Tag Archives: hiking

The Sweet Escape

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Flagstaff walk through the woods

We’re not much for spur of the moment trips these days. When my husband and I were first married, we’d throw a tent and sleeping bags in the car and head to the beach with an hour’s notice. Or head for the ski slopes in Big Bear.

Friday, my husband suggested we escape the heat of the Phoenix area for a quick trip to Flagstaff which is two hours north at an elevation of 7,000 feet. I looked at the temperatures. Low of 44, high of 69. That’s after a week of blistering high 90s and 100 degrees at home.

My favorite hotel chain has a Little America in Flagstaff. Nice rooms. Delicious food. Hiking trails. Pool, jacuzzi, gym. I was sold!

We drove up to the ski resort called Arizona Snowbowl to check it out. People were skiing and snow boarding!

The Little America was my home away from home in Salt Lake City when my daughter was a student athlete at the University of Utah. We visited lots, because we liked to go to swim meets and watch her swim. I also love Salt Lake City, plus the aforementioned Little America. In Salt Lake City they have the fancier Grand America, but I prefer the lowkey atmosphere of the Little America and the lower prices.

Did I mention that the Covey family founded Little America? Britain Covey played football while my daughter swam at the U. Now Britain plays for the Philidelphia Eagles. Besides being a great athlete at only 5’8″ tall as a football player, he is a kind and authentic person. His grandfather, Stephen Covey, is famous for writing “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and owning Franklin Daytimer, which we used in the olden days to keep track of our appointments and schedules.

I wrote about driving to Flagstaff for our anniversary in 2021 and running into a hail storm that damaged our car from bumper to bumper HERE.

Pool at the Little America

This trip was was quiet. Peaceful. We had fabulous meals and took walks in the 500 acres of forest that are part of the hotel property. It was a well needed break from the heat and a great escape for the weekend. The beautiful pool was closed for the season, until it gets warmer, but the jacuzzi was going strong.

Here’s to a spur of the moment trip for an escape from the heat!

Here’s a video of Gwen Stefani. She pops up from time to time on my Hallow App where she has been sharing personal stories of her faith. When my kids were in high school the word “Sweet” was used all the time like “Cool” from my earlier days.

Do you take spur of the moment trips? Where do you like to take quick getaways?

What an email!

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During the weekend, one of my neighbors sent me a snippet from our Nature’s Preserve across the street. We are directly north of the preserve, with a street separating us.

I clicked on the link “Living with Mountain Lions” and this is what it said:

Mountain lions are predators capable of seriously injuring or killing humans. The Arizona Game and Fish Department is committed to helping people learn how to behave responsibly and live safely in proximity to mountain lions, and to removing animals that are a potential threat to the public.

The risk of attack by a mountain lion is small, but real; children are most at risk. Mountain lions may return repeatedly if food, water, or shelter are available. If food, water, and shelter are not available, mountain lions generally move on to other areas more quickly. If you live or recreate in mountain lion country, remain aware of your surroundings and minimize risks to yourself, your family, and pets by following the recommendations referenced on this page.

if you encounter a mountain lion

  • Do not approach the animal. Most mountain lions will try to avoid a confrontation. Give them a way to escape.
  • Stay calm and speak loudly and firmly.
  • Do not run from a mountain lion. Running may stimulate a mountain lion’s instinct to chase.
  • Stand and face the mountain lion. Make eye contact.
  • Appear larger by raising your arms or opening your jacket if you are wearing one. Throw stones, branches, or whatever you can reach without crouching or turning your back. Wave your arms slowly. The idea is to convince the mountain lion that you are not easy prey and that you may be a danger to it.
  • Maintain eye contact and slowly back away toward a building, vehicle, or busy area.
  • Protect small children so they won’t panic and run.
  • Fight back if attacked. Many potential victims have fought back successfully with rocks, sticks, caps, jackets, garden tools, their bare hands, and even mountain bikes. Since a mountain lion usually tries to bite the head or neck, try to remain standing and face the animal.

Report all mountain lion attacks to 911. All mountain lion encounters and attacks, sightings in urban areas, property damage due to mountain lions or possession of a live mountain lion should also be reported to Arizona Game and Fish Department Dispatch 623 236-7201.  Dispatcher is available for your call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Living with Mountain Lions

I will confess while I was sitting outside in my backyard, writing my morning pages, I kept looking over my shoulder. I felt a little nervous, knowing that the fence would not keep a mountain lion out.

