Today’s hike started at the Trailhead Staging Area in McDowell Mountain Park. We had a small group today consisting of Bob, Janet, and myself. It was humid and partly cloudy when we started. We had cloud cover off and on during the hike.
We started by hiking clockwise on the Pemberton Trail. We made a brief stop to look at the old homestead site and walked around the watering hole. The water level was lower than I remember it being in the past.
Below is a view from the Pemberton, shortly after passing the intersection with the service road leading to the competitive track area.
I think this is a group of Hedgehog cacti just a short ways further on along the Pemberton.
Bob and Janet beside a healthy looking saguaro:
A scared bunny.
Me, looking through a stand of buckhorn cholla:
Another healthy looking saguaro, with the McDowells off to the left:
Bob and Janet, with Rock Knob behind and to the right. We’ll be going to Rock Knob next week!
A baby saguaro arm:
At this point we had reached the Bluff Trail and proceeded to go down it. Here’s a view looking back up the Bluff Trail. Part of Rock Knob is visible just to the left of the big saguaro in front.
We turned right when we got to the Granite Trail. Along the way, we saw another saguaro that’s growing a bunch of new arms, even more than are shown in the photo below.
Right next to that saguaro was this ocotillo:
Granite took us back to Pemberton, which took us back to the Trailhead Staging Area. We covered eleven miles total today!
