Great time trying out our cowboy/girl skills and seeing the western terrain as it was meant to be seen. We also learned some really cool facts from our cowboy guide about the local area and how to survive in the desert šµ
Due to an important mtg in AR, we setup in Black Canyon then took Drew to the Phoenix airport to fly back for a few days.
The kids and I spent the first days catching up on some school-work, laundry, and cleaning. We also took some time to relax & play too.
Our first stop in AZ was in Tucson. Thanks to the hospitality of a friend in aviation, we stayed near the airport. There is actually two parts to this park – on either side of Tucson. We visited the west park, because of the great desert museum nearby.
The saguaro cactus is truly amazing. It doesn’t grow it’s first arm until it is almost 50yrs old and can live for 200+ yrs. After a tour of the visitors center, attending a Park Ranger talk, and a short film on Native America cultures in the area, we made our way into the park to hike around.
The next morning, when it was a bit cooler, we visited the Desert Museum and Zoo just south of the park. We arrive just in time to see the “Raptor Free Flight” show which is an awesome display of raptor birds in flight – my photo / video skills didn’t fully capture the coolness factor on this one!
Afterwards we toured the other desert animals, including our new local favorite – the javelinas, which look like a pig and smell like a skunk š They actually are more closely related to hippos than pigs though.
That afternoon we visited some family in the area at a festival celebrating local cultures.
The festival was at a historic family cattle ranch that also had several displays about life in the west.
Getting some travel energy out on an old-school playground at the campground. Pretty sure this is this first time our kids have used a teeter-totter š³
This park is part of the same ancient sea bed and reef as the Carlsbad Caverns. It has a large wilderness area that is recommended as a great place to try out backpacking and multi-day hikes – before you try out larger, more intimidating parks.
While Drew & I enjoy backpacking, most of the hikes were too long for the kiddos. And a cold-front showed up just as we did. Which made for some cool clouds pics of the mountains, but a lil too chilly to hike for very long. We did get to learn about the area at the visitors center and with the Junior Ranger booklet.
50 in 365 