I was off work yesterday for Veteran's Day, for the first time in over 25 years. Turns out our local Veteran's Day parade goes right by my office and the whole street is blocked off for most of the day, so my boss texted me that I should stay home. I'm not one to argue with an unexpected 3-day weekend!
It was a beautiful day, so I grabbed my camera backpack, hopped on my scooter, and spent a couple hours in a park a few miles east of home. I'll post those photos in a minute.
First, here are a few from other hikes Sam and I took earlier in the year. Last January, I hiked up Ventana Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains. The trailhead is only about 7 miles away.
Saguaro cacti climb the mountainsides.
In March, I wandered around in Saguaro National Park East (5 miles away) and found some cholla cactus. I love the purple ones, but it's always hard to get a good photo. They're weird!
I don't know the official names, but this next one I call a regular cholla, as opposed to Teddy Bear Cholla or Antler Cholla or the purple ones above.
In May, Sam was home and one weekend we drove east on the freeway to Texas Canyon for a picnic and hike. It's another weird, cool place, with about a 15 square mile area of huge boulders jumbled up and down the hills.
Those red-orange flowers are ocotillo blooms. When monsoon rains come in July and August, the stick-like stalks grow green leaves almost overnight.
Well, that's it for our past hikes. The rest of these photos are from my excursion yesterday to Agua Caliente Park, on the far east side of Tucson. Agua Caliente means "Hot Water", and there are natural springs. It was the site of a soldier camp in the 1860-1880's, and a ranch in the 1900's. I think it must have been the ranchers who planted the palm trees.
There's also a large grove of native mesquite trees, with a nice walking path.
Benches and picnic tables.
This one's for Sam. These are the kind of mesquite trees he wants on our ranch, with interesting, multi-branched trunks.
There's a big pond with real water, then 2 perennial ponds. In the dictionary, perennial means "present at all seasons of the year". In Arizona, I think it means "dry, except when it rains".
I even found some fall color, though we have to be creative in looking for it in the desert.
I think these are a type of tamarisk. We had some at the Mission where I grew up, but I don't think they turned this golden color.
This one's more traditional!
The real pond is beautiful, and over the years I've taken many photos of it as a whole, but yesterday I only saw the wildlife. Ducks (no good photos), Turtles.....
And this Great Egret. Quite a sight.
He was hunting for fish, and caught several while I watched.
The dive.
With a victory flap when breakfast went down the gullet!
Cool, huh?!