Nov 25 - 27 Catalina State Park & Mt. Lemmon

Nov 25
It's travel day today, well sort of like a travel day. Our move is to Catalina State Park about 45K/ 26 miles away from where we are. Steve & Dianne have stayed in Catalina before so again we just paid our travel agent ;) and followed along. We will be meeting up with Ruth & Dale, also full time RV'ers at Catalina. They have offered to make supper for everyone. How nice is that? We briefly met them before at Quartzsite last year so we will get a chance to  talk a little more at this stop.
We took off just before 11:00 and soon we were approaching Catalina State Park outside of west Tucson. Our GPS took us off the freeway before Steve & Dianne for some reason but we ended up at the same spot. I should have just stayed with them but got caught in the exit lane and had to turn. No worries, it worked. We pulled into the park and backed into our site beside Steve & Dianne.

Another amazing mountain view.

Park Gate.

Beauty big paved sites together.

We were both getting set up and I heard Les calling me to say that the kitchen slide is stuck part way out. It was slow to come in earlier too so what the heck is up with that? I got the power and water squared away and then slid the mat under the rig so I could lay under there and access the slide arms. On our rig there is a full fabric enclosure underneath and there are 4 zipper hatches to see slides and undercarriage. With Leslie operating the slide I got a good look and it just looked like it was sticking. It takes some twisting and stretching but I got in there with some white grease and lubed the slide arms which were metal on metal. Long story shorter, that was it! The slide soon moved just like it should and we continued with setting up. 

We got cleaned up and packed the cooler to join Steve & Dianne for the walk over to Dale & Ruth's site not far away. With hugs and handshakes we said hello and also met a mutual friend, Sherry.

L to R: Ruth, Dave, Steve, Dianne & the back of Sherry.

Dale has a fantastic new barbecue/smoker. He's cooking marinated chicken and I can't wait. Cooked on the smoker it will be fabulous.

Nice barbecue Dale! Controls from his phone too.

After a couple cold drinks Dale fired the smoker and cooked the chicken. Of course it turned out amazing and we all went inside for dinner. 

Ladies at the table: Ruth, Sherry, Leslie & Dianne

Steve & I getting cozy at their cool coffee table. It lifts up and back towards the sofa!

Dale is eating at the desk.

It was a great dinner and we really enjoyed ourselves, thank you Ruth & Dale for everything! We also had a fabulous pineapple upside down cake for dessert that Sherry brought. (I had seconds of that!) After lots of laughs and good conversation we called it a day and walked back to our rigs. Another great day.

Nov 26

We are going hiking on the Park trails today. We all got packs and rode our bikes to the trailhead about 1 1/2 miles away/ 2ish kms. 

We're going to Montrose Pools and then Canyon Loop trail.

These trails are well used and in great shape. Lots of sand and gravel but wide and well signed. The hills make it fairly strenuous but the terrain is easy.

Sneaky selfie.

Wide flat surface to hike.

The hike to Montrose Pools didn't take long. Dianne is using her phone to locate a couple geocaches. We found one just off the trail and couldn't find another, hmmm?

Not large pools right now but a bit of flowing water.

Artsy shot through the grass.

There was another long hike up into the mountains but none of us were really into that today. We went back to the junction and turned right to follow the Canyon Loop Trail.

Group selfie with the mountains behind us.

There was a nice bench at the halfway point so we sat for a little bit and enjoyed the views and the warm sun. We followed a little creek part of the way back which provided enough moisture that there was grass growing in the shade beside the trail. More trees with fall colours and just perfect temps for a hike. Love it! The volume of saguaro cactus in here is amazing in itself. It's like a forest of them.

So many huge saguaro cactus.

We really enjoyed that trail and before long we were back to the trailhead and our bikes. It's not a tough pedal back to the rigs as it is slightly downhill for most of it. Once back at the trailer we made some lunch and relaxed for a little bit. We are all trying to get caught up on blog posts so we work on those in our downtime.

At 4, Dale & Ruth came over to Steve & Dianne's for a quick happy hour and a visit. Dale is having an adventure with renting a carpet steamer. First one didn't work so off to another place but that takes more time so what he thought would be done is still a work in progress. They stayed for one drink and back to their house to finish. We stayed outside until the sun went down and then inside for supper and a quiet night.

Nov 27

Today we are driving to Mt Lemmon in our truck. Our awesome travel guides suggested we drive up there today because they have been there before and thought we might like it. The four of us loaded up in the truck with Margaret and headed for the road to Mt Lemmon. The road is about 29 miles/ 50 km from the bottom to the top. There is an actual ski hill up top which seems odd because we are driving in the desert right now. Again elevation makes a huge difference down here.

Another interesting factoid is that our buddy Ailsa rode her pedal bike up this incredibly steep mountain road last year. It's a popular road with the bike crowd which also seems odd to us. Some of the hills are signed at 12% grades!! Not without a motor for this old fella. She is a special kind of crazy ;)

Looking up from the edge of the road.

We stopped at some pullouts on the way up to take some pics. Great views of the valley from up here. It's steep enough that Leslie didn't even want to look over the edge while driving up lol.

Heading up through the curves.

Switching from desert to pine forest, awesome rocks!

Half way up, still not expecting a ski hill??

At one of the larger pullouts we all got out and went for a little walk out on the rocks to enjoy the views to the valley and of course take a ton of pictures. Les doesn't mind the drop off when there are walls to hold on to so she walked out too!

Of course the group selfie.

Out walking on the rocks!! So brave.

Looking back at the road up.

Thanks Steve for a great shot.

We learned that on certain days of the month that the Arizona Border Patrol does some climbing and repelling work on these rocks. Was interesting to watch for a little bit. Leslie didn't want to watch actually.

Practising their rope skills.

We continued up the hill, passing the same few bike riders again. We waved and beeped the horn to encourage them on. Crazy tough uphill ride! There are a couple more viewpoints where you can look east back to New Mexico so we pulled into them and took more pics. We are in full alpine forrest now at 8000 feet above sea level.

It's a clear day so we think that's New Mexico out there!

At this same stop we noticed some poplar trees that had lots of black marks on them. On closer look the marks are initials etc carved into the trees from many years previous up until recently. The entire trees are marked.

Initials go up 10 - 12 feet.

Our next stop was the ski hill. At over 8000 feet they get plenty of snow in winter and although it's small we can imagine it's a ton of fun. The drive must be interesting.

A ski hill not far from Tucson Arizona !!

Unfortunately closed today :(

We jumped back in the truck and back tracked to the turn to Summerhaven. There are a couple restaurants and a pub to choose from for lunch. It's a small village with lots of rental chalets and we noticed they had a forest fire recently, plenty of burned trees right in the village. We chose the Sawmill Run Restaurant for lunch, a great choice with good food.

Just warm enough to have lunch on the patio.

Not as many stops on the way back down the hill, it always seems like a different view coming down though. It was a great idea to do this drive. The views are just off the charts amazing. We have really good guides and they work cheap lol. We drove back to Catalina State Park for, you guessed it, happy hour. Travel day tomorrow but we get one more beautiful sunset here at Catalina. 

Turn the  mountain red.

We'll make this our last post for 2018! We have been having an absolutely awesome time on the road and I hope we make it interesting enough to read about. 

Happy New Year everyone !!