After the day before we are still tired so we decide on a short hike on a State Trust Land section we have visited a few times before. It is nice flat walking there are geocaches to find and there are always interesting birds or wildlife to see. This time we enjoy the hike so much that from the short four mile maximum hike in the end our track shows eight miles, quite a difference.
The only thing we don’t like about this area is the number of homeless camps. Many of them are abandoned but we find at least one that is active and he closed nearby trails by blocking them with branches, quite annoying.
There are lots of birds out today, we enjoy the antics of a Gilded Flicker that is likely building a nest in a saguaro and is trying to hide from us inside. The effect is lost when she peers from inside the nest hole attentively at us.
The morning doves here or at least the one we see are not that shy. They really stay close to the trail without flying for quite some time allowing some good photos as we pass by.
The desert is beautiful and green today, there are Mexican Poppies even here. It seems quite early in the season but we enjoy seeing them of course.
As we walk there is always an opportunity to find some interesting things left in the desert. Sometimes there are cars, car parts or other mechanical and electrical objects that were thrown on the public lands and sometimes we cannot even discern what they are.
Continuing from cache to cache through the desert we also birdwatch and notice a flash of red in the air. We follow it and find a beautiful vermillion flycatcher perched on top of a creosote bush.
The caches themselves are easy to find, most of them at least. Some are quite interesting hidden and a couple are large with some good objects to exchange.
I don’t think we even passed through this area without seeing at least a cow and here we find an entire herd. They are watching us carefully so we decide to avoid them as much as possible and the encounter goes flawless. Stressed out we take a lunch break afterwards and when we look again the cows are gone.
There is actually a lot more wildlife out today than we usually see, we haven’t ever seen a round-tailed ground squirrel here but today we see quite a few. Maybe it is the different area we explore or simply the weather is beautiful and everything is green so everyone is out eating.
For a time we follow a fence on a cow trail picking up caches along the way. There are lots and lots of hoof prints on the trail, it seems it is quite a high traffic area as the cows are walking the perimeter often.
As we continue we find some beautiful colorful yellow moss that we do our best to photographs while above it globemallows are flowering red, a beautiful contrast.
We want to return in the daytime due to the homeless encampments but still we have to be careful to avoid the chollas which are everywhere and quite painful to pick up if not careful.
We stop quite often to look up as there is lots of plane traffic above. Sometimes it is from the nearby airport but often it is something unexpected. Like the four period airplanes making smoke trails in the air. Or the two paraplanes making circles in the sky above us like two mechanized vultures just waiting for something to happen to us.
Nothing happens as we are careful near chollas and avoid the encampments completely on a different trail. And as we approach the parking area we are also treated at a beautiful sunset view that seems movie ready, for an end of the world movie. We enjoy it for a while and then it is back to the car and to Phoenix after an unexpectedly long day out.
