Tuesday, January 6, 2015

McDowell Mountain Regional Park

Monday, January 5 found us flying back to AZ where we picked up the RV and headed just a short drive up to McDowell Mountain Regional Park outside of Fountain Hills, AZ.  We did stop to see John’s mom one more time and to pick up some packages, then we had to get a new battery for the coach since it almost didn’t start after sitting for only 8 days.

But we made it to the campground right at dusk as the setting sun changed the McDowell Mountains from brown and gray to a dazzling rose and amethyst color.  As John was cooking the steak, we watched a full moon creep up over those same mountains, lighting the whole desert in a warm lunar glow.  We are so happy to be back in the adventure mobile we celebrated the occasion with a really nice bottle of wine that complimented the grilled steak.

Even though it gets fairly cold at night, the day warmed up quickly.  We were on our bikes only an hour before we started stripping off the jacket, gloves and extra layers of clothes. This park is very large and has over 65 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails.  We rode the bikes on the paved roads this morning just to get a feel for the place.   This afternoon, I got bored so I made John hike almost 4 miles through the desert with me.  I spotted this huge jackrabbit and several cottontail rabbits but that was all the wildlife.  As we were resting after the hike, a covey of Gambel's Quail surrounded our campsite. They have this very soothing coo and bubbly warble that calms me down.

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