A beautiful day for a hike

We recently joined a hiking club in our town. Included were T-shirts & pedometers for all of us, plus the entrance fees into the parks for each of the 8 hikes! On the entrance fees alone, our club gave us a savings of about $13!

This past Saturday was a *beautiful* day for a hike! The wildflowers were out in all their glory, and we had a great time. It was twice as long (4 miles) as they said it was, since we had to do the hike and then double back to our van. Matt ended up carrying Naomi for about half the hike. :) We felt it in our muscles the next day!

Here are a few shots from our hike...

The kids and me at the beginning of the hike...

David & Marissa amongst the cholla cacti, aka "jumping cacti"... they were *very* careful not to brush up against them!!



A lizardy "friend" we came upon on our hike... can you see him?


Matt, Joshua, Naomi & Marissa on the trail ahead of the rest of us.


Jesse in the desert, with a prickly pear cactus on the right side of the photo. Did you know they are edible? (I'm not sure how to prepare them, but we saw them in the grocery store once.)


The kids & I touched a saguaro at the north end of the trail, after a bathroom break & before our return trip. I'd never touched a saguaro before... it was really quite smooth (in between the prickers, of course!)

The kids & me near the end of the hike... what do you think of all those yellow wildflowers?

After our hike, we drove to the visitors center. There was an older couple from a wildlife rescue center, along with several non-releasable animals, mostly birds. We learned a lot about them and enjoyed taking some photos.

Here's Joshua next to a burrowing owl and a bird that I've forgotten the name of. Yes, the birds are both alive! :)