You Got Some 'Splorin' To Do Lucy!

   Finally, some pictures to show you. No more food talk. Promise. We did some exploring the past three days and had a great time doing it.

  Even though we're just north of the Sonoran Desert here in Prescott there's more than sand and cacti. On Sunday, we decided to have a look at the three lakes that surround us here in the valley: Lynx, Goldwater and Watson. We took the dogs with us for a hike around Lynx Lake and they enjoyed it immensely:

  Especially Radar!

  Fortunately, Penny had his leash so I didn't get wet when he came out and shook all that wet fur 😁. Spike, being a much more considerate guy, just got his feet wet.

  After a long walk the dogs were tired so we dropped them at home and checked out Goldwater and Watson. We decided we wanted to spend some quality time at Watson so we left it for Tuesday. We finished the day with some GREAT BBQ (sorry... food).

  Monday was much cooler and not a great day for hiking, kayaking or biking so we did some ramblin' around the Prescott area. Penny had never seen saguaro cactus so we drove south towards Phoenix. Just southeast of Prescott the elevation drops substantially (from 5,300' to 2,500') and you enter the Sonoran Desert, with lots and lots of these:

  After wandering around the area a bit we headed back north to Montezuma Castle National Monument. The name is a bit misleading as Montezuma wasn't associated with the place at all. However, the natives built some impressive dwellings 800 years ago:

  It's worth noting the bottom image shows the lower part of a five story apartment building. There was no mention about how much the condo fees were but it's apparent they didn't spend much on maintenance.

  Continuing on our loop around the area, we headed west to Jerome, which lies midway between Prescott and Sedona. It's supposed to be an abandoned gold mining town but we saw a lot of people living there. The town is supposed to be the most vertically built town in America. It sits at 5,200' and most of the roads and buildings climb the surrounding hills:

... and the aforementioned gold mine...

  We completed our jaunt with a wonderful twisty drive to the top of Mt. Mingus at 7,000':

  Today, it was time to check out Watson Lake so we rented e-bikes. What a hoot!

  For those of you not familiar with these contraptions, they're fat tire bikes with electric pedalling assist. They don't do all the work but they do make those hill climbs so much easier. We headed off on the Prescott Peavine Trail, which is an old mining railroad bed through some incredibly scenic territory surrounding the lake:

  If there are any rock climbers in the audience (David) this place is a bouldering paradise. There were amazing climbs all around us everywhere around the lake. Here are a couple of views out over the lake itself. We'll be back later in the week to do some kayaking and it should be epic!

  After all the 'splorin' the past few days we're going to take it easy tomorrow. Penny blew out her flip flop yesterday but didn't step on a pop top. Fortunately, there's a booze in the blender, and soon it will render, that frozen concoction that helps us hang on 😎. Till next time, cheers!