A Walk in the Arizona Desert

April 2

Often the early bird, I woke before Alyssa and Dwight.  I put on a pot of coffee and raided his cupboards for breakfast.  We had agreed the night before that we would do dry cereal this morning so we could get an earlier start on our day.  I scored and found an unopened box of peanut butter Cheerios.  I left at least half of the box for the late risers.

Before leaving Dwight's very nice town home, we filled our water bottles to the brim, ready to brave another hot-to-a-northwester day.

We drove up into the White Tank Mountains and parked at the entrance to Waterfall Trail. Along the easy one-mile ascent we spotted many interesting cacti. Dwight identified them for me but I forgot some of the names so I looked them up.  If I've gotten some of them wrong, I hope he'll feel free to correct me.

Sunset blooms of a Staghorn Cholla

Dwight inspects a bloom

Hedgehog Cactus

A closer look at the bloom of a Hedgehog cactus

Every baby is adorable...even a baby cactus!

Giant saguaro

Open staghorn blooms

Dwarfed by a giant saguaro cactus

The deceptively soft-looking Teddybear Cholla

A little off-trail excursion

There was also an abundance of beautiful, but unfamiliar blooming trees and wildflowers. One particular, very fragrant tree that seems to be everywhere was the palo verde, Arizona's state tree. I'm not sure how, but I didn't get a picture of it. Clothed in clouds of tiny yellow blossoms, the tree is drought resistant but drops its leaves during long dry spells.  At first glance, other trees mimicked the palo verde, such as the creosote tree below.

Creosote tree

You've probably figured out by now that I love flowers!  Much of our trip was in cold, wintry areas so I was craving the sight of blossoms.

Another interest on our walk were the petroglyphs, left by the Hohokam Indians hundreds of years ago. Somewhere on a nearby trail is supposed to be the remnant of a Hohokam village but we didn't walk that trail.

Hohokam petroglyphs

At the top of the trail we were surprised to find that the seasonal waterfall hadn't quite dried up for the summer. A family was enjoying the couple-feet-deep pool. Embarrassingly, the males were in their underwear. The mom ignorantly encouraged her sons to jump in so that she could video them fracturing their knees as they cannon-balled into the shallow water. I cut them out of my picture.

On the trip down we enjoyed beautiful views of the city, far away on the hazy horizon.

White Tank Mountains are so named because of the minerals in the water that leave a white film on the rocks. When it rains heavily, water pools, leaving white “tanks”.

The white "tanks" of White Tank Mountains

On our return to the car we refilled our water bottles at a drinking fountain and headed for a nearby private zoo called Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.

A Great Time at Uncle Dwight's

While we were staying at my Uncle Dwight’s house, he took us to two really awesome zoos. On our first whole day there, Dwight made some delicious waffles and eggs for us in the morning, before we headed out to the Phoenix zoo.

On the way to the zoo, we had a slight collision with another vehicle. There happened to be a car right in Dwight’s blind spot, so when he tried to move over to the HOV lane, we bumped into the other car. Dwight pulled off at the next exit, and the man followed. The damage was fairly minimal, and none of us were hurt. In fact, Dwight’s car barely had a scratch on it! The other car’s front quarter panel was dented a bit. The police officer who came out was 6”10, and his bulletproof vest made him look even bigger! Dwight and I got a picture with him, because we had never seen someone that tall. I had to shield my eyes from the sun every time I tried to look up at him while he was talking.

The zoo was amazing, with its beautiful scenery and many animals to look at. We ate lunch at the zoo as soon as we arrived, and enjoyed it in the shade near the ostriches and giraffes. It was so fun!

The lions were sleeping, of course, but I still got to see them.

One of the really fun exhibits was the aviary, where we saw several very unusual looking birds up close. We happened to be the only ones in there, so we got to walk right up to the birds!

We spent a long time walking through the zoo, seeing the animals, and talking with Dwight. We had a really great time, especially since it wasn’t only about being at the zoo and looking at each and every animal. It was about spending time together!

"Hello!" from the adorable gazelle

Originally, we had planned on going on a gentle hike after the zoo, but decided not to since we had already done quite a bit of walking at the zoo. Dwight took us to a delicious Indian restaurant, where we shared several different dishes of Indian food and had enough to save for leftovers! 

We stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things before going back to Dwight’s house to watch a really interesting movie about Abby Sunderland’s story.

On our second day at Dwight’s house, he took us to another great zoo! This zoo had tons of animals, including some incredibly adorable baby meerkats. They were small enough to fit in my pocket!

We ate lunch by some cute monkeys and ducks, then walked around the zoo. We got to see a precious young giraffe and its mother!

There were several other baby animals in the zoo, including some warthogs in a pack ‘n’ play in the animal nursery. It was such a funny sight!

The lions at this zoo were also sleeping, so I’m convinced that all lions do is lull around in the sunshine. However, we did get to see some awesome white tigers that weren’t sleeping, and a beautiful jaguar! I had no idea jaguars are so puffy and teddy bear like!

The zebras were gorgeous.

It could take a year to go through this particular zoo, because it has so many awesome animals, including a large number of various species of birds throughout the whole zoo. We saw some adorable fluffy ducklings with their mama and several other ducks. They were so funny, because they constantly jumped in and out of the water and cheered each other on, as they attempted to jump over low points of the barrier around the pond.

Since we didn’t have enough time left to see everything, we decided to see the zoo’s aquarium. Despite my fear of coral, it was awesome! The petrified looking alligators were somewhat disturbing, but I enjoyed seeing the various fish and petting the stingrays. They felt like velvet! It was so cool.

We had so much fun visiting the two zoos, and spending time with Dwight while walking around and looking at the animals. I definitely won’t ever forget the great time we had with my Uncle Dwight!