Hiking with friends

We'd met a couple here at Venture Out, John and Laurie, at line dance lessons. They had shared with us that they often go hiking, so we joined them on a hike on Wednesday...

Booted up (hiking boots) and ready to go!

A "before" picture as we started out hike (with Red Mountain behind us).

Another view of Red Mountain

The desert was SO green -- the green on the floor of the desert is not common, but we've had a bit of rain which allows the plants to flourish, at least for a little while!

On the hike

We were surprised that there were quite a number of folks on mountain bikes on the trails as we were hiking...

... we came to a place where there was a bike repair station, just in case!

The bike riders were much braver than I would have been -- narrow trails, lots of ups and downs and large stones in the trail, sometimes steep drop offs, and always spiny things on the side of the trail that would be very painful if you crashed into them!

Good for us though -- we enjoyed about a 4 mile hike and enjoyed a set of trails that we had not previously hiked!

We have been so busy at Venture Out that we have done very little "venturing out" to things outside the park!