Desert Creature

I've lived in South Bend, Kentucky, Brazil and Massachusetts. Each of those places has vegetation that you just don't find out west (I don't count the coastal states), and they are very beautiful places. I have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) living in those places, but I am a Desert Creature.

I'm in Tucson for a CME until Monday and I love it. I went out on a hike today called 7 falls. It was an 8 mile round trip up a canyon (I've gotten more exercise in the past 3 days than I have in the past 3 months). It was awesome! Not a lot of people like the smell of cactus and sagebrush, but I love it.

The first picture is just to prove that I was really there (I probably should have wiped some of th sweat out off of my face, but that just adds to my enjoyment of being somewhere that isn't 20 below). The rest show the falls and the canyon. The pictures actually loaded in reverse order so you get the end first.


The trail actually is above the cliff on the right side of the picture below, but as I missed it I had to climb those rocks on the right to get up to the falls.
This last picture (or first depending on how you look at it) was just after I missed the trail going up the side of the mountain.It was a beautiful hike. I spent a little over 2 hours getting to the falls and about 1 hour getting back down. I also learned some Spanish this morning. All in all a good day.

There are only two good things about not having Melissa and the kids here with me. One of those is that I get to go on 8 mile hikes up canyons in an afternoon (no chance that happens with 3 kids). The other is that it won't be quite as excruciating to leave Tucson because when I get home I get see Melissa and the kids and I really miss them.