Our First Hike in the Desert

This weekend we went on our first hike since we moved to Arizona. It is definitely a different experience hiking through saguaro cactus and lizards than it is hiking through pine trees and squirrels, but still very beautiful and fun. We got going pretty early so that we could beat the heat. Fortunately it was a cooler day, only a high of 95. There are several different mountains around these parts, but we decided to start with the ones closest to use, the White Tanks. Christian is really good at picking fun trails. 

Along this trail we saw petroglyphs. Can you tell James was very impressed?

There were a whole bunch of stone steps which Kate immediately declared were the steps to Merida's castle. 

 

There was a 'waterfall' that was rather dry aside from the small, green pool at the bottom. 

There were also lots of big boulders to climb on.

I've been trying to get better at remembering to take pictures of myself as well as the kids.

 The view was amazing. I don't think this picture really does it justice.

At the end of the hike, the kids were rewarded with a nice, shaded playground right across from the trail head. 

We'll probably be taking a couple month hiatus from hiking until summer is over, but come fall I think we'll be exploring these mountains quite a bit more.