walking before midnight

Last week while scrolling through the sea of facebook updates, I found one that made me wish that I was a tad closer demographically to my good friend Jessica. She wanted to know if anyone would like to join her for an early morning walk on the beach. Of course, I sat there on my barstool in front of my own computer screen waving my hand in the air: "me!! me, I want (need!) to go for a walk on the beach! pick me!!!!" No walk on the beach for this desert girl but it did spark an idea: a virtual blog-hop walk! 

because sometimes you just need to escape, to be outside surrounded by nothing more than the warm desert light of summer and towering cactus plants. Ironically, I find myself craving the outdoor scenery more so in the summer months here, likely due to needing to spend so much time indoors because of the heat. There is an art however to venturing outside in the desert during summer months though that makes the 100+ temps bearable - I've learned to move slowly through the desert and in doing so I'm rewarded with the time to take in and observe the smallest of details in the landscape around me. Taking a walk outdoors in the evening also means that there are far less people to share the surrounding areas with, you're often left with sprawling landscapes all to yourself, void of any other person but filled with wildlife that comes alive as the sun starts its slow journey towards the horizon. It may not be the ocean but the contrast between this harsh environment and the details in the cactus, the colors of the blooming summer flowers and vastness of the terrain is what makes Phoenix so beautiful during this time of year.

Come take a walk with me!

 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

xo ~ Tara

Sears-Kay Ruins in AZ

I think one of the best parts of Arizona is it's history and I'm not one to pass up the chance to share it with the kids. On Easter, instead of having a big family event, we decided to fill some backpacks with water and snacks and head out to explore. Turns out just up the road is the site of a 900 year old Hohokom Indian ruin - 5 buildings of 40 rooms plus the courtyards. Unfortunately I left my smaller lens behind in favor of the larger one that I own so I wasn't able to capture the full lengths and dimensions of the rooms. (I'll be returning to photograph again later this week!) It's definitely worth taking another trip back to explore the surrounding desert again! 

Sears-Kay Ruin, Cave Creek AZ 

 These are pieces of red clay pottery left behind.  I explained to the kids again why it's important to respect the history of the land and to leave it alone so that others are able to see the same things we do. Luckily, they seem to both understand and are careful to not disrupt the area around them and luckily the people who explored this area before us must have felt the same way.  

Notice the person to the left of this huge rock! I've read some varying theories about this rock, all of which I plan to investigate a little closer when I go back.  

 Most of this trail is rock or gravel which makes for an easy but slippery hike in some places. At this time of year the trail is over grown with wild flowers and flowering cacti which makes for some beautiful landscape photography. I was really impressed with this site and the kids give it a lot of thumbs up! 

Hope you enjoyed the photos of our afternoon hike! 

sweet november: to-do list

Rather than post a photo of my to-do list, which only had one thing on it today, I thought I would show you what I did instead. 

To do: go on an adventure

My sweet friend Erica and I decided it was time to take an adventure up North together, and although our plans hit a bit of a bump once we got there, it lead us back down the road to this trail: the Huckaby Trail in Sedona. Sometimes plans not working out is the best thing to have happened! 

We parked in the tiny lot right off of the bridge and followed the carved in stone steps down to a look out point. Since neither one of us had hiked this trail prior, we didn't really know what to expect but happy to see that the trail went down to the water below! (Us desert dwellers get really excited with the idea of water; rain, creeks, monsoon floods - all good things!) From there, there's a steep switch back trail for a half mile until you reach the first creek. It's amazing to be at the bridge and within minutes to be on the canyons floor looking up. (I won't lie, hiking down the canyon was a whole lot easier than coming back up! It was a slow moving process for us there at the end of our hike.) I think both Erica and I agreed on this one, it's a hike worth taking! Especially right now during Fall when the colors are vivid and crossing portions of the creek is still manageable. Hope you enjoy the photos!   

Thanks so much for visiting tonight! Hope you're having a lovely holiday weekend! 

xo~  Tara