I'm not sure if it is a measure of cactus needle sharpness, or how thin cans are now, but when I tried to balance my hiking beer on this cholla, it fell off and punctured, forcing me to chug it.

Dixie Mountain Loop

2022-03-03 0

I haven’t gotten out of the house for anything more than a spin around the neighborhood since biking the Maricopa Trail three weeks ago. Funeral […]

Following the canyon bottom down, I found several attractive dryfalls.

Skyline Exploration

2022-02-04 0

There’s a lot of old jeep trails in what is now Skyline Regional Park. One of them appears to extend from Skyline’s main wash up […]

Looking down Bulldog Canyon, while Dome Mountain looks down on me. It was a bit chilly when I started hiking from Wolverine Gate at 8:20 a.m.

Bulldog Canyon

2022-01-27 0

There’s so many diverse places to hike in Arizona that — other than the Mogollon Rim — I figure I am doing well if I […]

Stone X at the east end of Gadsden Trail. The stone X overlooks Desert Rose Trail, which ends at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR), barely visible past that small hill in the middle.

Toothaker / Gadsden / Butterfield

2022-01-05 0

Estrella Mountain Regional Park is 19,840 acres of easy Sonoran Desert hiking. Officially, the most difficult trail is rated “moderate-difficult”, but Maricopa County tends to […]

Balanced "mushroom" at Mushroom Rock Scenic Point. Tom's Thumb Trailhead visible on the left. It is an easy one mile roundtrip to Mushroom Rock Scenic Point.

Marcus Landslide

2021-12-23 0

Marcus Landslide was “discovered” in 2002 by two ASU geography post-grads. Surely, many people had looked at the rocks before, but the students were the […]

The view from the top of Indian Mesa, looking southeast across Tule Creek, and the Agua Fria River, towards Lake Pleasant (the sliver just in front of the distant White Tank Mountains).

Indian Mesa Ruins

2021-12-01 0

Indian Mesa Ruins is another one of those hikes I’ve had on my to-do list for years. Not sure why I’ve never gotten around to […]

Small portion of the antenna farm atop Shaw Butte.

Shaw Butte Trail #306

2021-11-17 0

Today, November 17, is National Take a Hike Day — something I only realized sometime in the past year. My two previous hikes on this […]