Wildflower Walk at Pass Mountain #283 at Meridan Road

This time we went the right way!!!  There was a cairn to show us how to go up the wash, but it was hard to see because it blended right into the mountain.  What was really awesome, was that the wildflowers are blooming and are AMAZING!  All of these flowers were found IN THE DESERT!  My favorite ones are the purple cactus flowers!  YAY

 

The trail was VERY pretty.  And the dogs enjoyed off leash time!

BUT there was a little too much off leash time because after about 20 minutes into our hike, guess what happened...

Any resemblance to one of INFPeg's dogs is purely coincidental

 All I heard was yelping and I turned to see a cactus shaking....SIGH.  When the dog emerged from the fight, he had like 15 cactus spines in his lip and chin.  And WERD I couldn't get them out.  So we turned around and went home and for about an hour I was pulling cactus out of Buddy's lips with pliers.  Let me assure you, neither one of us found this activity rewarding.  But all is well now.  He is fine and back to his old "curiosity killed the canine" ways.  I always hope he can learn to not play in the cacti but...I may have to limit off leash time when there are lots of spines around.

Spook Hill - Brown Road Mesa

This is the cool little hill on Brown Road on the way to see the boys.  The dogs and I finally decided to explore it, since we were running out of daylight.  We were going to try to hike Camelback but it was so crowded that we decided not to!  It was a nice little hike one or two miles long.  Nice moderate workout...but no off leash time.

 There were quite a few peeps on the hill, some doing some "hill running" (man...werd...that is oo rah?).  The trail was really pretty, rocky and steep.  It had all sorts of flowers and cool bushes and rocks.

The Trail

Good thing for the Pness it was a short and easy to follow trail.  There was even a view to the ever so helpful mountain with the "Phoenix that way" arrow on it.  I couldn't have gotten lost if I tried! (I could have fallen off the mountain though...but that didn't happen either!!!)

Phoenix <----That way!

Cliff Picture:  INFP did NOT fall down! Yay!!!

The hill was steep enough to get us high enough to enjoy the valley as the sun set.  I was lucky to watch such a gorgeous sunset at such a spot!  It was BEAUTIMUS!!!!

Red Rock Mountain is on the right

Not quite to the top yet

Blazing!

Yikes, those houses are close together!

Sky On Fire!

All in all it was an awesome little hike!!

Pass Mountain #283 at Meridan Road

Ah yes, the words "trail finding" and INFPeg are only uttered in the same sentence when something goes VERY wrong.  BUT, I was a very good INFP and turned around when I realized the original route was out of reach today.  Besides, we were trying out the new hydration pack:

And I realized that the hydration nozzle thing is really hard to get water out of so giving the dogs a quick drink became quite the endeavor.  Therefore, turning around and going back to get our "old fashioned" water bottle (some old plastic container with a lid..I think it held honey) was the right decision.  The hydration pack is neat for me though!!! With that and the dogs bottle, there should be plenty of water for our hikes.


OK!  We were going to explore the Pass Mountain trail which is part of Usery Park in AJ/Mesa.  I was looking for a quick route and thought we would trek up to Cat Peaks for a nice little hike.  I certainly didn't want to fall again :)  My knee is almost better but it is still tender.  I was a little surprised that there were so many cars at the trail head, there must have been about 7 or 8.  It was pretty warm, in the upper 80's.  That being said, the trail was pretty empty and the dogs had pletny of off leash time!
Here is the trail head.

Foxy ran off right away with her leash still attached and Buddy was fit to be tied because he wasn't running around with her.  So I quickly off-ed the leashes.

Anybody find any horse poop yet???

The hike wasn't very long, due to lack of INFP navigational skills but the views were breath taking even in the short distance we traveled.

This is my favorite pic

At the fork in the trail

Cool Cactus

Mountains

The Wash at The Fork

We quickly came upon what I imagine was the first of many neat washes.  Unfortunately, this was where I lost the trail.  What is super hilarious though, is Buddy didn't lose the trail for a second.  Now that I look more closely at the satellite map, I can see that where Buddy was headed was the trail!!!  I even told him he was going the wrong way.  Here is the video :)

 Wrong Way Beesley  

It was all good though!  This trail was so empty that the way back was also "leash free".  YAY!

Here comes the dog!!!

Foxy finds some shade

Bye Bye Usery Pass!

Hieroglyphic Trail #101

Finally!  A trail that we finished before sunset!  The Hieroglyphic Trail is a very heavily used trail that ends with a pool, waterfall, and hieroglyphics on the rocks from the Hohokam Tribe.  It is a very neat trail spot with awesome views of the Stitions. 

Trail head

The trail is *VERY* heavily used, at least on the Sunday we went.  This was less than ideal on a hike with the dogs, so there was no "off leash time".  They still had fun though.

Buddy contemplates the route

Foxy stops to take in the spectacular view

The trail started out very easy, the whole trail was much easier than the ones in Lost Dutchman Park, as far as getting out of breath, but is is pretty rocky so watch your step!  Here are some pictures of the trail on the way up.

 There were lots of neat things about this hike:  cacti, views, flowers, pool, and hieroglyphics.  So I will show them in that order.

There were a ton of really tall majestic saguaro cacti.

This cactus had to be about 50 feet tall...it was incredible!

TWHS

 The views of the Superstitions were incredible too.

The back side of the 'Stitions

More back side

Inside the 'Stitions

Cool Views!

 The wild flowers are just starting to bloom, I can't wait to take the dogs on some wild flower hikes.

There were a lot of flowers on the trail!

I loved this white flower

After hiking for about an hour or so, we finally came up to the "main attraction" of the hike:  the pool and hieroglyphics.  This would have been awesome if there hadn't been so many people there...it was hard to move and get close to things but it was still cool.  The stream was flowing and there were lots of kids playing in the water.

There is also a really cool "mini-cave" that the dogs and I hung out in.

View out of the cave

Buddy inside the cave

 The main attraction for me though was seeing the Hieroglyphics!

Goats!

More Goats!

Goats...in the cave??

Here is the whole rock..there is a balloon guy too

Uh....the Indians learned English???

The dogs and I didn't hang out too much at the hole/cave.  It was just too crowded so we headed back and made it in time way before sunset.  However, INFPeg fell down once again on the way back.  I stepped on a rock wrong.  It has been a week and my knee is still sore.  SIGH

The END!!!