It’s sadly been a few years since I tied on my trusty Danner boots and went for a long hike with some elevation gain. A few bouts of hip bursitis in the past few years had me very demoralized when it came to hiking. But, belly dance seems to have really helped my hip and back pain; so with all this fantastic weather we’ve been having and a weekday off from work, it was time to hit the trail, and I got my hiking-legs back with a simple 9 mile loop at Sabino Canyon.
Here’s my mom, with a Perry Penstemon in the foreground. My dad sprinted ahead and we didn’t see him for 4 miles; but then he’s a former marathon runner who moves at quite a clip so little surprise there.
For those of you who don’t live in the desert, you may think it odd to be excited over the sight of a few wildflowers. For us Sonoran desert dwelling outdoorsy types, though, it’s really exciting; usually the landscape is very stark and austere, and when after a heavy rainy season a few flowers manage to sprout up out of…..nothing….it’s quite remarkable.
Here are some Desert poppies, a Star Flower, something that might be verbena and the leafy beginnings of some lupine growing along the trail:
This is the view looking back towards Tucson; the trail we’re on is behind us, on the left, and below you can see the canyon bottom, full of running water from snowmelt and the direction in which we were headed:
Across the canyon there are very alarming scars along the steep sides of the mountains: this is the terrible damage done by floods and rock slides that destroyed much of Sabino Canyon after the catastrophic Aspen Fire of 2003.
Here’s my folks; my dad looks like he’s puckering, but, it’s the only photo I have of them from today, which I took when we stopped for lunch:
Isn’t that green cottonwood amazing? It really is that green with the first new leafy growth of spring. And the sky is really that blue.
Here’s all the water along the canyon bottom:
With all the snow in the mountains, there will probably be water around when it’s warm enough to swim; but those days will be few, and when it’s really hot enough to hop in the water, it will be long gone, leaving behind just rock and sand.
