"Beach" Day

Yesterday, we went to Crescent Moon ranch, one of my favorite places in Sedona. I take all our visitors there. A nice little hike through the woods brings you to the banks of Oak Creek and a spectacular view of Cathedral Rock, the most photographed place in Sedona. I know I have taken a few pics there :) I can't help it. I did find another trail that will take you up into the rocks, so when it cools off a bit, I will check it out. Anyway, there are a couple of rope swings, so finally, we got to swing into the water, which was quite comfortable for a running creek.

Eric and Doug went to the movies while Max and I hung out. Cathedral Rock is now behind Max.

After the movie, Doug got some water time in. I"m guessing it gets pretty crowded here on the weekends. We only come during the week. There are plenty of more remote and less crowded places to do this sort of thing, but having a few people around is sort of comforting to us city folk.

We found this swing in the woods up stream a little ways from the other one. There are all kinds of trails too, but we stayed by the water. Blackberries are getting ripe.

Good reason this place is so popular-it's awesome!! The boys had a blast. The combination of hiking through the woods and swimming is perfect!

Critters

In addition to all the swimming and swinging, we saw a few interesting critters at Crescent Moon Ranch. This HUGE spider was on the rock that everyone stands on to grab the rope swing. This was by far the biggest spider I've ever seen aside from the Tarantula. The body was probably 1-1.5" long. It's diameter with the legs was 5-6". Talk about heeby jeebies. I will do some research to find out what kind it is. Anyone have any ideas?

We call these lizards stripers. Max is pretty good at catching them. This one was about 8" long

We saw this beetle on the base of a tree. It was about 2" long. Kinda cool looking.

Clouds

Who knew clouds could be so many different colors at once?

Yesterday we had a few nice rains. This one was the heaviest, and lasted for a good 15 minutes. No thunder, so the boys stayed in the pool. They get a kick out of swimming in the rain. I got the camera because it was pouring, but the sun was shining. Didn't see a rainbow though.

Moonlight Hike

Last week, we took a moonlight hike at Red Rock State Park in Sedona. They have guided hikes every full moon. It was about two miles total, and took us through some open fields, riparian habitat along the banks of Oak Creek, and up a rock to 'Eagle's Nest', where we got to see the moon rise. Our hike started out on a paved path, and led us into the woods. It was cool and humid by the creek.

Saw a few deer in this open field. They weren't too bothered by our appearance.

We got to see the sunset and the moonrise at the same time!

I thought about bringing my tripod, but didn't feel like lugging it.

I cropped this quite a bit, so it's a little grainy, but not a bad picture of the moon for no tripod.

Anyway, it was a nice little hike, and I think the boys even enjoyed it! We saw a skunk, the deer, a scorpion, and some gorgeous scenery. I think we will be doing that again.

Chicken(?)

We're pretty sure now that this 'Silky' is a rooster. He and our other white chicken do quite a bit of crowing lately. They don't just crow at the crack of dawn. Roosters crow all day long on and off. I have no idea why. It's very funny. Some day I will take a video so you can hear for yourselves.

Max enjoys chasing the chicken around, trying to catch them. At the end of the day when they're getting ready to retire for the night is the best time. They're pretty hard to catch if they're out in the yard, but they calm down as soon as they're being held.

Bull Pen

This past Sunday afternoon, Max and I went on a nice little hike in search of a rope swing in a watering hole near a place called the Bull Pen Ranch. The road to the trailhead is a few miles away from our house, but you have to drive a ways down some dirt roads, so the drive to the trailhead is about 40 minutes. Who cares-look at the view! It was cloudy and raining in spots. Above is the view from the car shortly after turning off of the highway(260).

The blooming century plants(yellow things) were a little far away for the camera, but cool nonetheless. If you click on the photo, it will get big.

We searched for the rope swing once before, a few weeks ago. Max totally thought this tree was a bear, and we all got a little adrenaline rush out of it. Now we call it "Bear Tree". It is real close to the beginning of the trail.

After a walk through the woods, the trail opens up for a bit, before going back into the woods along Clear Creek.

This was our view an the right. Look at the different colors in the rock. I'm thinking I need to study a little geology.

The trail eventually led us here, along the red rocks. I mentioned to Max that it looked like Sedona and he said, "It probably IS Sedona". We had been walking for about 30 min.

