Thursday, March 14, 2013

South Mountain Park

getting ready to go... look at fiona, hilarious

sunshine through the leaves

rowan on a pile of rocks

climbing up

fiona on her way up

actual petroglyphs!

more petroglyphs

walking and talking

more climbing

fiona running

saguaro with sunshine

more of fiona running

wild flowers

city from the top of south mountain

Mike and I took the kids up to South Mountain on Monday. I had no idea this place even existed! It is one of the worlds largest city parks. A park that big and I didn't even know it was a 20 minute car ride from our house. It is an amazing place, so many different trails, one that is over 14 miles long, and great shorter trails. We started out on a 1.7 mile hike, but then an enormous swarm of bees flew up the canyon and well, all I could visualize was us being stung to death in the middle of the desert. SO, we picked another trail. This one was handicapped accessible which meant it was paved and had lots of covered areas that were great for stopping and eating (because for some reason my children need to consume food about every 100 feet). Lots of rocks were climbed, flowers were smelled, jackrabbits were spotted, and hawks were spied.
After the hike (which totaled a mile, and yet took us about 2 hours. lol) we hopped back in the van and drove up to the top of South Mountain and gazed down at the city below. I am sure it looks stunning at night with all the city lights glowing below.

6 comments:

Debbie Jones said...

We love South Mountain and have spent many enjoyable hours hiking there...in fact, my 16-year-old and I were there just this morning hiking the Telegraph Trail. Lots of great hiking and beautiful desert views right int he middle of Phoenix. Glad you had a good time!

sustainablemum said...

What an amazing place to have on your doorstep!

Cynthia said...

What a great find and so close to home too! Love that beautiful blue, blue sky!

Tracey ~ Clover said...

How fun and I am so glad you had such a good time. Your pictures make me miss AZ. I have been wanting to take a trip out west, but there never seems to be enough time.

the habit of being said...

what a great place to spend the day!

Nicole said...

Heather, looks like a great day :) I have maybe been there once but have wanted to go again!