Our Last Day at Usery Mountain Regional Park

Today again was bright and sunny and we reached a temperature of 55F (13C) and I did my usual morning exercise.

The plan today was to visit Carefree and Cave Creek, two artsy towns north of Scottsdale. We arrived at Carefree around noon. The downtown of Carefree is built in a sort of a circle around the town square where the sundial is located. It's a very pretty square with fountains (photo below) and ponds and this very cute gila monster slide (photo below). The sundial claims to be America's largest and most accurate.

Easy Street


Sandra with sundial in the background

The English Rose Tea Room

We had decided to look for a restaurant that served all day breakfast and we found one in the shops along "Easy Street" which is the name of the main street. Called the Saguaro Cafe, this is an excellent place for breakfast, the 12 grain bread was really good as were the ham and eggs and the price was fairly reasonable as well. We walked around the downtown and I went in to some of the shops. Lots of cute things but no place to put them! We also stopped at the Chamber of Commerce and picked up some books and maps.

After that we headed the short distance to Cave Creek. I walked around Frontier Town which is a little shopping area, again lots to buy, no room though. There was a guy on his horse ( photo below) soliciting business for a local ranch that take people on desert tours on horseback.

Part of Frontier Town




Since we were so close we drove to another one of the Maricopa County parks, this one called Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. This is another great place for horseback riding or hiking. I didn't feel like doing any hiking so Gordon went for a bit of a hike on his own for 1/2 hour or so. While he was gone I saw these people out on the trails with the horses.

The road to Spur Cross Ranch



Horses on the trail

Another type of 'feeding frenzy'. The man came in the truck with bales of hay in the back and the horses started to run to get fed.

Cave Creek on the way to Spur Cross Ranch, very pretty.


It was almost 4 p.m. at that point so we took the scenic route home via the Beeline Highway and the Bush Highway so we could stay off the freeways. We got home just before sunset. We sure will miss it here! I saw the sign at the right on our way home. It struck me as funny. It's not something we'd see at home.










Four Peaks Mountain on the way back to the RV park.