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!!