A ridge near Canyon Lake

It's been a long time since I've been on a hike. It's just been too hot. We've had a long string of 110+ days. It was only about 103 today, but I think the temperature was lower because the humidity was higher. I went for a short hike anyway.

I was driving along the road to Canyon Lake and stopped at a place that didn't look very exciting. I stopped there because sometimes, if you check out the things that don't look exciting, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Also, if I didn't check it out, I would never know what was there. I'm glad I stopped there.

It wasn't a very long climb to the top of the ridge. It got very pretty near the top. I stopped and took a bazillion pictures of hanging fruit cholla flowers. I've heard that very few hanging fruit cholla grow from seeds. Most grow from pieces of the cactus that have broken off. They're pretty flowers, though.

Then I topped the ridge. I could see the Superstition Mountains, Weaver's Needle, Canyon Lake, Four Peaks, and colorful rocky landscape and puffy clouds all around. I could also see a long trail of smoke from the fire burning on the west side of Phoenix. It's been burning a long time. I was planning all the places I was going to check out while I was up there, and started to walk towards one of the peaks, when I noticed it was kind of dark. Darn it, the sun was setting! I'll have to go back.

Click below to see the pictures.

2008_07_05