After exploring a few smaller parks earlier in the day we decide to end with a visit at Castalia Quarry Metropark a larger park with multiple trails. Unfortunately by now we don’t have that much time left so we decide on a short hike just to find a few caches and then explore a bit before returning to Cleveland Airport. As such the Fringed Gentian Loop sounds ideal so on we go to explore the park.
First we follow the Levee Loop Trail for a while, it is a beautiful forested trail and we enjoy it as we pass Mayapples and other plants that we recognize from way back.
Finding the caches is not that easy though as they seem to be missing as we explore location after location. At least we see a beautiful red squirrel in the shrubbery, quite fun.
Our turnaround point is just a bit after another cache when we see a Gray-cheeked Thrush, a surprise bird and the only one we see during our trip. We return via the Gentian Loop which is confusingly marked at the end but we manage to reach the car and then it is on to Cleveland.
Returning the car is relatively easy however this time we are running a bit late compared to plan, we have just two hours till the plane with no delays, yay. However entering the airport is fast and soon we are at the lounge which unfortunately has a queue. We stay in queue almost up to 30 mins before boarding and at that point we are called up and can enter. Unfortunately it is a really small lounge with basically no food so soon we are out and at the gate. The flight back is uneventful, except that they allocate us seats in the back of the plane a downgrade from what we reserved. But all is well that ends well and soon we are back in Phoenix after a nice trip where we saw over 100 species of birds in four day with six lifers.
