Tarantula Hike

Juildeen and I went for another hike on Saturday.  We went to the San Tan Mountains Regional Park and hiked the Dynamite Trail.  Nothing blew up!

A man found a Horny Toad and picked it up for Juildeen to pet.  

She wasn't sure about it, but she did it anyway!

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There was a lot of little baby green tender grass thanks to all the rain lately.

And the sky was a BEAUTIFUL brilliant blue with wispy clouds.  We don't usually have clouds here (unless it's monsoon season), so I enjoyed watching them drift serenely across the sky.

Juildeen is tiny compared to this huge Saguaro!

This cholla was dead, but really cool-looking.

This trail was labeled as being hazardous and extremely steep, but it really wasn't.  I have been on a lot more difficult and steep trails that weren't labeled at all.  But I guess this particular park is highly traveled by families and people who don't hike a lot.

When we got to the first plateau, Juildeen said, "The sky!"

She told me to take a picture of the town down below.

I was happy.

And then I got EVEN HAPPIER because I saw the second coolest thing I have ever seen while on a hike!

A TARANTULA! 

He was amazing!
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Just crawling along in the midst of a huge mass of hikers (the Saturday after Thanksgiving is when everyone in Arizona takes their kids and families hiking - lots of people from the midwest are in town, so everyone wants to show off how beautiful our state is!)

 We had our picnic on top of the mountain.  Juildeen declared, "We're having a picnic on top of the world!"

And then she stood on the highest part (it's not as much of a drop-off as it looks, and it's not that much higher than the immediately surrounding land - I wouldn't let her do anything crazy) and posed for pictures!

Wish you were here!