Usuary Mountain Park

Our friend Gerry TerHaar is planning to hike the Inca Trail in Peru in June after he does 2 weeks of volunteer work for Wycliffe Bible Translators. He wants to train and prepare for this strenuous hike so we are happy to go with him on hikes around the Phoenix area. On Wednesday, March 31, we went to Usuary Mountain Park to hike the Wind Cave Trail. This is a 4 mile in and out hike with about 1200' of elevation gain. The desert flowers were at the peak of their bloom and it was a wonderful sight as we hiked along the trail. I don't know all the names but the yellow Mexican poppies are beautiful as well as the purple lupines, red chuparose, pink flowers on the barrel cacti and the pink pestemon and yellow flowers on the palo verde. We love this kind of exploration and challenge. When we began our hike at 8am the temperature was a plesent 55F but it quickly warms up and by the time we returned to the car it was 85F! We always take lots of water to drink.