McDowell Regional Park March 9-13

Days 41, 42, 43, 44   Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday   March 9, 10, 11, 12,  McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Fountain Hills, AZ

Maricopa County has a number of regional parks, all of which have small Nature Centers, helpful rangers and park staff, various events such as ranger-led hikes, and campsites that are widely spaced and very private, with electricity and water hookups, for $30 a night!  And often excellent views and lots of wildlife.  As I type this there is a Canyon Towhee and a Curved-Bill Thrasher on the suet cake we bought.  There are many fancy RV parks in this snowbird area, fancy parking lots, with amenities such as pools, restaurants, clubhouses, etc.  Looking at AllStays, the Android app we have to find parks, there are so many here.  Many of them are $70 to $90 a night, and my RPI membership gets me 30% off, so….    Very expensive, and not what we like!  These regional and state parks parks have hiking trails, bike trails, and peace!  (We have greatly enjoyed the RPI parks we stayed at in California as we came south.  I have already renewed my membership for next year.)

When we reserved our 4 nights here at McDowell, the first week in November, we got the last spot!!  We wanted to stay here last year but could not get in.  The paragraph above probably makes it clear why.  I have spoken to folks in these campgrounds who say they used to enjoy being vagabonds, but now they reserve a year in advance for these spots.  

This is a beautiful park, and we have a great view from our dining room window, as well as a Paloverde t­­ree where we can hang our feeders.  I am still trying to figure out if it is a Blue Paloverde or a Yellow Paloverde.  We can see the big fountain at Fountain Hills from our campsite. 

Trails at McDowell Mountain Regional Park

The fountain at Fountain Hills from our campsite

Thursday morning I went on a bird watching walk with ranger Amy out of the Nature Center here.  We saw lots of birds, including a Cooper’s Hawk.  

Male Desert Tortoise munching Lupine at the Nature Center

The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake which lives under the
Nature Center is at the base of the downspout.

Later in the morning Jim and I rode out of the campground and downhill to a trailhead at the north end of the park, started riding up through the trails.  It was too soft and sandy for me!  Jim persevered and rode out on the trails.  I rode north on the paved, then on a dirt service road for a short distance, then came to a dirt road called 176th Avenue.  I rode about a mile up to a paved road, Rio Verde, and turned right to descend, with a nice bike lane, but thinking “Oh, no, I will have a lot of uphill to get back!”  Looking at my phone map, I turned right on Forest Road, riding by the Rio Verde Golf Course and Social Club, a new development in this Verde River canyon area, then to McDowell Mountain Road, up and down with big cement trucks rumbling by (wide bike lane), then right at the park and up the last 4 miles to the campground.  The hills were not too tough, and I was able to keep my speed at least 5-6 miles per hour.  Altogether a great ride, total of 17 miles!

On the trail

Ocotillo in bloom

The Brittlebush was beautiful on the hillsides!

I made homemade chicken enchiladas for dinner, with sautéed asparagus, mushrooms, onion, and garlic, and a green salad with yellow pepper, grape tomatoes, and avocado.  We do eat well, that is for sure! 

Friday we hiked a loop out of a trailhead in the campground, a total of 4.2 miles, on the Pemberton Trail and the Scenic Trail, which took us up along a ridge with profusely blooming Brittlebush and lots of other wildflowers.  We saw interesting beetles, one with an orange abdomen, and a bunch of them with red heads mating and eating Brittlebush simultaneously!  A beetle orgy!  Later we looked these up and found out they are blister bugs.  The males ooze yellow blood at their leg joints, and touching this causes blisters.  They are also probably not very appealing to creatures which might otherwise eat them.  There were lots of wildflowers on the ridge and also in the wash we walked through on the last part of the hike.  

Interesting balancing rocks

Ridge on the Scenic Trail

Chuparosa

Buckhorn Cactus in bloom

Dead Saguaro.  Indians and pioneers used
these wooden parts for structures.

A man and his dog in the blooming desert!

 

A view toward Anthem

Campground in the distance

Blister Beetles

After lunch we went down Fountain Hills to the Ace Hardware where Jim picked up a few exciting items, and to Basha to buy groceries.  

Sculpture by the shopping center

Saturday morning I repeated my bike ride, out on the trail through the end of the park, but this time went west on Rio Verde, down a long side street where there was a huge Harris Hark on a saguaro right by the road, and back to the campground for a total of 20 miles.  Jim went on a long, vigorous trail ride, about 26 miles on rough trails.  We both felt content with our exercise.  In the afternoon we drove down to Fountain Hills and walked through a beautiful art fair, then watched folks flying kites at the kite festival at Fountain Hills Park.  The fountain, which is in the middle of a big park with green grass all around, runs from the hour for 15 minutes all through the day, using recycled water, and turns off automatically if the wind speed is more than 10 mph.

Jim has been working on the programming for his drones.  He rigged up a system of bungees to suspend the drone in the doorway, then made changes on the computer to see how that affected the drone's response.

Small drone with GoPro camera

Drone suspended in doorway of RV

THE PROGRAMMER

Back to the park for dinner, and watched the last episode of the 4^th season of Game of Thrones, which I had bought before we left home.  I also bought a Photography course and a Geology course, but we have been watching this slice and dice show instead!  Oh, well!

Hiker's tan