Geocaching & Saguaro National Park

 Geocaching takes me to some places that I would otherwise not likely go and to finds I would not likely make:

The zachaedas are noisy and a bit on the homely side:

 This is the site of an old stage coach stop and these are the grave markers for some buffalo soldiers.  No names, just piles of rock left. 

 More geocaches and sights along the way:

 This day the Horseshoe II fire had reached a couple of homes and the smoke was quite intense.

 this was the "road" down to one of the geocaches.  I decided to walk rather than risk dropping my motorcycle again!  So off I went with my snake chaps and stick (the handle to a rake) making as much noise as possible to warn the snakes and any other critters that I was coming.  Highly alert for snakes when my GPS beeped to signal that the cache was near I jumped 10' in the air!  As if a snake would beep!

An old water trough for the free range beef - I mean cattle.

I saw this and thought that someone had put a sock on the cactus to protect it.  Being "blonde" makes life so much more interesting.








It constantly amazes me the shapes that the Saguaro cacti take on.  Remember the game statue?  Having to freeze in some odd position and the twister would have to guess what you are?

The fruit of the Saguaro from afar looks like a second flower, up close you see that it is actually just the fruit that has been broken open by the doves that are having quite the feast.

The Cat Walk

Went with some friends to a little congregation near the New Mexico border.  The brother was giving the talk that morning.  What a surprise when I saw the coffee cup they have!

They actually use it for water and not coffee.  But if Jim Bob hasn't found a coffee mug this big, they are available!


After meeting we were invited to one of the friends houses where we were treated to a wonderful lunch and even better association.  Were were there for a quite a while but needed to get going as the hike we had planned was an hour away.  I had found a geocache located on the hike and my newbies were excited to find it.

 This little guy was the source of much excitement amount the guys with us who are avid bird watchers!

 Big chunky rocks.  Critters darting left and right.  Little chipmunks playing on the vertical rock faces - like it was nothing that they are 30' in the air!  How do they stick to the rock?

Yes stop there and let me take a picture (or really let me just get my breath so I took 20 pictures here, joking, kinda).

 Can you image in the first people to visit the area?  Not knowing what lies around the corner or where it ends.

 Nope, this is not upsidedown, this is just me looking up.

 These walks are found through out the walk to bridge crevasses or to take you down steep side faces.  Very sturdy.  All except a rope bridge at the end which of course one of the guys had to bounce on while I was on there.
The Cat Walk is only about 1-1 1/2 miles long.  Very pretty country and really not a rigorous hike unless you've come from 0 elevation! 

The geocache was another 1/4 of a mile past the end of the normal hike.  It was well hidden at least from our point of view and the guys with us, part mountain goats, were determined to find it.  It took 45 minutes of jumping from rock to rock, looking in between rocks and hoping to find nothing more than the cache, please, please, please.  (That was me.)  I had given up as the sun was going down and we still needed to hike out.  But with a yelp one of the guys found it!  We recorded our finding and hotfooted it out of there.  The drive home for some reason took hours upon hours longer than the trip there.  Boy were we tired!