AJ, AZ - Wind Cave and Pass Mountain

Another day, another hike, this one a bit further from our resort. We began with Wind Cave which is mostly a 3 mile round trip hike up and down Pass Mountain with lots of switchbacks. The view at the top is great and we stayed to enjoy this a while. We began with this because we figured that if we began with the other hike, a 7 mile hike around Pass Mountain, we’d never want to go up to Wind Cave when we got back to the car. And, we were right. 

The second hike, the Pass Mountain hike and was a typical desert hike around Pass Mountain with lots of cholla and saguaro and ocotillo dotting the landscape.

Cholla are often called ‘Jumping Cholla’ because they seem to ‘jump’ onto you and get their spines imbedded in your clothing. However, it just seems like that since it is so sudden. However, it is a bit more subtle than that. Here’s a cholla in all its glory. Note all of the little baby chollas at the base of this larger one. These are parts of cholla arms which fall off and lie in wait in the trail for unsuspecting hikers. I’m sure this is what I stepped on when we were hiking on November 3rd when I found loads of spines in my shoe and sock. I must have walked over this and it rose to the challenge and got me good.

We enjoyed the hike but, since it was a fairly typical desert hike, I don’t have pictures of the hike itself. I do have pictures of the flora we found along the hike which were just beautiful in the noon-day sun. Note how the sun just make these grasses golden.

And, here’s another cholla cactus with each spine outlined by the sun.

And the sun turned each leaf of this ocotillo into a translucent green light.

A beautiful day for a hike - and, didn’t everyone know it. On the west side of Pass Mountain, we were in constant view of the Phoenix suburbs and could hear the constant popping from the gun club and the whir of the chopper blades of the police helicopter flying over head. As we rounded the northern tip, we emerged into the wilderness and all we could see were the mountains ahead, the blue sky above and the desert before us. Quiet solitude. Oops, there’s another hiker up ahead of us. And, further on was a group of hikers having a quiet lunch in the sun. And, there was a group of hikers consulting their GPS. We had hours of solitude punctuated by minutes of friendliness.