9-26-8 Tucson Adventure

If you are on the west side of Tucson, our "A"mountain is quite obvious. Most of the year it is red, white and blue. It was constructed by the Univ of Az in 1915. It is actually on Sentinel Peak, which was a lookout for the indians and spaniards over the years. We had a lovely hike up there and want to share the following pictures. It is about 2900' high. Enjoy and God bless you!

If any of you suffered through zits, you may know why we have renamed "A" mountain Acne mountain. Check out the saguaros with many bumps on them!

More saguaro crests

Hawk was very interested in us and came quite close!

Check out the sheets of rain passing over the mountain range and heading west.

Friends recently celebrated a wedding anniversary. Jim made this lattice arch for them. The husband got the ducks dressed and all arranged while the wife was on an errand! Cute!

More Saguaro Crests - Plants - Scenery

We will watch these littl bumps on these saguaros and see how fast they grow!

storm damage - agave down!

early morning view of our mountains

beautiful blooms on neighbor's palm tree

Pena Blanca Lake Hike

We really miss New Zealand and the simple life we lived there. Since the plane tickets we could get now are just as expensive as out total trip last time, we are looking for substitute adventures. The trip to Pena Blanca was a lot like part of New Zealand! We saw no other humans for hours and only a couple of cars - Border Patrol looking for illegals - but nothing else - nice and clean and quiet and pleasant. This is only a 50 mile drive from home. The hike to the dam was 1 hour, so we had a nice 2 hr hike. It was a bit more adventurous that last time we were there, because of storm damage and missing trail in parts and having to bushwack some. Still - it was fun! We could not cross the dam - too dangerous, but we were hiking to the edge of the waterfall until!!!!! Until, I saw a green snake jump up and try to bite Jim. After a nice big scream from me, we turned around right then. We can see the waterfall another time when the snakes are hiding over the winter. The Lord protected us - just wish I had not seen the snake. That's the best selling feature of New Zealand - NO SNAKES!

we named this "Mud slide hill" - Ask Jim why!!!

tree and path fell into lake - challenging to get around



orange dragonfly

we were able to cross over this dam last winter - not today - too much water to cross - too dangerous!

Mexican General Grasshopper

our red toaster and scenery

water was over the street - not dangerous to cross at this time.

Some Mexicans like bright colors!