Day 5 - Kingman to Phoenix

Boring! That's the only thing there is to say about the drive from Kingman to Arizona. The scenery did change a bit as Arizona is a lot greener and we're starting to see Saguaro cacti now.

Our only stop along the way was a town called Wickenburg. They have a walking tour of the city, but nothing of great interest. I did like this strange cow statue on top of one of the stores

And here's me with a big Saguaro by the visitors center

Phoenix is not supposed to be one of the major tourist cities in Arizona. In fact, our guide book goes so far as to say "it is short on must-see attractions" and "you could easily choose to bypass it altogether." Still we've decided to spend two days here.

Before going to our hotel for tonight we drive straight to South Mountain Park. After doing some reading Sandy decided our best bet was the Bajada trail, but we take a wrong turn and end up on a steep curvatious road to the summit. Yikes! We're both having flashbacks of yesterday's hair-raising, heart-pounding drive along historic route 66 and so we turn around as soon as we can.

The city in the distance

Armed with my GPS we leave the car at the parking lot in the valley and head for the nearest trail we can find. Surprise, surprise ... it's the Bajada trail! It's a bit rocky, but not very steep.

Another view from the trail.

I forgot to take pictures of the bed & breakfast we'll be staying at for the next two days, but if I think about it I'll take some tomorrow. It's a really cute place and we have a private patio with a hot tub and a fountain. There's also a saline pool. The water is cold right now, because of all the rain they've had, but I'm definitely going to try it later.

After putting our luggage away, we went hiking again; this time in Papago Park. This is the famous hole-in-the-rock

See all the people standing in it?

Walking up to the hole from the back

I climbed another mountain. Sandy says I need to get real hiking boots if I'm going to keep climbing on rocks. Haha.

The view towards the Phoenix sky line.

There are also a few ponds in the park. You can go fishing there.

 I liked the ducks. They must get fed a lot, because they came to see if we had some food for them right away.

The Desert Botanical Garden and the Phoenix Zoo are both within Papago Park. We decided not to bother with the zoo (there are no polar bears after all) and visit the botanical garden instead.

A random cactus that amused me

A bunch of different cacti

The whole wildflower section of the garden was filled with bunnies. There must be nice plants for them to nibble on.

The sunlight hit the spring flowers and made everything light up

My favorite flower: the baja fairy duster.

The sun is starting to set

I think this is a prickly pear cactus.

Unknown bird on an octopus cactus.

Finally a picture of several different kinds of cacti silhouettes at dusk.

It got really cold after the sun went down, so even though part of the trail is lit, we decided to grab something to eat instead. We went to a very hip, mostly Mexican restaurant called Ticoz. Great food, especially the passion fruit cole slaw and my favorite: churros with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.

Mileage for today: 203