Waterfall Hike With Cindy

Cindy and I went for a lovely hike!  It will probably be our very last Arizona hike because she is moving to Wyoming very soon.  Thank goodness for technology so we can stay in close contact, but it will still be different and lonely.  

Here's the required gas station photo!

She and I have hiked together A LOT over the past 20 years of our friendship, and I'm glad we got the time to enjoy some more Arizona beauty.

We took a vegan picnic!

It was warm (mid 80s, I think), but not hot, so sitting in the shade was delightful.  There was a slight puff of breeze every once in a while, and we could smell the river and the pine trees (juniper pine? piñon/pinyon pine?)  The desert truly has some delightful scents!

I ate a stuffed pepper over rice with a maple lemon tahini dressing (this is one of my very favorite meals!), baked seasoned potato wedges with ketchup, and rice crackers with cashew cheeze).  I also had some dark chocolate chunks for desert.

The river is right there!

Not too hot.

Our plans to hike here had been postponed already once because rain was in the forecast and it's NOT SAFE to hike here if there's any chance of rain at all.  It doesn't rain there that often, but when it does, the water bunches up in the canyons and rushes down at great speed.  Almost all the members of a large family were killed here a few years back, so there are a lot of posted signs about being cautious.

At this time of year there were flowers I haven't seen here before.  It's fun to watch things changes through different seasons.  The low desert (Sonora) has very subtle changes from season to season, so it takes a careful eye to see them.  In the high desert where this hike was (near Payson, Arizona), there are four actual seasons (though they're all pretty mild), so it's easier to see the changes.

I think this is a desert mountain laurel.

No info on the info board!

Here's how our path starts:

Cute little lizard!  He sat still so I could take a picture.

Then the canyon narrows and our path gets steeper.

Up we go!!!

Pretty apricot mallow:

The terrain is quite rocky.

Desert marigold:

Once we rock-hopped across the river, it was smooth, easy going. 
We played a bit in the water.

(Looking at these photos makes me want to go right back there again!)

A cairn means "you're going the right way".

There's the big waterfall!

This log has been there for a long time.

We sat on that log with our feet in the COLD water and watched the tiny fish swim underneath us and the cottonwood puffs float on the surface.

There's a big pool at the base of the waterfall.
I waded over to that circle of rocks and sat in the shallow water for a bit.

We were HAPPY.

Parry's penstemon:

Blackfoot daisy:

Eventually we needed to turn around and come home.

We crossed the river again . . . 

That's where we crossed.  It's not very deep right now,
and in fact one of the waterfalls was completely dry.

I enjoyed the interesting patterns on the water.
There were leaves and cottonwood puffs floating by, making interesting shadows.

We saw the wheel the hike is named after:

What a WONDERFUL precious day with my WONDERFUL precious friend!