Adventure 568: Cave Creek Regional Park/Post C

Sunrise.

A full day here in the desert. There I was happily slurping my oatmeal, on the verge of sweet victory, when the chilling misery of defeat overcame me. The Cager, needing fifteen to win, pulled a sixteenie right out of somewhere very dark, leaving me moaning like a lonesome cowboy. I was so despondent, I nearly impaled myself on the nearest cholla. I soothed my wounds on our 6.6 mile hike on the Go John trail, which took us up and over gunsight pass (2557 ft) and around the perimeter of the park. Most of the hike covered rugged rock, and there were so many Saguaros vying for cactus of the day, I'm not sure I can pick one. It's quite amazing. They'll be sparse, just two or three, or even just one lonely cactus standing there, and suddenly a near forest of them will sprinkle the hillside. I just love them. On our hike we noticed a pave road in the distance, so after lunch we drove in that direction in hopes of finding a place to ride our bike. We found a good riding road, but the paved road we saw is the beginning of a new high end housing development and currently dead ends. Progress continues for the well healed.. Luckily for the Saguaros, builders are required to replant the cactus they uproot for roads and such. This evening we moseyed on over to Cave Creek to the Buffalo Chip Saloon to hear the Pat James band on the recommendation of "Kel babe", our brother-in-law. As usual, he led us to a good place. We sat outside midst a few old local cowboys, a few Scottsdale cowboys, and the pleasant smell of bull. Life was truly good, especially today.

 Selfie of the day.

 Cactus 1

 Cactus 2

 Cactus 3

 Pat James

 Cactus wren.

 Saguaro of the day.

 Falcon. Wassssup?

 Chuck Back, steel player extraordinaire for the Pat James Band.

 Art shot of the day.

An amazing amount of purple met us on our hike today. We felt like Riders of the Purple Sage. There are seven hikes in this park. Before our time here ends, we'll have covered them all.