Summer and Fall 2023 in Arizona

After returning from house and pet sitting in Portland in May, we spent most of our time in Flagstaff with visits to Phoenix as needed.  This was at the Duck Pond in Flagstaff.

This is a view of Mount Humphreys from Lone Tree Road in Flagstaff.
 

It was too hot in Phoenix for Piper, so she spent the summer in Flagstaff.  Here she is looking for squirrels at a nearby construction site.

These next two were taken at the Duck Pond in Flagstaff - this is about a 25 minute walk from our home.

As with the spring, beautiful blossoms can be found in both gardens and out in the wild, in the mountains of Flagstaff and the valley of Phoenix.

On some of our walks in Flagstaff, we saw lots of wildlife.

We have nicknamed Piper as the solar powered dog - she loves to go outside and lie in the sun.

One morning, there was a herd of 8 or nine of these guys across the street from our home in Flagstaff - I was returning from a walk with the dog and they were only about a hundred feet away from us.

On one of my trips to Phoenix, it was 116 degrees when I walked to the drug store.  There was record heat in Phoenix and much of the world.  The big problem was the heat island effect of the city where night time lows were in the low to mid 90s.  This is a problem for cacti, as they need the night time temp to drop below 90 so they can open their pores and finish the exchange of gases from photosynthesis.

And even in that heat in Phoenix, I came across this guy.

Spring is colorful, March to May, 2023

It is true for Phoenix, Wickenburg, the Desert Botanical Garden, Flagstaff and Portland - spring time brings out all the colorful blossoms.  This is true for both carefully tended gardens and wildflowers growing in natural settings.

It is good to stop and smell the roses - even the lilacs, echinopsis, cacti and all the others.

Hassayampa River Preserve and Lake Pleasant, Saturday, March 12, 2023

After about a 70 minute drive, we arrived at the Hassayampa River Preserve, located a couple miles south of Wickenberg on US Route 60.  They definitely have lots of bird and animal sightings.

 

We hiked the Mesquite Meander trail.  As the name implies, there are lots of mesquite trees with branches over the trails.  That means there will be shade once those trees leaf out in a few weeks.

 We stopped at the pond and then followed the trail around the pond.  The river was flowing.

 After a couple of hours of pleasant, easy hiking, we had lunch in town and then made a quick visit to the Wickenberg Airport where we saw some nice planes and even saw someone doing touch and goes in spite of the approaching storm.

 On our drive back, we stopped at the Lake Pleasant Visitor center.  As with much of our drive, there were many Mexican poppies, lupens, brittlebrush, globe mallow and other plants in bloom.  I learned that they are now pumping water into the lake for storage to be released later in the year when needed in Phoenix and Tucson.

 We also got to see their desert tortoise outside and Diego the gila monster inside.

 

 A very pleasant day was had and I recommend it as a day trip for later in the spring.