Warming up...

Good news! After dumping "never seen before at this time of year" snow (3" in Tucson, 3' in Flagstaff, knee deep on the top of mountains surrounding Apache Junction.. and deep enough to be staying for several days on the Flatiron here in the park) Mother Nature may be loosening her grip and allowing some warmth to seep in. The wind is still quite cool and the evenings chill very quickly.... BUT the sun is definitely shining and the day time highs are creeping up! Phew. Guess we'll hang in here and carry on with hiking, biking, touring, etc. We expect to be here until the 5th when we'll head to Sun City West to visit my aunt and uncle.

Sure hope things are well and warming up in your neck of the woods...🌞 TTFN. CJ

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Superstition Mountains - before and after (the storm)

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Snow on the Flatiron!

Woke up this morning.... to pouring rain, wind gusts that rock the trailer, a cabin temperature of 51 (34 outside) and snow on the Flatiron, a well known peak that the best hikers climb here at Lost Dutchman. We had our first campfire and hotdog roast last night, knowing the forecast was predicting rain overnight, today and tomorrow.... definitely days for exploration by truck :-). Stay warm everyone... CJ. (Photos by Kathy)
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Lost Dutchman...- 2

The last posting ended rather abruptly. The following was supposed to post after the photo. For reasons beyond my control, it did not. So hereafter is the last half. Thanks.
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>> I've been a little delinquent in my postings... so to catch you up... when last I wrote we had just left Picacho State Park, also beautiful! Since then we've had the pleasure of catching up with cruising friends Tom and Jeanne in an RV Park just outside Tucson (or Tuckson as our GPS calls it :-). We had a great visit with them and caught up on all kinds of things... maybe even told a few stories and relived some of our mutual memories of the trip sailing down the west coast of North America. We met in Monterey marina and have been good friends ever since. After our visit with them we moved on to Gilbert Ray County Park, a whole 2.8 miles away. There we endured freezing temps at night and very cold winds during the day... so you can see why we're so happy to be able to sit in warm sunshine for a change. OK, enough for now. We are well. And, we hope all of you are well too. Spring is coming sometime... wherever you are, so hang in there... TTFN. CJ
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Lost Dutchman...

> Good morning. I'm sitting in my chair, under a partially opened awning, in the sun, basking in the beauty of the Superstition Mountains, and watching beautiful birds taking turns on the seed sock I hung in a nearby tree just before dark yesterday. Oh yes, and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee and marvelling at this temporary morning lapse in cold and freezing temperatures :-) This is such a beautiful site I think I could sit here forever.
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> Yes, it appears our weather may finally start to warm up (next week) according to the weather forecasting gurus. Two more days of cold and rain and then things will, hopefully, dry up and warm up. Oh wow. Two brilliantly coloured red Cardinals just arrived. One of them is actually orange. Beautiful! There's also a pair of Gila Woodpeckers that are visiting and many more smaller birds.

> If you can see it in the photo, we've rigged up a contraption that includes a walking stick, Rosemary (the rosemary plant), Rosie (the Valentines Day rose), and a hummingbird feeder. Apparently it's working as we've had many visitors so far :-). We're just going to hang out today. Kathy's recovering from a cold and we're here for two weeks so don't feel rushed to accomplish much today. With luck we'll have a fire and a hotdog roast for dinner. 🌭🌭🌭
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> Anyway, suffice to say things are very nice here at Lost Dutchman State Park and we are so very lucky to not only be here but to also be in one of the best sites thanks to our friend Donna who kindly booked two last year.
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Picacho Peak Hike (2)

And a few more.
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Picacho Peak Hike (1)

As promised.... a few pics from the hike... including looking back down at the campsite and a Saguaro cactus with encircling arms....
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