Cave Creek Regional Park March 13-20

Days 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51   Sunday to Sunday, March 13 to March 20   Cave Creek Regional Park   Carefree, Arizona

After a morning walk at McDowell Mountain, we headed to Cave Creek Regional Park, another new park for us.  We had a great site, with lots of privacy and views, but facing into the inside of the loop, so there were lots of critters, especially rabbits, quail, and doves.  We went to the Nature Center to get hiking maps and looked around there a bit.  I bought a few more postcards, have continued sending them to my grandsons every several days.  The most difficult thing sometimes has been to find a place to mail them!

A quilt in the Nature Center

Sunset from our campsite

Monday morning Jim went down to Lake Pleasant Airport to check out the possibility of doing a glider flight.  He had got Gary Boggs’s name from our friend Bob Weigant.  When he got back we drove 31 miles, up through Carefree, to Horseshoe Lake, with a rugged dirt road the last 7 or 8 miles, down into the Salt River canyon.  It is a pretty lake, with plenty of water in it, and there was just one other group of kayakers there.  We launched and paddled to the end of the southwest arm of lake, about a mile each way.  There were ridges with beautiful yellow Brittlebush and lots of saguaros.  We saw a couple of cormorants and some coots in the lake.  

Peaceful Horseshoe Lake.  Looked quite different on the way back!

Southwest arm of the lake

Brittlebush and Saguaro

Horseshoe Dam

As we headed back, there was quite a headwind, quite a paddle to get back, even staying close to shore!  It seems the wind comes up in the afternoon on these mountain lakes.  When we got back, the family that launched when we did were also returning, towing a couple of inflatables with their canoe, as inflatable boats are impossible to navigate in the wind.  The canoe was full of water – they just barely made it back to the dock.  The little kids sitting in the cold water were shivering and crying.  But safe!

Tuesday we rode our bikes out of the park, then west on Cloud Road, zigging up to Joy Ranch Road, then Desert Hills, until we came to the beginning of the Maricopa Trail by Anthem.  But the signs said No Trespassing!  It was a good ride, anyway, so we headed back, rode 18 miles. There are lots of homes scattered about this area, at all levels of affluence.   Sometimes horses, or goats, or cows!

In the afternoon Jim’s friend Dave came out to the park, and the guys hiked the GoJohn Trail in the park.  I made homemade banana bread, baked beans, and cole slaw.  Sarah and I hung out and also went for a walk.  When the guys got back from a great hike, Jim barbecued steaks and we treated Dave to dinner.  We did not get to see his wife, Ellie, as she was working as a volunteer doing taxes for people.

Wednesday morning I met my friend Rose from home, who is visiting her family in Arizona.  We went to a wildflower walk at Spur Creek Ranch Conservation Area.  Unfortunately, the walk leader volunteer did not show up, but a very knowledgeable fellow was there, and he was able to lead our walk and name more plants than we could ever remember!  Afterward Rose and I had a nice lunch at the Heart and Soul Café, in one of the big shopping centers along Carefree Highway.  

Mural at Spur Creek Ranch 

An Oregon Rose in the desert

Tidytips

Buckhorn Cactus

Desert Thistle

Ancient pictographs we saw on Spur Creek Ranch walk

Rose and Linda at the Heart and Soul Cafe in their 1958 Chevy Bel Air

Jim did his glider ride in the afternoon, got to solo for 20 minutes, and also got to experience a few spins.  He had a great time doing this, took lots of videos.

Runway at the airport

Cockpit of the glider

Schweizer Glider

Jim's Mobius camera on his hat
for recording videos

Thursday we drove to Barlett Lake to go kayaking, and found the best place to launch, Bartlett Flats, as far north as we could drive.  There were lots of people camping on the lakeshore here, a few jet sleds and fishing boats, but we were soon in the wake-free zone.  This lake was lower than Horseshoe Lake, but still pretty.  We saw cormorants, a group of female Common Mergansers, and some Western Grebes.  On the way back, the wind came up again!  It was afternoon!!  We did not learn anything from our previous experience.  We paddled a total of 4.2 miles, and it was a long 2.1 miles back!

Road to the Marina, a lot nicer than the one to Horseshoe Lake!

Tuzi by our launch site
Notice the slipped strata, which you can also also see in the above picture!

Lots of families camping along the lake

Peaceful water

Skull Rock  (We named it!)

 We had planned to go to Sundial Park in Peoria, then Lake Pleasant.  But we could not get into either park.  Reservations must be made in advance in these days!  So we were able to move to site 19 at Cave Creek for Thursday night.  

Sunset from our new campsite

Then Friday and Saturday nights we moved into the Cave Creek overflow area, which is a gravel parking lot with some RV’s, no hookups, but only $20 a night.  We set out on a hike on Friday, after moving, up the Clay Mine trail.  As we walked through the parking lot, we encountered a rattlesnake in the campground road.  It quickly retreated to under a bush, and we continued on our hike, being extra watchful of the ground in front of us and around us!  

Can you see the Western Diamondback rattlesnake??
He can see you, smell you, and sense your heat!

A woman made a business of mining this clay and creating health and beauty products from it.  (We found out later the clay was Kaolin, a pure white clay.  Have you heard of Kaopectate?)  The hike was uphill and rough, and difficult for Sarah.  After a while Jim went back, and I continued a loop, up around the mountain, over a few ridges, back to the Nature Center area, where I walked along the road back to the campground, hiking a little over 6 miles.  In the afternoon we went to the grocery store, again!

Hedgehog Cactus, again!

Up on the Clay Mine Trail

Interesting rocks and lichen

On the trail

Saturday morning we went to hear a Geology Talk at Ramada 1 at the park, by Joe Ford, a retired Geology professor.  He did a great presentation, speaking to folks who had no knowledge of a subject he knows in both breadth and depth.  He was intelligent, good-humored, and altogether charming.  

Professor Joe Ford and students, with rocks

In the afternoon, Jim rode on some mountain bike trails in the park, while I repeated our previous ride to Anthem, going a little farther this time.  I did ride on the Maricopa trail a bit, as the ranger had assured me the No Trespassing signs were not a concern, but it was sandy and slippery, so I was happier on the shoulder of the road.  I rode about 22 miles total.

Another trail.  Who knows which one?  At least it looks pretty flat and not rocky!