Hiking the Catalinas

This place is a great one for hiking!  And a lot of people do it.  Catalina State Park has been our home for about a week and we are pretty impressed with how well things are run here.  We have enjoyed our campsite and location.

Yesterday was our day to get out and do some hiking.  We were about a mile from the trail head and started about 10:00 AM.

We took the Canyon Loop Trail and noticed a group of artists painting scenes of the mountains in the distance.

Must be a local thing.  Last week in the campground I saw a lady by her Class C painting.  Can't remember the last place I saw so many painters.

As our walk progressed Pam saw a bright bright fully red bird land in a tree nearby.  As I struggled to pull out my big camera with the telephoto lens, it got away.  Same thing happened with the couple of lizards we saw.  But I did manage to get one in my sights...

And another surprise was getting a shot of a butterfly on the trail

Not sure who this guy was in the shade of the tree

I thought the flowers were going to be gone by now.  Thought they had all bloomed out and wilted.  Nope.  

There were plenty out there

And a majestic saguaro on the decline

The Catalinas are something that you could just look at and ponder all day...

And the trails were all in good shape

It was a pretty great way to spend a couple of hours and we got some needed exercise.  We like this park and hope to hit some more trails while we are here.

That's all for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for joining us!