This past weekend we decided to be spontaneous and go camping on Mt. Lemmon.
Friday
Steve got off work a little early on Friday and we packed up a few things for camping and headed to a sporting goods store to purchase a tent. We got one that sleeps two people and headed up the mountain.
We looked at several of the campgrounds up there before deciding on a spot to stay the night. We chose a campground in the Coronado National Forest called Rose Canyon.
I thought we’d see the lake right away, but it is really tucked back into the campground and we didn’t actually explore it until Saturday morning. We’d stopped on our way and picked up dinner. We ate our sandwiches and then set up camp.
The bees were EVERYWHERE!
I almost said…”nope, let’s go back!” I knew that when the sun went down the bees would go to sleep so I toughed it out and sure enough they did disappear with the sun.
The weather was amazingly comfortable. It was cool but not cold and we had a nice patch of sky just above our campsite so I could star gaze, which is my favorite thing to do when camping.
Once we had enough of relaxing, Steve in his hammock and me in my camp chair, we headed to the tent.
We had to put the fly on it because it started a gentle rain, which was so soothing.
It didn’t rain much and we did our best to sleep well, but sleeping on the hard ground is not the same as sleeping in an RV! We tossed and turned all night, I was on a hump in the ground and Steve had a bit of a slope.
Saturday
Needless to say we were up with the sun…and so were the BEES!
We ate our breakfast and had some camp coffee and started loading up our gear.
We went to the lake and walked around it. There were tons of folks fishing! The water was really clear and we could see some of the biggest tadpoles! We heard a few of the bullfrogs croaking too.
After hanging out at the lake we started back down the mountain. My knee was really stiff from all the running last week and we didn’t feel rested enough to really enjoy a hike.
So, we came back to the RV, unloaded our stuff, Steve took a little nap, and when refreshed we continued on with our day.
We got groceries for the week and picked up a couple of freshly baked treats from a bakery.
The rest of the day was spent reading, hanging out at the pool, and relaxing.
Sunday
Sunday we got up and tackled our weekly hike!
We actually did two!
We went to Cienegas Creek, which was about 100 feet down in a ravine. The temperature dropped at least 10 degrees on our descent. We took our time enjoying the beautiful greenery, flowing creek, trains on the railroad track overhead, watching some birds and butterflies too!
It was very peaceful there, but you could see where when rains come the creek becomes a raging river. There were places with branches piled up taller than Steve and lots of debris.
You can check out some photos and a video of our hike at Cienegas Creek HERE.
After hiking out of the ravine we headed to Colossal Cave.
After visiting Kartchner Caverns which is a living cave, we were intrigued to see what a dry or “dead” cave was like.
This cave contains 3.5 miles of mapped passageways, we only went 1/2 mile. It was dark, and stinky with bat guano (poop), and humid! The temperature stays at about 70 degrees all year long.
It was interesting to learn about the formation and history of the cave. The Hohokam, Sobaipuri and Apache Indians all used it in the past as well as a hideout for train robbers.
It made me sad to see how many of the beautiful formations were broken off by people wanting souvenirs. I appreciated the care that Kartchner Caverns is taking to preserve the treasure it is for generations to come.
Steve and I felt this was such a unique hike that we decided to count it in our #52hikechallenge.
You can check out photos and a video of our Colossal Cave hike HERE.
After enjoying the experience of Colossal Cave we got some salad and pizza for lunch and headed back to Airy.
We watched a movie, took a walk, and spent the rest of the evening reading.
The Rest of the Week…
This week was pretty routine for us here. Steve worked at Hospice and I worked on writing.
We enjoyed evening walks and some rain this week, although the temps were in the 100+ every day this week.
Friday
On Friday we went to a 100 year old Mexican restaurant downtown and had an amazing dinner together. We got to see some of the original structure and the waiter told us about how they dry there beef on the roof. So Steve tried a dish with some of this unique beef in it and said it was good.
Not too sure what this weekend will bring us…I will let you know!