saguaro cactus | Travel USA

After several days of cool, cloudy weather in Mesa, Arizona, it finally warmed up. We packed a picnic lunch one morning and drove north to McDowell Mountain Regional Park near Fountain Hills, Arizona. The recent and frequent rainfall over the winter made a perfect environment for a great season of wildflowers. On our drive there, the sides of the road were awash in color.

We stopped at the Visitors’ Center where we ate our lunch outside in a picnic area. Inside the Center, we saw some live rattlesnakes, and picked up some literature about wildflower species.

The Ranger at the gate suggested the North Trail hike for spotting the most wildflowers. It was supposed to be an easy hike. We planned to just walk a short way to get some photos.

At one point I turned and looked back and saw a beautiful view of the Four Peaks.

On our way, we met some people who told us there were fields of poppies about a half mile to a mile down the trail. What we didn’t realize is that the trail splits and makes a loop. We took the trail to the right, but the fields of poppies were on the trail to the left.

The trail splits, but we go to the right.

We kept going, thinking the fields of poppies might be around the next bend.

On our walk we saw a variety of wildflowers and desert plants in bloom.

Brittlebush, the little sunflowers of the Arizona desert

The views of cacti and distant mountains were beautiful, but by now we were starting to get hot and thirsty.

We finally saw some yellow flowers, but they were not poppies. Could the people we met on the trail possibly have mistaken these yellow flowers for poppies? It seemed unlikely. But we’d already gone past the one mile marker. The path started to get steeper.

After walking more than a mile, we finally found a few poppies, but no fields of them. By now we were wishing that we’d worn a hat and had brought along some water. We decided it was time to turn back.

Not being satisfied with the amount of wildflowers we had seen on our walk, I was hoping to get more photos on our drive out of the park. I was not disappointed.

We stopped along the road in several places.

Finally, Ray spotted some poppies. I got out to get a better look and get some photos.

Knowing how quickly flowers can bloom and fade, I do not blame the Ranger for sending us off on a wild goose chase. If we had taken the correct pathway, we might have seen the fields of poppies described by the people we met on the trail. But it was not a total loss. We saw more flowers on our way out of the park than we saw on our hike.

The flowers lined the road as we headed home. In the distance was Weaver’s Needle in the Superstition Mountains. It had been a successful day of wildflower hunting and photography.

“And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you, O men of little faith?” Matthew 6:30

October, 2020

By October, we were in northern Arizona headed south to warmer weather where we would spend the winter. We stayed a couple of days in Waweep RV Park which is just south of the Utah/Arizona border near Page, AZ. Our cell phones were constantly confused about the time since Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings time and Utah does. The campground was very nice with the campsites spaced out nicely. We could look out our windows and see the mountains and Lake Powell.

Our campsite at Waweep RV Park near Page, Arizona.

My morning walk down the path to Lake Powell.

A nice pathway winds through the campground and down to the lake. I took a walk one morning and just enjoyed the beauty of the rocks, mountains and water. Each evening we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

One of the items on my bucket list was to visit Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River. It just so happened it was only a few miles away from our campground. Although it is on Indian land, it is accessible to the public. There is, however, a $10 charge to park. The trail is paved and there are a couple of shaded benches along the way. We were warned to take water with us since it can get quite hot and the hike is a 1.5 mile round trip. The hike is a gradual downhill walk. At the lookout, there are guardrails along the edge. It was quite an experience looking down a 1,000 foot drop. Down below I could see tiny figures that I realized were people kayaking on the river. My cell phone wasn’t able to get the whole view, but fortunately I brought along two other cameras that had wide-angle lenses that were able to capture the entire view. Even then, it was impossible to get the entire view in one shot. I did some research and found that timing is important. If you get there too early or too late in the day, the canyon is in shadow, so I made sure I timed it just right.

Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River near Page, Arizona.

It’s a 1,000 foot drop to the canyon floor below.

APACHE JUNCTION, AZ

Although it was October, the temperatures were still in the 90’s. We headed to Apache Junction (near Mesa, AZ) to stay in one of our Thousand Trail Encore parks. While we were there, we took a day trip to Canyon Lake.

Along Highway 88 from Apache Junction to Canyon Lake was a pull out with a trail to Weaver’s Needle, a rock spire in the Superstition Mountains. I hiked to the end of the trail hoping to get a photo of the needle. I was disappointed that I could only see the tip of the needle in the far distance. A zoom lens helped me get a little closer look.

Path to Weaver’s Needle falls short of a good view.

There is a legend that the shadow of Weaver’s Needle points to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine at a particular time of year.

Even with a zoom lens, Weaver’s Needle is barely visible.

Apache Junction sits at the foot of the beautiful Superstition Mountains. The mountain faces west, so as the sun sets, the mountain reflects the colors of the sunset. There’s a state park there now—Lost Dutchman State Park—with hiking trails. One day I hiked on one of the trails to get some photos of the mountain and the desert.