Joe and Mary Ann's personal web site

This post is for the second day of our trip to SE Arizona: Aravaipa Canyon. We go to the canyon almost every year. They allow 30 permits for entry on the west side, and 20 on the east side. We went to the east side. You can get permits up to 90 days in advance, and when we checked there was only one day and three permits available in the 90 day window. So you can see it is in demand. The west side is even more in demand because it’s closer to the city (Phoenix or Tucson). When we were there we didn’t see anybody else, except for one campsite, but no campers. Where were the 18 other hikers and their cars?

Mary Ann and I made our annual trip to Aravaipa Canyon. As we have been doing in recent years, we bookend the Aravaipa hike with visits to some other spots in the area. This year’s trip we hit the same spots as last year. On April 10th (Monday morning) we drove to Roper Lake State Park and Dankworth Pond State Park. On Tuesday we hiked Aravaipa. On Wednesday we went to the town of Portal. This post is for the first day. We stayed at the Motel 6 this year. The price of motels has gone up a lot since last year, and the Motel 6 was cheaper. It was a good room, and met all of our requirements.

Mary Ann and I went to the Salt River last week, and I’m just getting around to doing a post. We had three things in mind: see what wildlife we would run into, check out the wildflowers (specifically fields of California Poppy), and see if there was still snow in the mountains.

Our first grandchild, Jude Hezekiah Lester, was born on January 16, 2023, and baptized on Feb 11, 2023, which is also the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. This post has some pictures from his baptism. It was a beautiful ceremony. Baby Jude slept through the whole thing!

Mary Ann and I went to the Desert Botanical Garden (DBG) on December 13, 2022. We hadn’t been there for quite a while. We got there at about 9:00 AM, and left at about 11:30. It was a cold morning, and it had rained the day before.

Dave and I went to the Pinal Mountains on October 31. Dave wanted to get some drone footage of the fall colors. I was happy to go along. I hadn’t been to the Pinals since the Telegraph fire last year. It was a pretty bad fire, destroying 51 structures, and closing all the roads. It’s one of my favorite spots, and I was anxious to see how it fared.

Mary Ann and I went to the Verde River on October 18. We stopped at three recreation sites, which are all close together: Needle Rock Recreation Site, Verde River Recreation Site, and Box Bar Recreation Site. Needle Rock is about 50 minutes from home, and we got there at about 7:45, and left at about 2:00.

Mary Ann and I went to the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch (RPWR) on Wednesday, October 5. We got there at 7 and left at about 10. It was really nice weather in the morning, but by 10:00 it was starting to warm up.

Dave, Fr. Charlie, and I went to Mingus Mountain on August 11, 2022. It’s a 2 hr drive from Fr. Charlie’s place, and we got there at about 8:30 AM. It was my first trip to Mingus Mountain. We wanted to find some cool weather, and we wanted Dave to finally see the Red-faced Warbler, so Mingus Mountain fit the bill. Mingus Mountain is just off Highway 89A, between Prescott Valley and Cottonwood.

Fr. Charlie and I went to Woods Canyon Lake on July 7, 2022. The lake is on the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of 7,500 ft, so it’s a nice place to get some cool weather on an unusually hot day in Phoenix. It’s a two hour drive, and we got there at about 8:30 AM.