We thought this could be the spot, but no rope swing in sight. The trail was stopped by the rock ledge, but picked up across the creek. We crossed over and walked a little further before deciding that the tree with the swing must have fallen into the creek, then turned around.

Another geologic curiosity.

This was another spot we thought the swing could've been. It is a nice place to hang out anyway, swing or no swing. On our way out, we actually saw a couple people hanging out here. Bull Pen is a pretty popular place. We only saw a few groups of people, but lots of evidence(garbage) of humans. For us city folk, the occasional ciggarette butt is comforting in a weird way. It can get a little creepy being out in the middle of nowhere all by yourself. Hopefully, that feeling will eventually pass.

We saw some critters, including this desert millipede. They are venomous, but I don't think they're deadly.

As we were driving home, this view from the road caught my eye. I felt like we were looking down on a rainforest. Around here, you can always tell where rivers or creeks are by the trail of tall trees.

This is the western edge of the White Mountains. We have not been up that way yet, but I think it's kind of like the Door County of Arizona, only with cowboys.

Our hike was about two hours total, not including drive time. We never found the rope swing, but saw some beautiful sights and interesting critters(bright blue lizard), and had some nice time together. I'm sure we will search again.

The monsoon season has arrived, so we are getting some pretty cool looking skies.
We had some really good rain yesterday, just in time for the BBQ we were having. The kids loved swimming during the downpour, and the rain stopped in time to fire up the grill, so everything worked out perfectly.
I am really feeling the humidity. I have to remember to close the chip bag now, and bring things inside that I don't want getting wet(phones). The tomato plants might actually start growing! The little watering every morning was not happening for them. Now I know they need a deep watering every couple of days.

More on the 4th

For the Fourth, we headed "over the hill" to Prescott, where Frontier Days was going on. It is a combination of a rodeo, craft fair, carnival and fireworks. It is spread out over town in three different locations, so we packed a lot into the day. We even got a nice thunderstorm! We started off at the rodeo, but the boys got bored after awhile, so we didn't stay for the whole thing. I think they save the bull riding for last, which is really what they wanted to see. We'll have to wait for the Bull Bash in CV.

We thought the calf roping was a little mean(beats being veal), but the bucking broncos were impressive. Serious core workout for the cowboys!

After walking around the craft fair in downtown Prescott, sitting on some nice soft green grass for some chill time(my favorite activity of the day), and getting caught in a thunderstorm, we headed over to Pioneer Park for a carnival and fireworks. Not much of a carnival. Most of the rides had shut down because of the storm, but we had front row seats in the parking lot for the fireworks, which were pretty impressive. The parade was on the 5th, so we missed that, but got a lot of good stuff in on the fourth!

Hail EV

A few days after our visitors left, we came back to EV for a little visit. Since we both are actually working, five days was all we could manage. We did get to see a bunch of people, and unfortunately, missed some as well. Sorry!
It was nice to get back for a few days, but I could really feel the humidity. After my sinuses finally adjusted to the drier climate, I actually prefer it now.
Got a nice little hail storm while we were at Eric's uncle's house for a visit. After a few pics there, my battery went dead, so I did not get many photos in EV.

Doug enjoyed collecting some hail.

One of the topics of conversation was who gets the porch swing :)

Visitors

A few weeks ago, my sister, Meg, niece Carly, nephew Pauly, and Meg's godson, Trey came out for a little visit. We packed a lot into four days and had a good time. I'm really glad we got to spend some nice time together in AZ! Gotta hit Cathedral Rock! We had a girls day out in Sedona, with shopping, hiking, and at the end of the day, we all had our auras and chakras photographed:)

Of course we stacked rocks!

Thought this was a cool flower getting ready for it's evening bloom. Nice example of sacred geometry.

Carly got the camera at Cathedral Rock.

Staying cool in the pool!!

Fun with the chickens.

Carly, your chakras are showing! Doug got the camera in Jerome.

The Haunted Hamburger in Jerome

A little dirt biking at dusk.

4th

Happy Independence Day everyone!!

It was a year ago today that we left E-Town to explore the Wild West. Hard to believe. Tick tock baby!

More blogging to come. Cut me a little slack, we're on summer break :)