With the extra night we received from the AirBnB we do not have to leave late afternoon but can stay overnight and this allows us to choose a longer trail to hike today than we initially intended. Specifically we want to start from the AirBnB and walk down to the public trail and then use that to access the network of trails in the vicinity. But first we just explore the area below the AirBnB, it has some interesting features like a hunting hide (?) and a bridge that goes out to nowhere. We also see a fox on our trail camera, quite cute!!
We eat breakfast from the previous day leftovers while finding a surprise mountain kingsnake right below our patio. They are really beautiful and not dangerous at all, they are a mimic with vivid colors to suggest they are poisonous.
We then start on our chosen trail descending from our AirBnB. Almost immediately we find a beautiful Western Tanager defending his territory against everyone including us. We watch him for a while before giving him space so he can rest a bit.
The trail while wide initially quickly degrades and becomes a use trail. We do not understand what happens until we take another look at the map, the actual trail is further away but luckily the use trails are taking us in the right direction.
Finally reaching the main trail we notice it is an old jeep road likely used also by ATVs but we encounter none of them…yet. We encounter a few other hikers and a runner however but otherwise it is quite peaceful as we make our way north towards Mud Tank.
On the way we keep our eyes open for anything interesting, mostly lizards and butterflies. There are some dark eyed juncos but nothing else interesting birding wise.
Soon we arrive at Mud Tank which is quite beautiful, much more expansive than we expected. We sit a bit enjoying the solitude before a pair of mountain bikers arrive shouting things to each other shattering the silence.
Luckily they leave soon enough and allow us to find the first interesting bird for the day, Birds in fact, a group of red crossbills with both adults and juveniles are using the lake as a rest stop.
There are also some nice butterflies here, field crescents mostly but we find also a mourning cloak, a butterfly that we find quite elegant.
From here we leave the loop to do an out and back to two lonely caches further away on the trail. Bluebirds are the only birds we see on this stretch and we walk relatively fast making good time to the next destination.
Tou our surprise the first cache is near a sinkhole, or is it a lava tube? We explore for some time looking for both the cache and to understand the geological origin, we find the first but do not get a good answer to the second.
Continuing the second cache is near another smaller but still beautiful tank. This one is an easier find and comes with the bonus of more red crossbills, it is an invasion!
On our return trip we encounter our only ATVs on the trail. Luckily this is before we encounter another special bird, the red-faced warbler. And also a horned lizard, a beautiful lizard that we always like to meet.
Using the loop we return back towards Munds Park on more established trails. In fact we find a trailhead with a large parking lot that we weren’t aware off, it is well appointed with a good map that we will follow next time.
We are tired and hungry after our hike so out we go to buy some hot dogs at the gas station, and gas of course. But then we notice a food truck serving Mexican items and we cannot resist and order additional food, at least we will not be hungry.
We eat outside enjoying the great views and the birds before going to sleep early. And then the next day we leave before 6AM so we can get back to Phoenix before work starts, quite early but really worthwhile for the additional night and longer hike. Overall it was great to both attend Geowoodstock and hike near Munds Park and really just to get away from the heat.
