Spur Cross Hike

I had a great breakfast before heading out for a lovely hike with Cindy!

Cream of buckwheat with raisins, cinnamon, and sugar.

Allistair wanted me to stay . . .

 Stephen was so relaxed that his tongue wouldn't stay in his mouth!

It was chilly - 32!

It was a bit of a drive (this trail is in Cave Creek), and once we got there, it wasn't as chilly anymore.

Most of the day it was in the 50s.

Ocotillo, all green and happy: 

Cactus carcass:

Cindy and me!

 The winter sky in Arizona is a gorgeous clear blue:

We even wandered through an

"important bird area" (whatever that is!)

There was a grove of Ironwood trees.

And many, many saguaros.

We took the Towhee trail, which was just a little verdant loop off the main Metate trail.

We saw mistletoe growing in the trees!

Sometimes the trail was delineated by branches along the bottom of a wash.

More dead cacti:

 The saguaro in this area have more arms than almost any I've ever seen!

We sat down for lunch on a little ledge overlooking this colorful wash:

And after lunch, we discovered that the Cave Creek Spur Cross Regional Park trail turned into the Tonto National Forest trail!

And about there is where the dirt started to turn red.

And that's when we turned around so we wouldn't have to come home in bad rush hour traffic.

Beautiful!