A Cactus Forest

This morning started as usual with walking and breakfast. I was happy to see it was 51F this morning, unusually warm. In the morning the birds are singing and it sounds like spring in Ontario.

We had planned to drive to Saguaro Lake but it was cloudy so since I was still tired I went back to bed and read for a while and then back to sleep. I woke up shortly after noon and felt lots better.

It was looking a bit sunnier so we decided to drive up to Saguaro Lake anyway. On the way we stopped at Michaels and I bought the wood plaque for our names to hang on the front of the RV when we’re in a park. When it’s done, I’ll take a picture of it but don’t expect it any time soon.

We headed north on Power Rd which turned into the Bush Hwy and into the Tonto National Forest. There are some very pretty mountains and lots of cactus of all kinds. The picture today is a forest of chainfruit cholla cactus that we saw. There are a number of recreation areas along the Bush Hwy but all of them require a $4.00 fee. Since we’re only going to take a few photos and move on, we’re not interested in paying $4.00 to do so. It would be different if we were spending the day of part of the day there so we left. We saw Saguaro Lake but there wasn’t really much place to take photos of it and besides the light wasn’t right so Gordon has now headed out (5:30 p.m.) for sunset to take some photos. I decided to stay behind and get dinner ready. I expect we’ll be going back up there this week.

We’ve noticed in the west that people use cattle guards often in place of fences. For those of you who have never traveled to the great west, cattle guards are horizontal steel rails placed at fence openings on highways to prevent cattle from crossing. For some reason the bovines will not step on the guards, probably because they fear getting their feet caught between the rails. We’ve seen these in British Columbia, Arizona and last year in Texas. I found it quite interesting that these things would keep cattle where you want them.

On our way back to Mesa a young coyote crossed the road in front of us with a small animal in his mouth. That’s only the second one we’ve seen, the other one being from our picture window over the fence at Catalina Spa at Desert Hot Springs. I would have thought we’d see them on BLM land at Brenda.

When we got back I went for my late afternoon walk again and took a few more photos around the park. There’s a bush of light pink roses in front of someone’s park model that are very pretty but people were outside so I didn’t photograph it. There are so many flowers out here, it’s just so beautiful!

I don’t expect much to happen for the rest of the day other than Desperate Housewives and Gray’s Anatomy!