Snowy Mountains even near Phoenix!

It's the last day of February and the skies are clear and blue. But that was not the case over the weekend. Saturday the clouds rolled in and by evening, the rain began. We got only half an inch and by Sunday morning, the skies had cleared but the temperatures had plummeted - the high was only 54F on Sunday. All around the greater Phoenix area are mountains - we are called the "Valley of the Sun". Because of the rain and cold, these mountains were snow covered from about 3000' elevation. It was a beautiful sight against the clear azure blue skies! When we began our hike this morning, we drove toward some of those mountains on the east side of the valley - the Superstition Mountains. We hiked to the Massacre Grounds where miners were killed by the Apache many years ago.

.We had to hike from the First Water Trailhead because this parking area was closed. We will head to that conical peak below the snow covered mountains and then on to the cliff where a massacre took place long ago

Getting closer to that conical peak

Looking at the Four Peaks - snow covered in the distance

An interesting balanced rock

These are the cliffs up against which the Apache chased Mexican miners and massacred them in the mid 1800s. The miners were trapped against the cliffs and could go no further. We stop here for a snack and return to the car on the same trail - a total of 4 miles and 600' of elevation.

Hieroglyphic Trail

Our Friday hiking group is doing a trail we have hiked recently with another group, so Jack an I decided to do our own hike on the Hieroglyphic Trail in the Superstition Mountains. The trail is rated an easy one but there is more rock ahead and some climbing. The trail is 3.3 miles RT and has an elevation is 570'. At the top of the canyon we will look for the petroglyphs on the rock.

The trail goes up to and around the ridge ahead where we'll find the petroglyphs.

This is a very old saguaro because it has so many arms.

At the top of the canyon were 4 large pools and several small pools in depressions in the water-smoothed granite. In this protected area, ancient Hohokam Indians etched over 150 petroglyphs on the rock. We ate our lunch here after we had scrambled around the rocks and explored the area.

Some of the petroglyphs we saw at the pools area. They were etched on the rocks by the Hohokam people around 800 years ago.

Cholla garden on the return trip.

Nursing School Reunion

In 1967 and 68, three young ladies graduated from Blodgett Hospital School of Nusing. This evening, Carlene (Grit) Hoeksema and her husband Gary, Carol (Seggelink) Berends and her husband Pastor John and myself Mary (Start) Jagt and Jack, got together for dinner in our RV. We spent a lot of time reminescing and enjoying each other's company. Great fun!

Piestewa Peak Hike

On Monday morning, there was a meeting with the Canadian Snowbirds Association that we felt we should go to, so we skipped the usual group hike. We learned about how long we can be in the US as visitors before our status is questioned and we may be told to pay taxes here or to be unable to return to the US until the year has ended. We also learned about our health care coverage and how that is affected by being out of Ontario for extended periods of time.
We decided to go for our own hike this afternoon. Phoenix Mountain Park is in north central Phoenix and Piestewa Peak is the go-to place for city people to get in a good hike. Today is President's Day so the park is busy. Piestewa used to be known as Squaw Peak but that is not politically correct language nowdays so it was renamed after the first Arizona woman killed in Iraq.

This is Piestewa Peak - we will hike up to the saddle on the right, then around the back of the mountain, up to the second saddle and around to the front again.

We hike around the side of the mountain and up to this saddle.

The climb up is pretty rough and steep.

The view from the top of the saddle - Highway #51 is in the distance

The rocks are must rougher and more jagged on this side of the mountain

Around the back of the mountain we get a peak at downtown Phoenix and South Mountain in the distance.

Looking back at the switchbacks we have climbed to get up the the second saddle .......

....... and back down to the parking lot - a total of 3.8 miles and 800' in elevation gain - a good workout!