Gold Canyon 2008

We really enjoy Gold Canyon, Arizona. The weather is beautiful most of the time, and the views are spectacular. We stay at Gold Canyon RV and Golf Resort which is nestled almost at the foot of the Superstition Mountains, east of Phoenix, AZ. The resort is beautiful and clean, and most importantly, has a really nice little 9 hole golf course that challenges Clive's golfing abilities. This year he managed to get in almost 100 games in less than three months!!!!

Besides his golfing and my quilting, we also enjoy hiking in the desert and mountains around the area. Our first hike this year was up to the petroglyphs with Art and Gloria (even though incorrectly, the trail is called the Hieroglyphics Trail). It is so beautiful and peaceful up there, that the hike over the terrible trail conditions is really worth it. It must be, as we have hiked that trail at least three times now. This year, after the rain in January, we were pleased to see the creek full and flowing, filling the pools.

The view from the gathering
place is really quite spectacular.

You don't realize just how high you are climbing as you do the hike!!!



In March, we did some more hiking, enjoying the desert as it blossomed with gorgeous spring flowers!!! This year was a spectacular year because of the rain in January and February and the warmth of March. A great combination that makes for a marvelous show in spring.



We climbed to the Upper Cave Dwellings in the Tonto National Monument with Harold and Joyce. The flowers were abundant and the hike was well worth the effort when we got to the top and saw the dwellings. Time and tourists haven't been kind to the ruins, but they are still spectacular, and give you a good idea of the hardships endured by the Hohokum Indians during their tenure there.

The next hike was up to the Wind Caves on Usury Mountain which we did again with our hiking buddies, Harold and Joyce. Again, the mountain was covered in blooms. I took picture after picture after picture. Clive insisted that I took pictures of every flower on the mountain!!!! They are just so beautiful! We shared our climb with 140 fifth graders and their escorts!!! Do you have any idea of how much noise 140 fifth graders can make while climbing single file up a mountain trail??? Believe me, you don't want to know!!! I wish I had half of their energy, though!!!

This is one of those hikes that after you come down from it for the first time, you look back at where you have been and say "If I had known THAT was where we were going, I would NEVER have done it!!!!!!" The flowers are so beautiful, though, that you just keep climbing....looking from one batch to the next, with each one being more beautiful than the last!!!














Our last hike this year was up to Jack's Fan. This hike took us to view a very unusual cactus. It has a growth on the side that resembles a fan. Apparently this happens in about one in 10,000.