While I was putting together this post, I got another email. This one from our HOA president, passing on the same info about numerous Mountain Lion sightings. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not able to go for walks right now.

Then, I opened the front door to check for an Amazon package and this guy ran away!

What surprising emails have you gotten lately?

Do you have Mountain Lions in your area?

Not what I expected…

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Mom and dad geese with goslings.

My husband and I planned a long weekend getaway to Pinetop in the White Mountains of Arizona. It’s a place we’ve never been to before, but now that I’m afraid to drive to the beach resort in Mexico, we’ve decided to explore our new state.

My optometrist told me to stay at a place with small cabins on a lake, complete with fishing and row boats. That sounded perfect to me. We were also going to do lots of hiking in the woods.

Don’t get me wrong, but Pinetop was not what I expected. The cabins on the lake were cute. The views were pretty. But it sat along a busy highway. The entire town was on the highway and looked like an urban sprawl. Big box stores, U Hauls, Safeway, Wendy’s, McDonalds, you get the picture. They did have a bunch of local restaurants and the two we tried were good. I guess off the beaten path where the hiking trails were, we would have found some nature.

But no, my first morning we were walking around the lake on a trail. There were two guys sitting on the trail in their folding chairs fishing. One guy had two dogs who growled at me. I walked around them on a steep gravel bank and bam! I went down feeling my ankle twisted and crunching beneath me.

I needed help from my husband to get up and walk gingerly back to the cabin. I spent that day and the next with my foot elevated and iced. Finally I said,”Can we go home?” Husband agreed. He was not enjoying sitting in a cabin for a long weekend — or leaving me alone.

Here are some photos I took with my iphone before I fell and sprained my ankle. I didn’t feel up to using my Nikon after the fall.

A mallard begging for handouts.

Goslings! One mom and pop had 12!

View from inside the cabin.

The deck of our cabin.

This was one of the original cabins built in the 1930s.

The interior.

Cozy and cute, but there’s no place like home.

Have you had a vacation or weekend when things did not go your way?
If so, what happened?

Wordless Wednesday

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Not completely wordless Wednesday. These are photos from the McDowell Sonoran Preserve from our Sunday hike. We’ve had rainy weather which means lots of green grass and plants.

I liked this hawk watching us from atop a saguaro. Here’s more info about Saguaros. I’m trying to guess the age of the ones in my photos.

Saguaro Growth

The saguaro cactus is the largest cactus in the United States. The saguaro cactus grows as a column at a very slow rate, with all growth occurring at the tip, or top of the cactus. It can take 10 years for a saguaro cactus to reach 1 inch in height, but these mighty cacti eventually grow to reach an average height of 40 feet, and the tallest saguaro ever measured towered over 78 feet into the air! By 70 years of age, a saguaro cactus can reach 6 and a half feet tall, and will finally start to produce their first flowers. By 95-100 years in age, a saguaro cactus can reach a height of 15-16 feet, and could start to produce its first arm. By 200 years old, the saguaro cactus has reached its full height, reaching upwards of 45 feet tall. Some saguaros have been seen with dozens of arms, while other cactus never produce a single one. Why this happens remains one of the desert’s mysteries.

https://www.nps.gov/orpi/learn/nature/saguaro-cactus.htm

Where are your favorite places to takes walks or hikes?

Does anyone have a guess to the ages of these saguaros?

A glorious visit

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A page from my parents wedding album given to me by my aunt who visited last week. Mom and Dad were 23!

A strange thing happened during my aunt’s visit. I glanced over at the sofa and Olive the cat was sitting next to my aunt licking her fingers! Now this is a first. Olive has never let a guest touch her or vice versa. Olive does sleep with my daughter, but that doesn’t count because she was my daughter’s cat until college took my daughter away.

My aunt and I did most of the things on my list and we found ourselves very compatible. We both got hungry at the same time, wanted quiet time in the afternoons to ourselves and went to bed early to read. Having a house guest doesn’t get much better than that!

