GoPro Video - Hiking in the Superstitions

Today, I am sharing another video with you - except this one was put together by my dear husband! Enjoy watching our adventures hiking around Phoenix.

Oh, and here's a better video of the rattlesnake if you want to hear it rattling away. Curtis was the brave one who went to record it, while I picked up Charlotte and stood very very far away. :)

If you want to keep up with our adventures on video, you can subscribe to us on Youtube - my channel is here!

Phoenix Hiking, Day 2: Usery Park

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Hiking in Usery Mountain Regional Park

Rain was predicted for Saturday, but thankfully we were able to fit in one more short hike for our weekend in Phoenix. Holly and Paul took us to a Usery Mountain Regional Park, a place that they frequent with beautiful desert scenery. We took Blevins Trail to Cat Peaks Pass, then back the way we came.

Charlotte, ready for another hike! We are thankful for dog friendly parks! 

Taken with our GoPro

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Panorama facing West, with the Superstitions either in a fog or raincloud! 

We had a great time walking the beautiful trails of the park with friends. Again, there were more people than we're used to seeing when we go hiking, but we can see why so many come here! We saw lots of wildflowers this weekend, but the cactus plants all around are just getting ready to bloom. 

There's the city in the distance!

Why is is called Cat Peaks, or Cat Peaks Pass? Because of the caves/dens on the hills! Can you spot the opening to the cave?

Close up of the cave!

We also saw our first rattlesnake of the season! Some trail runners ahead of us pointed it out, and boy was it mad! I picked up Charlotte to keep her safe, but Curtis took the GoPro and got a video of it rattling away. Yes, I'm still working on my video editing, but I promise these videos will find their way to the internet someday! :)

When we reached the car, Charlotte decided she was done with hiking for the weekend. We were impressed with how well behaved she was - though part of that could be because we wore her out!

If you're wondering where Phoenix is, this mountain is happy to help!

After saying goodbye to Holly and Paul, we went over to Jeff and Lydia's for a delicious lunch, games, and catching up. It's so nice to have immediate family so near by! The last time we visited them was right after they moved in, and it was fun to see the changes that they've made to their beautiful home.

On our way back, we made a very important stop at Krispy Kreme's, and then an (almost) equally important stop for a letterbox on the way home. 

Charlotte, cuddled up with her Koala on the drive back :)

We saw a glorious sunset to finish up this trip!

And that was our weekend adventure! I guess we never actually made it to "Phoenix" on our weekend trip to Phoenix, but we loved the places and people we visited and didn't have to deal with the traffic...win win! :)

Phoenix Hiking, Day 1: The Superstitions

Friday, February 27, 2015

Through-hiking in the Superstitions

Last fall when we did our Supai trip, we had the pleasure of meeting Paul and Holly, an awesome couple who are both very strong Christians with a good understanding of the Bible, AND also very well-traveled and knowledgeable about great places to visit and hikes to take. They are basically who Curtis and I aspire to be like someday! They graciously offered to help drive us around so that we could do a through hike, and invited us to stay with them so we could make the most out of our weekend adventure.

Curtis picked out a through hike that would be doable in a day, and happened to have several letterboxes on it. We drove to Apache Junction on Friday morning, and parked at the Peralta trailhead. The trail was very crowded at the beginning, even on a weekday. The first 3 miles were rocky and the steepest that we had all day, but not too challenging. The scenery was amazing - there were hoodoos on either side of the canyon walls. After a bit, the trail started switchbacking up through the canyon. The hardest part was the heat - we had a late start, and the sun was beating down on us now! 

Taken with the GoPro

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GoPro - looking back

Right as we were nearing the end of the incline, the trail switched to walking up a steep rock face. But the splendor of the view we saw once we reached the saddle took our breath away! I don't know what I expected to see, maybe some more mountains, and Phoenix in the background, but I couldn't have imagined this. 

The view at the top - to the West, looking at Weaver's Needle

The big, prominent peak is Weaver's Needle. All I could see on the horizon was the Superstition Wilderness - no signs of a big city anywhere. And we were going to be walking through there!

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The view to the East, where we had come.

As it turns out, this is where most of the hikers were headed, so as soon as we started down the other side, we were alone. The next 4 miles were all easy downhill walking through gorgeous scenery. We enjoyed getting a different perspective on the Weaver's Needle as we got closer and closer.

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The Weaver's Needle, from the bottom looking up.

