More Arizona and Utah

After we left Tucson we went north to Cave Creek and Carefree. They are both north of Scottsdale/Phoenix and are much nicer than Phoenix (which both Luke and I dislike very much). We went to a great coffee shop/bike shop where the barista was from Alberta and they sell coffee scented chain lube [that I bitterly regret not buying] The gal from Alberta told us Cave Creek attracts hippie types, but that rest of the area is mostly very conservative and that she avoids talking politics if at all possible. It was also the day that the Alberta provincial government went NDP.
We camped at a little sight close to Lake Pleasant (so pretty!) and listened to the cows and burros braying in the little valley across the road. It's always such a nice surprise to find such beauty after the uninspiring landscape of Phoenix.
We decided to ride the Cave Creek Cactus Classic so we started from the coffee shop and just as we arrived at the trailhead (about 10k in) I barfed up my lunch... I was actually feeling fine otherwise so I think I just didn't give myself enough time to digest my lunch. But regardless, my stomach seems to be against me more often than I would like. :(  Since there was 30km to go I turned around and went back to the truck. It was pretty frustrating because the scenery was gorgeous--hills of saguaro cacti with smallish rocky mountains in the background.  However, Luke said the trail was harder than he thought it would be, with annoying areas of chunder, so it's probably better that I didn't continue on.

It was pretty hot so we decided to go back to Flagstaff...and promptly got snowed on.  I've never ridden in Flagstaff so we planned to do a trail mid-day...and then it was too windy. I still love Flagstaff. I need to go back in the summer it seems.
We did see some nice footprints in the mud at our campsite in the morning though:

Elk hoof

Mountain Lion paws

More Mountain Lion

So we hopped in the car and drove to Hurricane Utah. There was a fair bit of rain and even some hail and snow (apparently the Grand Canyon got a dump of snow), but luckily after a day the weather turned nice. As we were approaching town an SUV behind us passed us just as a huge tumbleweed was blowing onto the highway. They drove right into it as they passed and we watched little bits of it coming off of the car for about 30 seconds before they pulled over to the side of the road--the tumbleweed was stuck on and was the size of the entire front of their SUV!

I have more additions to my Flowers of Walmart series. These are from the Walmart in Hurricane Utah.

We rode the Dino Cliffs trail, where there are dino footprints in one of the washes! I was ridiculously excited by that.

We stayed at a campground with a little lake and beach, that was full of huge RVs and ATVs. I don't really understand the appeal of driving ATVs in the sand. They are so noisy and you are just sitting there being inactive for the most part. Then again, I kind of hate driving so I guess it makes sense that I don't get it. To each his own I suppose.

The next day we went up to Gooseberry Mesa. We had a fantastic campsite that was at the edge of the mesa--we had fantastic views:

Campsite--front

Campsite--back

Funnel Spider Web

We rode the trails out to an amazing view point with a 360 degree view of the area. It was spectacular. I didn't take any photos, but photos wouldn't have done it justice. It goes out to a peak and even though you're on a fairly big slab of rock, the feeling of being that high up with so much space around was a bit hard for scared-of-heights me. But it was so worth it.
There's another view point a bit further back from there and there is a smashed jeep about 20 stories down that went off the edge.

Next time: more Hurricane and St.George!