14 November 2016 A Day in the Desert

We planned to spend the day in Tonto National Forest. We are slowly visiting a variety of the National Forests. This one is much different than my baseline of eastern wooded lands. Our first stop was along the trails in the lower Salt River area. We never reached the river, but it is visible in the distance near the center of the image below.

After a few cache finds, we made our way to Bulldog Canyon and the oldest geocache in Arizona. Saguaros are plentiful in the area and tower over most of the other vegetation.

Most of the desert hides are hides even I can spot.

Finding out Cholla will pierce the soles of waterproof hiking boots was painful in multiple ways.

We moved on to Usery Pass and were treated to a few new bird sightings including the black throated sparrow

and the phainopepla.