spring hiking

by Shawni June 21, 2016

June 21, 2016

Ok, now we are home and I still didn’t post this, but here we go, get ready for lots of posts after this… better late than never…

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Hello from London where we are visiting my sister.

Oh boy, do I ever have a lot to catch up on here, but we are sure living it up soaking in this family of mine with super minimal internet service (thank you to all you sweethearts who have been reaching out wondering if we’re ok, I appreciate the kindness, we are doing pretty great).

I was telling Dave the other day how much I love not only the traveling part of what we are doing, but having all of us disconnected. There’s something so good for the soul in that I think. I need to figure out how to do it more when we get home instead of letting us all borough back into technology.

I meant to schedule this to post before we left, but I didn’t. So here we go. Lots more when we get home.

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Now that we have reached the 100 degree temps here in the desert, our spring hiking spree has come to a halt.

Well, that and graduation hoopla that has about done me in.

I can’t even talk about it yet, not ready, so I’m talking about hiking instead.

We took some cool new hikes in April.

This one was called the “Wave Cave:”

Pretty cool right?

I can’t get enough of saguaro cacti (as you can tell), and I thought that one up there was particularly wild.

Did you know it can take TEN years for a baby saguaro to grow one inch??

It’s true.

It takes about 75 years to reach 6 feet high and at around 100 years they start to grow arms.

Yes, there are some old suckers around these parts.

Another day we went on this one:

I know, the scenery is starting to look kind of similar, right?

It’s all pretty gorgeous to me.

I wonder if my love of desert scenery was acquired. I think I loved it from the start, but I think I probably grow more in love with it every year.

My hiking friend and I didn’t get any pictures of us this day, but we did take one for a few ladies hiking together who requested it.

After we handed back the camera they said something like “not bad for 70-year-olds” as they kind of laughed to themselves.

It took us a minute to register that and when we did my friend and I looked at each other in amazement. Wait, did they just say they were 70-years-old?

By then it was too late to ask, but we happened to cross paths with them again at the top and tried to figure out their secrets. They looked amazing. I wonder if I can still look that good when I’m 70 if I just keep hiking? HA!

We saw that little critter who let us get all up close and personal.

The next hike was here:

…and it was a little steeper.

I love the warning signs before we began.

Wait, let’s get a better look at that:

There we go.

I can’t do double-black-diamond ski hills but we conquered this one:)

…and found another little friend en route back down.

I’m sad to say that I think I’ll be waiting for more hikes until Fall at this point, since from what we understand it was 117 degrees last week.

We were in a rainstorm in Switzerland which made us kind of happy.

Now that is some kind of beauty I tell you!

Shawni

another FLIPS performance

5 comments

Kerstin June 21, 2016 - 2:43 pm

A rainstorm made you kind of happy? That is ONLY because you don't have to endure them daily and not have spring or summer (and I'm exaggerating only slightly)!

Kourtney M June 21, 2016 - 2:50 pm

Yay, can't wait for all of your travel posts and photography! Missed your posts lately! I got the chance to hike Camelback a few months ago also, and I fell in love with the desert while we were out there.

Kourtney @ http://www.themartinsandthemarines.com

Tracy June 22, 2016 - 1:55 pm

You live in such a beautiful area! I love your hike pictures and often wondered about the wild life. Those couple of critters wouldn't bother me too much but do you worry about more dangerous animals when you're out hiking those long distances?

Robin June 22, 2016 - 6:41 pm

Did you see the article about the young guy who was attacked by a swarm of bees at Usery Park? He ended up dying from all of the stings. My family loves hiking there (and I know you do too) so I am feeling quite conflicted about going back. So tragic.

Eyrealm June 25, 2016 - 4:29 am

Beauty like no other!

spring hiking

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