FEBRUARY 2011

After a nice January, February started out cold with a couple of days with the highs in the low 40’s! By the second week in February we were back up into the mid 70’s and even hit the low 80’s a day or two.

We had a great time at the park’s Valentine’s Day Dinner. We ate a great steak dinner and afterward enjoyed music provided by a DJ.




We hiked to an area above Canyon Lake where we could look down into the lake just below the Horse Mesa Dam, which separates Canyon and Apache lakes. The scenery was spectacular.



 
 
Here are some future arches. We will need to come back in a few hundred years to see them!




 
 
 
 
 
 
 



We hiked to the top of a butte and could see the upper part of Canyon Lake






This rock formation is called “bear cub rock” as it looks like a bear cub climbing a tree.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


These are some of the rose quartz that we found laying on the ground in one area of the hike.  They are called rose quartz because some of them have a rose colored tint to them and some are shaped like flowers.








We went on a moonlight hike with about 20 people from our park on the evening before the full moon.    We started the hike just before dusk and were treated to this beautiful Arizona sunset as we hiked up into the Superstition Mountains. 




After hiking about 2 miles, we built a campfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. Why does everything taste better cooked over an open fire? Even though it was cloudy and the moon only peeked out a few times, it was amazingly light on our hike back to the parking lot. The distant lights from the metro Phoenix area were nice to watch as we hiked down the mountain.




More beautiful scenery from another hike into the Superstition Mountains.










 
 













On the last Sunday in February we had snow again – twice in one winter!   We didn’t get much here in town but the Superstition Mountains had more snow on it than we have ever seen.  It was nice for a very short time but was gone by evening.  Now back to warmer weather – should be in the 70’s in a day or two.

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