It cooled down considerably, we lit the outdoor fireplace and cooked s’mores. We hiked in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. We went to the farmer’s market in Carefree and explored consignment stores in Cave Creek. We had some delicious lunches and dinners out, plus I cooked. We visited the Musical Instrument Museum and to my delight, they changed up a few exhibits so there were new things for me to enjoy.

You might wonder what would be exciting about visiting a museum of musical instruments.

From the MIM, here’s the Artists’s Gallery experience:

ARTIST GALLERY

Celebrate music’s most influential artists.

In every time and place, there are musicians whose art deeply touches the lives of many. MIM’s Artist Gallery highlights these personalities with ever-changing exhibits that span sound, style, and era. Through generous partnerships, MIM features historic instruments owned, played, and loved by the musicians who have created a shared soundtrack to our lives for generations.

Nearly 40 displays showcase instruments and artifacts from some of the greatest musicians in the world. See and hear instruments played by icons such as Elvis Presley®, Tito Puente, the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, Roberta Flack, Glen Campbell, Joan Baez, Maroon 5, and many others.

https://mim.org/artist-gallery/#

The exhibits not only have the artists’s grammy awards, gold records, costumes and instruments, they have a large screen that plays selections of their songs on the headsets you wear. I think my favorite was “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison. On display is his hand written lyrics on a yellow legal pad. So not only do you get to sing along with Roy, you get to see how he wrote it, along with a photo of him and his pretty woman. There are many other galleries from all over the world. I haven’t touched the whole of MIM yet.

Here are a few photos from my aunt’s visit:

What is your idea of a perfect house guest? What do you like to do when entertaining company?

All my plans

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View of our pool from my gravity recliner.

I had so many plans for this week. Oh well. Life doesn’t always work out as planned.

Here’s what I was excited to do this week before Covid hit:

It is finally be warm enough to get back into the pool. I made lap swimming reservations at the YMCA for this week after it was too cold to swim for months.

I was going to a driving range by myself or with a friend.

I wanted to hike the trails across the street because wildflowers are in bloom.

I got a call from the City of Scottsdale that I got bumped off the waiting list of three months for pickleball lessons today. They had a coveted spot for me.

I was going to a Casino Night fundraiser for the Dream Center which is a residential facility for trafficked girls and boys. I wrote about it HERE.

My husband and I would resume our daily walks morning and night.

I realize it’s not the end of the world that my plans changed. I’m content to sit in the backyard for a few minutes and enjoy the warm sun. Next week, I may feel stronger and be able to enjoy a few of the activities on my list, if not all of them. Notice most of my activities had to do with good weather, sunshine and moving outside?

What are you excited to do because Spring is in the air?

On the trails again!

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That’s me standing next to a giant Saguaro that must be several hundred years old — at least.

Sunday morning we woke without plans except to go for a walk. I suggested going out on the hiking trails at the preserve across the street. It’s been a while since we’ve been out there. That’s because the weather has been literally freezing cold with strong winds.

It was a perfect temperature Sunday, around 60 degrees with clouds in the sky to block our strong sun. I can’t express my joy at getting out of the house, being in the middle of nature. We’ll try to get out on the trails twice a week until it’s too hot and snakes come out.

Here are photos from Sunday’s hike:

McDowell Sonoran Preserve trails.

A view of a saguaro framed by two distant mountains. Staghorn cactus in the foreground.

Green grass in the desert.

I couldn’t believe how green it was. Grass was everywhere thanks to our rainy days.

Yucca with a bloom

I think this is a Soaptree Yucca.

McDowell Sonoran Preserve trail signs

The McDowell Sonoran Preserve has signs everywhere so you can’t get lost. They are numbered so if you need help, you can call and tell someone what number sign you’re near.

Saguaros in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve

I wanted a picture of my husband. This was all he agreed to.

Harris hawks on Saguaros

We spotted two Harris Hawks checking us out at the top of two Saguaros near the end of our hike.

The trailhead starts and ends near Power Line Trail. Notice the Harris Hawks followed us back to the end of the trail.

When I got home, I stood in our freezing cold pool for as long as I could, then elevated my legs on the gravity recliner and watched the birds in our backyard.

P.S. I changed my avatar photo. My old one was at least nine years old when I started this blog. I felt it was time to update it. The new photo is from last Christmas.

What were the highlights of your weekend?