come in all shapes and sizes and I’m sure Bert the Muppet was fashioned after a saguaro. They get to be very old and are as tough as a boot – even a little one is well rooted and basically immovable. I’d love to take one home.
We’ve been pretty wary of rattlesnakes what with all the signs, warnings and horror stories we heard so far. So we went to Cabelas and bought snake boots! Come on snake! Haven’t seen one yet but we are ready. They are kind of an all around outdoor waterproof stompin’ boot so we can use them in NS for stompin’ something. It is deer hunting season here so we wore yellow for our desert hike.
We spent several days at Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground and saw some petroglyphs left by some ancient people on the old southern Arizona trail that follows the Gila River. It was some sort of sacred site as there are none others around that area. It is thought it was a place for leaving messages as well as mostly unknown symbols. A typical day for us in the desert is watching beautiful sunrises, Bible reading with great coffee, walking, biking or hiking, Glenda baking in the tiny kitchen, flyovers by fighter jets, bbq every night and wonderful sunsets and night sky. Days here are almost as short as they are at home, which is a surprise since we are at 33 latitude. But oh the sun – sunny every day and temps between 70 and 80 – I love the old Fahrenheit scale! 80f just seems warmer than 26c. It is incredibly dry as well – in fact the humidity today is 11%!
Another thing about the desert is the unexpected greenery. There is plenty of rock, gravel and sand but more trees than I expected and the very unexpected fields of alfalfa/hay/grain. We biked by a ranch that had a pump feeding 3 large water pipes into a concrete trough like a small river that irrigates alfalfa fields. Almost half of the water for agriculture comes from the Colorado River irrigation system which is well over 200 miles away – the rest from wells/aquifers. I have to wonder how sustainable that is in a state with severe drought and scorching heat. The ranches are huge and the number of cattle is amazing. Next we are off for Lake Havasu City for a week.
Let's Do The 180! 