We headed south of Tubac to visit this historic Mission on a cool crisp morning.Founded in 1691, followed by a continuing 157 years of history, this site is very picturesque. This photo seemed to capture the many layers of history.The adobe walls were wonderful!The textures inside the storage building, The missing roof letting in a lot of light.Really fun to photograph.From this site we headed north to the Tubac Presidio, the first State Park in Arizona and definitely worth the time. We learned that the Spanish used the Canary Islands to base all their longitudinal calculations on in their map making. We also enjoyed the art galleries of Tubac. Finally a stop at the current Mission San Xavier de Bac, where we also enjoyed some fresh fry bread!
Beautiful Sunday afternoon stroll. It is wonderful this acreage has been preserved with all the development closing in on it’s boundaries.The cloud trail adds to the beauty of this scene.Foreshadowing of things to come at the Denver Botanic Gardens: “The nature of Horses”. The white cups are to protect the cactus tips from frost damage.Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!! Taken from the parking lot of our condo a culmination of 20 minutes of photographing.
Vistas – it feels like you can see forever. Lucky Saguaro!Our neighbors from Denver surprised us by coming to Tucson for the weekend. We thought this trail was worth doing again because it has so much diversity. We are no longer in the Rocky Mountains!These barrel cactus are so cute! I really did want to hug one but I only carefully pretended.It is hard to get a sense of scale until you humanize the plants.We lunched by this stream and enjoyed the fabulous…snow free day!Ready to finish the trail.This scarecrow really fanned out against that blue sky. too poetic to resist capturing.A sunset panorama of the Santa Catalina Mountains from the Westin Paloma Resort. Really fun to watch the light and shadow movement.
This is Christmas Day but it feels and looks more like fall. Who knew the cottonwoods would still have their leaves.The CCC created the road with bridges that are also dams. So the road crosses the creek several times creating these wonderful, inviting pools. Today was perfect for reflecting.It is about a 3-mile walk down the road to this relaxing spot, behind Tram Stop #8.Laying on our backs, we watched the clouds skipping across the mountains.Henry was fascinated with the smooth rocks, how the water had worn them and was pooled in pockets.Small water falls today and the water level is fairly full.A Road Runner came out to say hello and created a nice distraction.Our volunteer friends said to stop by so we did for some fresh cookies. This Saguaro had all clouds pointing towards it saying LOOK AT ME!
Pima Canyon trailhead was near our condo and a lovely trail following a stream.Such sparkling sunshine.Looking the other direction. The rock formations are a gneiss – like an Oreo cookie with the black and white layers.We saw this beautiful sculpture and wondered how many others had been observant enough to spot it.Little islands growing in the rock. The “moss” plant only greens for a few days after it receives moisture.An evening stroll at the Loew’s Ventana Canyon Resort led us to this natural waterfall above the resort. It is kept flowing year round with pumps.We enjoyed this fabulous sunset there overlooking the infinity pond – such a calm evening produced the mirror like conditions.
We motored the MINI on fine morning up Mt Lemmon through Santa Catalina National Forest, just North of Tucson and Saguaro NP East.Views across Tucson were a bit hazy but very scenic. We were loving the Saguaro forest!We thought this looked like a blindfolded duck…interesting to see all the Lime Green Lichen.And here is the same rock formation from above.Enjoying the views from Windy Point with the last sips of coffee.Really really interesting geography!On top of the World!Snow near the top in Summerhaven – lots of kids sledding and playing.In the afternoon, we hiked the Babad Do’ag trail (Tohono O’odham for “Frog Mountain”) off the Catalina Highway.
Loma Verde Trail on 3-December – Gorgeous Day!Another hike nearby on Garwood Trail on 19-December shows snow on Mt Lemmon.The color of the blue sky was hard to resist!Early morning back lighting on the grass and the Opuntias on the Garwood TrailDon’t fall into the spines! This is an unusual clump of 13 saguaros growing close together on the Garwood Trail.
On Finger Rock Hike in the Catalina Mountains we saw this scarecrow.So we started looking for more and saw this one in Sagauro NP East on the Garwood Trail.Howdy partner!Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
