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Published: February 11th 2008
Starting a hike in Sabino Canyon
The canyon was pretty wet and the surrounding mountains were covered with snow.Tucson got gobs of rain and Mt. Lemmon turned white. This is always a wonderful sight in the desert. The saguaros are plumped up with water and the desert is green and beautiful. But, best of all, the mountains surrounding the city are covered with snow. It is just lovely!
The rain has continued to follow us on our trip west, but it hasn't been too bad. Our first week in Tucson was spent hiking and going to U of A basketball games. The hiking was a bit chilly and the basketball games were both terrific wins for the Wildcats.
From Tucson we drove to Yuma and spent a very rainy day there. They had more rain in the one day we were there than they usually have in the month of January and February!! The locals were loving it. But we weren't too pleased about viewing the old Yuma Jail in the pouring rain. The jail was worth the wet effort and added to the sense of hardship that the prisoners must have endured in that hostile climate of temperature extremes.
In California we stayed in the little ocean side town of Carlsbad. It has a great
beach walk and is close enough to San Diego and Los Angles without having to deal with the big cities. Our main purpose for going to CA was to see the Wildcats play USC and UCLA. Besides going to the games, we went to two tapings of the Tonight Show. It was much easier to get tickets due to the writers' strike.
We spent Super Bowl Sunday in Palm Springs and got hit with a fierce wind storm. The wind was gusting up to 80 miles an hour. It blew pieces of the roof off our motel and did quite a bit of damage around town. It also managed to blow out the TV cable mid way in the second quarter of the game. Ron was not happy!!! He tried to find a place in town to watch the game, but the cable was out everywhere he went. It finally came back on in the middle of the third quarter, so we did get to see the end and most of the commercials.
That same storm then blew west across CA and dumped lots of rain and snow in AZ. By the time we arrived back in Tucson
On the way to Mt. Lemmon
The day they opened the road to regular cars, we headed up to Mt. Lemmon to see some snow and experience winter on our terms. the desert had standing pools of water and the surrounding mountains were covered with snow. The news was reporting school closings or late starts throughout the city. Within 2 days we were able to do the drive up to Mt. Lemmon and we were greeted with a beautiful sight. Icicles had formed everywhere! Trees and bushes were covered in ice and glistening in the sunlight. There were still several inches of snow on the ground and the ski slope was open. Best of all, it was a beautiful sunny day and we were able to enjoy all this winter beauty in agreeable temperatures. So, we spent most of the afternoon enjoying the views, playing in the snow, having lunch overlooking the ski slope, and watching the skiiers and snowboarders enjoy the day.
We have another week here with 3 more U of A games, several more hikes, dinner with friends, and lots of desert sunshine. Saturday's hike took us to the top of Sabino Canyon with all the flooded bridges. The water was icy, but the sun was hot and it was a glorious day in the canyon.
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anonymous
non-member comment
HI RPM, I really liked the pictures with the icicles . I can imagine how pretty they were with the sun shinning on them. Hope you leave all the rain in Tuscon when you head to Florida. Looking forward to seeing you next week. Love, Nancy