“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep and teach our muscles to work without thinking and I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked and I dare you to notice. Don’t try to get anything out of it, because you won’t. Don’t try to make use of it, because you can’t. And that’s the point. Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be, whatever you are with whatever you have, and realize that that is enough to be happy. There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” ― Charlotte Eriksson

Back from our latest adventure  and I have lots of photo's to share. It was hard to pick from the 500 plus pictures I took but I narrowed it down....I hope you enjoy them....

Our second stop on our trip was to Usery Mountain Regional Park in Mesa AZ. Driving into the park and getting out at our campsite was one of the best memories of the trip. I was in awe of the beauty of the land. 

The park is a county park and the longest you can stay is 14 days. A lot of the campsite had feeders out for the wildlife. We saw so many birds that I have never seen before. 

This is a Gambel's Quail. They were so fun to watch 

Another great thing about the park was the the archery range they had. I was sad that I did not bring my bow with so I could shoot it with Rick. Rick was so excited to be shooting outside in February and on such a beautiful course. 

We met up with one of our archery friends who was in the area and Rick got to spend a few hours with him shooting one of the courses.  Todd was the person that recommended the park to us. 

The one time I ventured off the trail to take a picture. I learned in a hurry that you pick up lots of cactus thorns! We really had to watch the dogs as they picked up a few thorns in there paws. Poor Morgan seemed to pick up one every time she left the camper or truck. 

This was the view from our campsite...beauty

The park has 29 miles of hiking/, biking and horse riding trails. So we  pick one of the most difficult one to hike of course. 

You can see the campgrounds in the picture and beyond that the city of Mesa. 

We made it to the top and did not collapse. 

So before going on the hike we saw signs that said DO NOT FEED the wildlife. Rick thought that was for other people not him. So he decided it would be a good idea to give this cute squirrel some nuts. As you can see the squirrel was more then eager to take them.  

Of course the cute squirrel soon turned into  not such a cute squirrel when it wanted more and more and more and tried to get into the backpack and then tried to jump on Rick.  Lesson learned about obeying the do not feed the wildlife signs. 

Our last day at Usery Rick went out in the evening to shoot a few more arrows. We were blessed with a beautiful sunset from the archery range. 

Our next destination was Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood AZ. 

The park has several lagoons that you can fish in and bike and hike around. 

The main reason I picked the park was for the mountain biking trails. One of the reasons we  traded in our road bikes for mountain bikes  was to take them on camping trips. I am not an adventures mountain biker, I am happy as can be on the beginners trails. So when Rick talked me into going on the more advanced trails I was pretty sure I was going to crash and burn. But I sucked up my fear and ending up having a lot of fun. I did get off and walk some of the hills that were just a little to hard for me to get up or down. I did not want to fall into a cactus :) 

View of the campgrounds from one of the hiking trails. 

We saw a bunch of road runners while we were camping here. 

When my daughter Cassie heard we were going on this trip she said we had to go to Sedona and we had to go eat at Elote Cafe. I always listen to what Cassie says and away we went.  Our friends Connie and Larry were also traveling in the area so we asked them to come along with us. Eating at Elote ranks right up there as one of my favorite memories of the trip. It was great food, conversation and lots of laughs with great friends.  

We also took in one of the hiking trails of Sedona. We made the mistake of going to Sedona on a holiday weekend so it was a very busy! I would love to go back someday during the less busy season to take in more of the trails. 

The trail we did go on was beautiful! 

One of the other things Cassie told us we MUST do was take a Pink Jeep Tour. We booked a 2 1/5 hour tour of Diamond Back Gulch. It was a lot of fun. The tour guide was super knowledgeable about the area. We learned a lot and saw some beautiful country. 

The Pass Mountain trail was calling my name so we headed back to Usery Mountain Park for two nights. 

The Pass Mountain trail is 7 1/2 miles long. It goes up and over the mountain. It took us 4 1/2 hours to hike it and it was beautiful! 

This is not really a good picture of me but I am posting it so you can see how massive and abundant the cactus are in the park. Again I was just in awe of the landscape in the area.  

If you look in the above picture you can make out the winding trail we took back down the mountain. 

Going up part of the trail 

This was also part of the tail we had to go up on. 

 Rick is pointing to where we had come from. 

The sunsets were so pretty every night. It was so calming and beautiful. 

On the road again! We traveled through some pretty places on our way to Las Cruces, New Mexico. 

We wanted to stay at a full hook-up campgrounds for our last stay because we had to winterize the camper before leaving for home. We ended up at a KOA. Not usually where I would book but they had openings and we were having trouble finding places that were not full. But we were very pleases with the Las Cruces KOA. We had a beautiful view of the city and the mountains from our site. The campgrounds was super clean and the people were all very friendly.

Now on to another one of my favorite things. White Sands National Monument Several people told me that we had to go there and they were not wrong! 

The day we went it was  45 degrees  out and 20 mile an hour winds but that did not take away from how much we enjoyed our time there. The sand was just so white and pretty. 

Rick was setting the camera up to take a picture of the two of us and of course he always has to snap pictures of me when I am not ready and I usually look awful. But this time he got a couple of good shots of me. He never did come get in the pictures. 

This is my favorite picture of the trip. The dogs were so good the whole time and had spend almost three weeks unable to run free. When we got the White Sands they had so much fun. We were not suppose to let them off leash and "technically" we did not since they still had there leashes attached to them :) They loved the sand and ran and ran in it. Otis also rolled and rolled in it. He was covered in sand when we got him in the truck to go back. But all the sand everywhere was worth it seeing there joy running free if only for a short time. 

After we left White Sands we made our way to Dripping Springs Natural Area. I really laughed when I saw the above sign because on the website it says the trails are easy...

I like this picture of Rick because he looks like he is about to beamed up by a UFO.  

We figured we better take at least one picture of us with the dogs 

The last evening of our trip the skies turned the mountains pink. 

 Taking the time for this adventure was one of the best decisions we have ever made.  We relaxed, refreshed, were in the moment and were together discovering new things. It was wonderful.... 

Road Trips are the best.....

Sharon