January 23 - 26, 2015 (Catalina State Park, AZ)

Friday

We were lifting our jacks and heading down the road today and wouldn't you know it, we had wind again.  Rats....the wind sure doesn't help our fuel economy, good thing the diesel prices are lower than they have been.  We took our time packing up this morning since we couldn't check into Catalina State Park until 2:00 p.m.  

We finally hit the road around 10:30 a.m. and have approximately a 3.5 hour drive.  We did decide to stop at Gila Bend and top off the diesel tank because the wind had taken our miles per gallon down to around 7.....yikes we normally get around 11-12 mpg.  The truck stop had some interesting metal sculptures.....

Rich & Gracie standing with the triceratops....this dinosaur was Rich's son Jeff's favorite dinosaur when he was a kid....so Jeff, this pictures for you! 

We arrived at Catalina State Park around 2:30 p.m. and got set up in our beautiful site.  We just love the view of the mountains from our back window.  We could only get 4 nights here because the park stays full during the winter months, we were amazed that we got such an amazing view site.

Catalina State Park with the Santa Catalina Mountains in the background

We don't have full hookups, just electric and water so we'll have to go easy on our showers and water consumption so we don't have to dump our black tank before we head out.  This will be the longest that we have gone without full hookups since we've been on the road the last two years.

Saturday

The forecast today was for wind, but here in the park it wasn't windy at all.  The plan this morning was to drive up to Saddlebrooke Ranch and look at the new building lots that just opened up.  Wow was it ever windy at Saddlebrooke, we couldn't believe the difference.  

After our tour at Saddlebrooke, we came back to the 5er and had a bit of lunch.  We decided since it wasn't windy here at the park that we would take one of the hikes.  We decided to hike to the Montrose Pools and then around the Canyon Trail which was about a 3.3 mile hike.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.....

How fun, water in the desert, we had to cross this stream which was very shallow

View of the stream after we crossed and climbed a hill

Saguaro along the trail

Me and Gracie hiking the trail

View from above of the Montrose Pools

More cactus....

another view along the trail

Rich and Gracie resting beside the stream, it was so nice to be hiking around water

Me fishing some shiny rocks out of the stream bed

See how big the saguaro cactus are?

More saguaro cactus

Sign at the end of the trail....good thing we always keep Gracie on a leash.

We really enjoyed our afternoon hiking.  We really enjoy the Tucson area and the desert, it is so much greener than around Lake Havasu where we spent last winter.  The Yuma area is different because they have all the farming, but the desert isn't all that pretty either to our eyes.  I think snow birds like the Yuma area because of the much warmer temps in that area compared to other areas of Arizona this time of year.

Sunday

We attended the same little church that we had several weeks ago when we were in the area.  For a small church, they have a lot going on in the community.

After church we headed to Costco to stock up on a few items that we like to purchase only at Costco.  And of course we had to have lunch there, were else can you get such a reasonable lunch...today we decided on a slice of pizza...yummy.  After we got stocked up at Costco we drove back to the park.  The one thing about the Tucson area is they don't have the best road system and traffic can get pretty heavy and today was no exception.

After we got our groceries put away, we hopped on our bikes and took a bike ride around the park and checked out all the different areas.  They have an equestrian area, several different picnic areas and a camping overflow area.  We stopped and talked to the camp hosts at the overflow area for a bit, they were from Alaska and this was their second year as camp hosts here at the park.  Apparently after April, the park visitors drop way down though they do keep the campgrounds open, I guess it gets too hot.  The temps now are very comfortable....high 60's to low 70's.

Monday

After a morning of various phone calls we grabbed a bite and headed off to do some more shopping.  We needed to get Gracie some more chew treats at Petco and we wanted to stock up at Trader Joe's.  We love to get the aloe vera juice and cranberry juice from them because they are so reasonably priced as well as a few other goodies.  We hadn't been around a Costco or Trader Joe's since we left Oregon in the fall.

What was left of the afternoon, we just spent chilling out in our lawn chairs.  We did chat with our neighbors who were from the San Juan Island in Washington.  It's always fun to hear about other people's adventures.  Tomorrow we head further south, so more adventures to come.  Until then, I'll leave you with a picture of the beautiful sunset on our last night here at Catalina State Park.  We would definitely come back to this park.