On our walk to the Rustic Pie Friday morning, we walked by this plant - lots of buds, but just one blossom.
Friday afternoon and Saturday, there were massive thunderstorms and plenty of rain, some of which helped plants blossom. On my early morning walk Sunday, the plant was loaded with at least a dozen blossoms.
And those are large blossoms.
Just past the Rustic Pie, Fry's Grocery Store is nicely landscaped with a number of pretty smoke trees.
As I continued on, I passed the Arizona Pioneer Home Cemetery. "The Arizona Pioneers’ Home is a continuing care retirement home operated and funded by the State of Arizona. The Home provides care and services to residents living independently, as well as to those requiring personal, assisted living, intermediate and skilled care; qualifications for admission are defined in state statute." Those qualifications are:
All around Prescott are unusual rock formations called the Granite Dells: "Located outside the city of Prescott in the US state of Arizona, is a unique geological formation called Granite Dells, consisting of massive granite boulders that have eroded into rounded bumpy and unusual shapes giving the rocks a rippled appearance. The rocks formed 1.4 billion years ago at a depth of 2-3 km, before they were uncovered by weathering. By a process known as spheroidal weathering, common in granitic terrains, the rocks assumed rounded shapes and other unusual rock formations that characterize the Granite Dells." The Centennial Trail starts about a quarter mile from our rental, so we decided to hike the trail Sunday morning before the afternoon thunderstorms began.
As we are going up the hill to the trail, the area has this sign on the cliffs on the side of the road.
The trail is well marked and easy to find.
We came across a narrow passageway between the rocks, too narrow for humans, but fun to peek through. I am looking through from one side, Patty went around and looked back at me.
The trail feels like you are in real wilderness, but in some places you are near homes and buildings built right up to the edge of preserve around the trail.
It took a little over an hour to reach the midpoint where a side trail goes to a second parking area and trail head - we plan to return to that point and finish the last two miles to where there are supposed to be petroglyphs on some of the rocks. It is also where the trail has to go around a construction site where they are about to build a home with views of the city.
On our way to the trail head, we passed by some nice landscaping by a nursing home. On the way back, I took a couple of photos of these bushes with nice purple flowers and some trees that are related to the desert willows we see in Phoenix.
After returning home, we took showers - while the temperature was not high, maybe in the 70s, the humidity was very high, probably higher than 70%. We then went out for lunch at Panera Bread, then to Costco - one of my hearing aids died last night. Unfortunately, the Costco hearing aid section is closed on Sunday - that means another trip back to Costco. As we were leaving Costco, the thunderstorms started and continued for several more hours. This made Sunday afternoon a good time to relax back at our rental.
Friday afternoon and Saturday, there were massive thunderstorms and plenty of rain, some of which helped plants blossom. On my early morning walk Sunday, the plant was loaded with at least a dozen blossoms.
And those are large blossoms.
Just past the Rustic Pie, Fry's Grocery Store is nicely landscaped with a number of pretty smoke trees.
As I continued on, I passed the Arizona Pioneer Home Cemetery. "The Arizona Pioneers’ Home is a continuing care retirement home operated and funded by the State of Arizona. The Home provides care and services to residents living independently, as well as to those requiring personal, assisted living, intermediate and skilled care; qualifications for admission are defined in state statute." Those qualifications are:
- Has reached the age of 70 years,
- Has been a resident of the State of Arizona for not less than 50 years,
- Is and has been a citizen or legal resident of the United States for at least 5 years,
- You must also be physically and mentally able to care for yourself.
All around Prescott are unusual rock formations called the Granite Dells: "Located outside the city of Prescott in the US state of Arizona, is a unique geological formation called Granite Dells, consisting of massive granite boulders that have eroded into rounded bumpy and unusual shapes giving the rocks a rippled appearance. The rocks formed 1.4 billion years ago at a depth of 2-3 km, before they were uncovered by weathering. By a process known as spheroidal weathering, common in granitic terrains, the rocks assumed rounded shapes and other unusual rock formations that characterize the Granite Dells." The Centennial Trail starts about a quarter mile from our rental, so we decided to hike the trail Sunday morning before the afternoon thunderstorms began.
As we are going up the hill to the trail, the area has this sign on the cliffs on the side of the road.
The trail is well marked and easy to find.
The trail crossed over a dam to slow (but not stop) water from a flash flood type rainfall.
The trail gains elevation quickly near the beginning and we could look back at the area where our rental is located - just above and to the right of all the RVs in the photos.
The trail feels like you are in real wilderness, but in some places you are near homes and buildings built right up to the edge of preserve around the trail.
It took a little over an hour to reach the midpoint where a side trail goes to a second parking area and trail head - we plan to return to that point and finish the last two miles to where there are supposed to be petroglyphs on some of the rocks. It is also where the trail has to go around a construction site where they are about to build a home with views of the city.
On our way to the trail head, we passed by some nice landscaping by a nursing home. On the way back, I took a couple of photos of these bushes with nice purple flowers and some trees that are related to the desert willows we see in Phoenix.
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