Mountain views never seem to get old. Their size, colors and varied textures make them so beautiful. We returned to a park this week that we had previously visited. We found ourselves admiring and taking pictures of the same mountains again. That also goes for sunsets. Ohio has its beauty too. The colorful springs and autumns, the green summers and the white glistening after a snowfall. We so miss the snow – NOT!

Sunday, Jan. 20

After I emailed Week 6, I texted our neighbors from back home, who are also winter RVers. Their son lives in Phoenix and we wanted to contact him while in the area. As we exchanged texts, we discovered that they were staying in the same campground, White Tank Park, that we were going to on Sunday – five sites away!

Before we left for White Tank, Christy and I took a hike up a mountain. The views are always better from the top. When we got back to the Ham, we did another hike with Carol and Lucy. We love tired puppies.

This afternoon we had lunch with our neighbors, their son and his wife. We had to drive over 5000 miles to get together with our neighbors – crazy!

After we did some shopping, we arrived late in the afternoon at the campground. Forever in search of wildlife, we were greeted by our first coyote when entering the campground.

Monday, Jan. 21

Carol, the dogs and I did a long hike in the desert this morning. After lunch, I attacked the trails on my bike. Just like on other bike adventures, I got caught up in the excitement, lost track of time and then got lost. When I got back to the Ham, I was greeted with the familiar, “Where have you been”!!!

One of our few planned destinations was to visit Lois’ niece, Barbara and her daughter, Tammy. Lois has stayed in touch with Barbara through the years, but hadn’t seen her for over fifty years. We met at a restaurant for dinner and exchanged stories and pictures. We were happy that the restaurant, after being there for three hours, didn’t kick us out.

Tuesday, Jan. 22

We hiked the Waterfall Trail with our Norton neighbors this morning before leaving for another park. This was the closest we had been to a mountain because we were basically in the mountain.

We wanted to stay in a sunny, warm location for a while, so we searched every campground in the Phoenix area. We were lucky to find a site at McDowell Mountain Park where we had stayed before Christmas. It was an amazing site. No matter what direction you looked, there were mountains. We looked forward to our next two days.

Wednesday, Jan. 23

Dog walks, biking and sitting in the sun pretty much describe the day. Perfect!

Thursday, Jan. 24

Off to Lost Dutchman State Park at the foot of the Superstition Mountains.
First, after three weeks, we had to do laundry – a lot of laundry. The closer we got to the Superstitions, the more we wanted to forget the laundry – they were beautiful. After laundry, lunch and grocery shopping, we were finally at the park. When checking in, the ranger commented that we were going to a premier site. He wasn’t kidding. It was a site closest to the mountains. Below is the view from our patio area. Tomorrow, I’m going to the top.

Friday, Jan. 25

Another cactus wren, right outside the Ham, serenaded us all morning. They remind us of mockingbirds that we enjoy in Myrtle Beach.

On our hike with the dogs this morning, the girls got to witness their first horses. As usual, Lucy wanted to attack and Christy wanted to play. Carol now wants a horse when we go RVing, but I’m not sure if there’s a way to get the horse in the loft bed at night.

This afternoon I started for the top of the mountain, a three-mile hike with an elevation of 3000 feet. I had never seriously hiked anything before, but how hard could it be, it’s just walking. The trail was loose gravel and rocks, making the footing a challenge. The incline got steeper when I got closer to the mountain and my legs got more tired. I found myself continuously taking pictures. There were so many views I wanted to remember and share. After an hour and a half, I had covered two miles and had elevated 1000 feet. I was tired and started feeling light-headed, not a good combination when you’re high in the mountains. The last mile to the top went up another 2000 feet by scrambling over boulders. Being the sensible person I am, Carol always tells me that, I decided it was time to go back.

Trail to the mountain base

Entering into the mountain

Trail going up	Base of the peak where I stopped
View to the left	View to the right
Trail going down	View going back

It sure would have been great to make it to the top, but I was still proud of the climb that I made. While I lay on our bed, completely exhausted, I got a text from our neighbor, Kathy, whom we left at White Tank. She was letting me know that she had just spent the last seven hours hiking an eleven mile trail
that elevated 1450 feet. Kathy is an Iron-Woman hiker and maybe someday, I’ll be just as good as her.
At the end of the day, we were blessed with a recoloring of the mountains by the setting sun.

Saturday, Jan. 26

We left the Phoenix area and traveled about three hours south to Patagonia Lake State Park. People from Arizona come here to enjoy the lake and escape the desert. The geography is so different here than it was an hour ago.

Sunday, Jan. 27

On our morning hike with the dogs, Carol stopped at the fifty steps going down to the bird-watching trail around the lake. She told Christy and I to go ahead. We had to go pass through a gate that boldly instructed everyone to close and lock. The first few steps made me stop. In the path and to the sides were large piles of poop. Knowing they were much larger than a dog’s, I figured they must be from a mountain lion, bear, or some other large wildlife. Christy and I made a U-turn and went back out the gate. As we were walking back to our site, an RV pulled out of a beautiful site, up high, overlooking the lake. We were not happy with our present, crowded, noisy site, so we moved. What a difference.

In the afternoon, all of us went to a bird observation point for Lois to enjoy the birds (bird watching is very popular here) while Carol, the dogs and I hiked the bird-watching trail. I was earlier told by a ranger that we should be safe from the wildlife here if we kept our distance and didn’t make any quick movements or loud noises. On our hike, we encountered twenty of the large beasts and only one time did we feel threatened. Lucy was determined to scare it off our trail, but it squared up and was not going to let us pass. We took a detour through the woods. From the pictures below, you can see how big and intimidating these creatures were.

Lois was enjoying her bird watching so much, I had to return later in the day to assist her back to the Ham.

Tomorrow, we’re off to new adventures.