Sunny Southwest

We've been poking around the southwest for the past week or so, soaking up the sun. We spent three days in Aravaipa Canyon, which is an awesome and rugged wilderness area in eastern Arizona. The hike follows a small stream and winds through miles of steep canyon walls. Lots of the hiking is spent walking in the actual stream, as the canyon is so narrow and there is no official trail. We saw a few groups the first day, but nobody after that.

Starting the hike.

Exploring a side canyon, almost sunset.

The stream was sometimes lined with sycamores and cottonwood, with the leaves turning fall colors.

Relaxing is an important aspect of every hike.

A group of javelinas.

The canyon walls were a thousand feet high or so.

After leaving Aravaipa, we bummed around the southwest for awhile longer, hiking around Arizona and southern California. We hung out in Mojave National Preserve for awhile, which is a huge area: 1.6 million acres, about twice the size of Yosemite. Climbing around the Kelso Dune Field was lots of fun - but sliding down was even funner. The sand makes an awesome squeaking noise as you slide down it. The dunes are really tall and extensive (about 600 feet tall - as tall as a 60 story skyscraper). There is really neat natural history here.  The dunes are essentially an ecological island.  There are seven species of insect found only on this particular dune field. We also explored around a huge pumice plain and climbed up one of about 20 cinder cones in the park. The volcanoes erupted here about 10,000 years ago.

Kelso Sand Dunes. Emily is the little dot on the right.

David stretches as the sun sets. 

Pumice field and the cinder cone that we climbed.

This is the tail end of the trip for us, but I think we'd like to return to every place we visited the past month!