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.
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