Pass Mountain Trail, and other stuff....

It's Sunday evening, our last one in Mesa for this year. Today was a flat out gorgeous day. 75F with a light breeze, not a cloud anywhere. This morning Dana and I put the bikes in the truck and drove over to Fountain Hills to ride the McDowell Mountain Road and Rio Verde Road. The section of Rio Verde Road that I wanted to ride is an arrow straight for 9 miles (15km) with a slight incline maybe about a 2% grade. I did 5 minute intervals while Dana road up by herself. By the time we got back to Fountain Hills we had covered around 60 kms which is a distance record for Dana. Way to go, Dana!

Yesterday Mike and I attended our last Phoenix Coyotes hockey game of the season. It's always great to spend time with my brother and although the game did not turn out to be barn-burner we had hoped that it would be, it was NHL hockey and we didn't have to mortgage the house for the tickets. While we were at the game, Dana and Darlene spent some quality time visiting every fabric store in the Valley of the Sun. They reported having fun and enjoying the day's adventures navigating the roads of Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler.

A couple of days ago, I believe it was Friday, Dana and I finally hiked the Pass Mountain Trail at Usery Mountain Park. This has been on our "to do" list since we first went to the Park in early February. As it turned out, we saved the best hike for our last hike in the desert this year. The trail loops 7.1 miles around Pass Mountain. There is some elevation gain but the trail is well maintained and I would categorize it as "moderate" in terms of effort/ability. We got to the trail head around mid-morning. We had planned 4 hours for the hike so we packed our lunch with us. Just past the half way point we found a flat open area beside the trail where we able to comfortably and safely sit and enjoy our lunch. I admit to being a bit nervous about perching on rocks. There are things such as reptiles and insects in the desert that I would prefer not to encounter.

I have included several pictures that we took on our hike on the Pass Mountain Trail. The views were spectacular, and as always the picture may not adequately show this. There were some plants in bloom and I got a couple of nice shots of the blooms. Enjoy.........


Pass Mountain Trail description


Dana enjoying the views from up high on Pass Mountain.


Scene from the trail. Barry and a Saguaro Cactus....


Spectacular views. If you look really close you can see the trail that lay ahead.


Blooms on an Ocotillo shrub.


Blooms on a Hedgehog Cactus.