Settling into Tucson and hiking

Saguaro cactus 

We are slowly settling into Tucson and the area.  The weather is pretty typical high desert, cool, crispy mornings and warm afternoons.  It seems that the more than 'usual' rain has, at least, lessened which is nice. We are enjoying the weather, but anxious for a bit more heat in the days!  I know, I'll probably regret that statement in a few months.

Now that we're done with the 'big' traveling for a while, we're working out just what to do with our days.  The park we are in has tons of activities to keep one occupied.  The craft of working with gourds, wood working/burning, quilting and other sewing projects, pottery, pine needle baskets, yoga, tai chi, bike groups, hiking groups, bingo, bocci ball, and many more activities can be scheduled for your day.  Or not.

We're attempting to do a 'rig' project every day, even if it's just sweeping the floor.  We've gotten a few items checked off of our list of repairs.  I'm attending one of the stretch and toning classes a couple of days a week, and going with the hiking group on Thursdays.  I'm pretty pleased with myself, as this past week our 3-4 mile, 200' elevation hike was changed to a 6.4 mile hike with about 1200' elevation!  Next week I'll have to start packing the second water bottle in case the route is changed again.

The hiker looking for petroglyphs on both sides of the canyon.

This hike, like the others, is local and about 30 minutes drive to the trail head of the Gould Mine.  It seems that most things in town are about 30 minutes away!

The bonus on this hike was the part of the hike that went up a wash to a canyon.  Both sides of the canyon had petroglyphs all over the rocks.

A close up of the art on the stones

It was interesting that these are not fenced off, or protected in any way.  Granted, many of them are truly out of reach.  Which leads to the age old question of how the indians got up there to scratch or paint them into the stones anyway!

The group split at this point, several returning to the trailhead, while the rest of us continued to the top of the saddle to look over the valley.

The view looking west from the peak of our hike.

There are small signs that the desert is preparing to bloom.  We've still got a few weeks to wait, but I'm sure it will be stunning.