Arizona Desert Adventures

Another post that was hiding in the "draft" folder.

I know, I know we said that this blog is about Hawaii, but we recently [um, May 2010] visited Arizona and wanted to share some of the hikes that we did there.  Anyway, back in May A had attended a conference in Phoenix and R decided to tag along.

Almost a mandatory hike when visiting Phoenix is Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale. The mountain is a preserve in the middle of the city and is the highest point (2,700 feet) in the Phoenix area.  One day after the conference we decided to do the hike.  It was short, but strenuous and fun. The peak offered a panoramic view and we also were able to catch a beautiful sunset.  One down side of hiking in the late afternoon/early evening is the speed with which we lost the light. We hiked down in the dark.  At one point, upon hearing rattle noises, A started to clap so everyone (or everything) kept their respective distance.

Are we there, yet?	R climbing to the moon
Sunset on the peak	The moon was our guiding light

We also day-tripped north to Sedona where we drove around taking in the red rocks before making the short but steep hike up Cathedral Rock.  

And spent a couple of very hot days outside of Tucson.  We hiked in the dry Sabino Canyon to a waterfall, which was refreshing for the walk back out of the canyon.

It was great to see so many flowering cacti, something we had not seen before.  

We also visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, part zoo, natural history museum, and botanical garden.  Here A learned how bats hear. We ate at some great restaurants, most notably Carolina's known for great tortillas (which is near the airport and has R longing for it every time she passes through PHX), and celebrated our anniversary at POSH in Scottsdale, an improvisational tasting menu concept. Veal sweetbreads with sauteed cabbage and uni

Lychee with watermelon "caviar" amuse

We welcome another business trip to Phoenix!