Sunday Salutation

As I mentioned in the last post, it's been gloomy and cold, so we haven't been doing much (if you don't count whining). With the temps back up, we decided to hike to Tom's Thumb on Sunday. The trailhead is about 20-25 minutes away, in North Scottsdale, and took us through Troon, which is a cool real estate development & golf course surrounded by boulders. The trail is a little over 2 miles each way (about 2 hours total), but there are lots of offshoots you can jump on should you feel the need. I'd say it was pretty intense in the first direction - all uphill (we gain about 1,000' elevation to about 3,000') - but it was surprisingly not as difficult as it seemed it should be (if that makes sense). People of all ages and sizes were doing it, and there were even a couple of new moms with infants strapped to their chests or backs. But it was definitely uphill for the first 45 minutes. Maybe we didn't notice because the vista was so breathtaking.

It could be so flat, but if you just looked a teeny bit more to the left, you'd see mountain croppings jutting out of the valley in the distance.




Seriously, this had to be one of the best hikes I've ever done, and that's saying something. Every time you came over a ridge or around a big boulder, you'd get this massive vista that you had to twirl around and do a 360 to take in. We had no idea what we were aiming for - any of the outcroppings could have been Tom's Thumb - but we'd walk and walk and see the trail continuing and were nothing but glad that we had more to come. We couldn't wait to see what came next. I will say that this trail can get crowded and can be narrow in places where you can't help but notice the foot traffic (and mountain bikers - !!), but it wasn't enough to sully the experience for me (and that is also saying something).

There were lots of weird boulder formations.

That's the "thumb" across from Michael, but it's still a long, winding way away.

As we made our way there, we ran into this vista. That mountain range in the back is where we've been hiking.

Here's an example of how big the boulders around us were. Can you see Michael leaning in the first pic?



There were some great views of the smog over Scottsdale and the rest of the valley.



And we're there! If you look closely at the first pic, you can see some tiny-looking hikers sitting on the right side of the rock. People with climbing gear do go up this thing.



This is one of those few hikes where there's something to look at the entire way, so both the journey and the destination are cool.



On our way back, which was easy but slippery due to gravel, we decided we wanted to be this couple sitting on the ridge. We'll bring our camping chairs and some lunch and just take it all in.

The temp was exactly 70 with a chilly wind that kept it from getting too hot, and a hot sun to keep it from getting too cold. I wish it would stay like this forever. However....we're expecting record breaking temps by the end of the week - in the 90s - so here comes summer!