I was a bit concerned when I kept seeing so many unmarked trails and not knowing exactly where we were, but Curtis was confident that we were going the right way, and thankfully he was always right! Once we reached the end of the 4 -mile downhill stretch, we stopped to have lunch. We were over halfway, with 7 miles down and only 5 left to go, and feeling great. I think Charlotte was worried though - it's hard to tell what's going on in her head, but at this point, I think she thought we would be turning around and going back the way we came. She was probably concerned about having to walk so far back. She's a great sport though, and puts up with everything we throw at her. :)

GoPro - looking ahead at the various rocks in the Superstitions

GoPro- Looking behind, at the Weaver's Needle

Curtis had told me that after the 4 miles downhill, the next mile or so on Parker Pass would be uphill according to his maps, but I don't remember any more steep inclines. It really was an easy trail after the first 3 miles. We only saw 2 other couples hiking on this part also, which made it more fun. The only challenge might have been the heat - summer is coming, folks! We also enjoyed finding some letterboxes that hadn't been found in years.

In the last 2 miles, Charlotte was starting to wear out. She stopped in the shade to lie down a lot - Curtis would go and give her a drink, and she usually bounced right back. We had to cross a stream several times, and a few times she tried to get away with just standing or sitting in the water. She was one dirty pup when we reached the end! We started seeing more people in the last half-mile of the trail, and Charlotte enjoyed all the love she received from them. We reached the First Water trailhead at 4 - after hiking 12 miles in just over 6 hours.

I was looking at the map when we were finished, and I realized how much more of this beautiful wilderness we have to explore! We went from the Peralta Trail (102) to Parker Pass (104) ending at the First Water trailhead. There are so many more trails out there!

Paul and Holly came to pick us up shortly after, but before taking us to the Jeep they took us to see the beautiful Canyon Lake. We went to get our car, then drove to their home where we enjoyed dinner and fellowship, along with a lot of scheming for our Spring Break trip! 

January Letterboxing Adventures

It feels so strange to title this post "January adventures." After surviving 20 Iowan winters, this feels nothing like "January" to me. Maybe it's the longest and nicest October I've ever lived through. I'm not complaining about this of course ~ now that I've been here though I don't think I can ever go back. ;)

This picture represents to me 4 of the things I love most about Arizona:

-Big, open, beautiful sky

-Mountains

-Hiking and letterboxing with my husband

-NO SNOW :)

This particular hike was on a Sunday afternoon. It was about 4 miles roundtrip hiking up to the peak of Babad Do'ag Mountain in the Catalinas. The weather was perfect, the sky magnificent, the view breathtaking! I was also elated to find that the elevation and hike didn't wear me out. Window Rock was certainly brutal but I'm getting better with each hike!

We made it to the peak only to realize we didn't have to go that far for the letterbox we were searching for. It was so worth the hike though!

Looking South over Tucson, with Mt. Wrightson - the tallest peak - in the background.

Looking West toward the Tucson Mountain Park

And as we were hiking down, we saw an amazing sunset. The perfect end to any hike!

I couldn't get enough of it - I took so many pictures while Curtis was driving!

The West side of the Catalina Mountains. Such pretty colors as the sun sets!

A little more boxing around Tucson on Martin Luther King Day weekend. I know Curtis thinks it's silly to have a 3 day weekend right after Christmas break, but it was still really nice to have a couple days to enjoy together!

On MLK Day, we took a trip to Phoenix to plant and find letterboxes. To be honest, we aren't big fans of the city, it's just way too big, too many people, and driving is too stressful. We did have a nice time though, and hiked in Phoenix South Mt. Park and the Estrella Mt. Park.

Here are some of the views from Phoenix South Mt. Park. Above is looking North toward Phoenix, and below is facing South.

Back in Tucson, we enjoyed one of our weekly hikes with our boxing buddies after they got off work!

We usually go hiking together in Tucson Mt. Park. We'll start when the sun is still shining, watch the sun set over the mountains, and hike back in the dark. This particular night, we reached a great 360 view on a peak and got a view of the city lights. I couldn't get rid of the weird spotlight in the picture, but I just had to share it anyway :)

Last weekend, we took a trip with our friends to Madera Canyon, South of Tucson. Curtis is very good about planning day trips that are very thorough in getting all the letterboxes in that area. So for this particular hike, we had about an 8 hour day with a delightful picnic lunch and scored 6 boxes!

We've done quite a bit of driving on some pretty rough dirt roads lately. Thankfully the Yeti can put up with all of this! The most exciting part about this road was seeing the cows in their open range. :)

Baby Cow!!

You know you live in a desert when …

And thus concludes the month of January's Adventures! 

Letterboxes found: 40

Miles hiked: 30

Places visited: Cedar Rapids, IA; Quincy, IL; Hannibal, MO; Fairfax, IA; Apache Junction, AZ; Window Rock, Babad Do'ag, Tucson Mt. Park, Phoenix, AZ; S. Phoenix Mountain Park, Estrella Mountains; Buckeye, AZ; Gila Bend, AZ; Freeman, AZ; Green Valley - Madera Canyon, AZ

Also important to note that we celebrated 6 months of marriage. What a wonderful 6 months it has been! :)