We went for another hike on Saturday and it was gorgeous and fun!
We decided on Canyon Lake.
Can you believe we've lived within an hour's drive of it for 20+ years and we've never been there?!
It's just scrub land and it looks abandoned, but one day I saw people golfing there and was quite surprised to discover it's a course!
Headed in the right direction!
We didn't stop here . . .
We drove into the Tonto National Forest.
We came over a hill and around a bend and there it was:
Canyon Lake!
It's crazy that the water comes right up to desert and Saguaro and pinkish rocks.
We found a place to park, right over the one-way bridge,
and immediately started exploring.
The bluish mountains way off in the distance are Four Peaks.
There was beautiful lichen growing all over the rocks.
I was happy!
There were a bunch of mudhens in the water making cute little sounds.
Behind Greg and to the right you can see the one-way bridge.
There's a steamboat ride that goes around the edges of the lake.
We enjoyed the rocks and whatever it was that was streaked through them.
This lichen looked like broccoli!
who was taking a photo of me!
There was an abandoned pair of pants lying on the rocks, all wet.
I decided to leave it there (it wasn't my size - ha!)
Right across the road from our parking area was the place we started climbing.
It's not an official trail and there weren't any signs.
Even the trail was a bit iffy. We just sort of followed some written directions and it ended up great!
Up I go!
And up comes Greg!
The rocks up here were really cool, too!
We went up a little bit to a semi-flat area.
I climbed over a ridge and discovered another leg of the lake!
After Greg re-read the directions, we were supposed to head in the other direction, so I turned around,
but not before checking in this hole!
I didn't see any bats or bears.
Greg pointed out the way to our next goal,
so I clambered on up in that direction!
Greg was brave and manly!
The view was glorious.
See Greg coming up the ridge?
And you can see both parts of the lake from here,
as well as the road and the one-way bridge.
Greg stood on the ridge and did a couple of really cool panorama shots.
Click here to see the panorama Greg made; even better, check it out on your phone.
If you're looking at it on your phone, it's extra super cool because as you tilt your phone, you look at different parts of the panorama. Don't forget to make it full-screen size and look up into the sky and down at your feet, too! There's a bonus appearance of me in there, by the way - can you find me?
It's really super extra duper wowee zowee cool!
This was the highest we climbed.
There's a peak up higher, and maybe next time we'll go up there, but from what we read, the view isn't any better from up there.
We are still being cautious with me, so we didn't push it.
Here's a video I made where we stopped:
We think this cairn (pile of rocks marking a path)
is probably the signal that we found the end point of this particular hike.
The cairn blends right into the rocks, but it's there!
Then we headed down again.
Part of our descent was a bit steep, so I scooted down on my tush.
I saw some adorable little baby succulents behind a rock.
There I go down the ridge!
Here comes Greg down the ridge!
See you next time, cute little quiet corner of the lake!
Four Peaks got grayer as the day went on.
I slipped a bit and fell knee down in the rubble, so I got some "memories" from this hike.
We found another hole on the way down . . . this one looked more menacing because it was long and windy and deep, so we couldn't see in very far.
I would think perhaps a small Gila Monster or a ring-tailed cat might use this as a home.
Look! We made it back to Cubie!
The road home was lovely and winding.
What a wonderful day!
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