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Last night we decided to take a hike this
morning then take a bike ride in the afternoon if the weather cooperated. Woke
up to evidence that it had rained...puddles in the lawn chairs. The air felt refreshed again too.
Left about 9:30 a.m. for Saguaro National
Park...we were going to look for some petroglyphs on King Canyon Wash
Trail. Got a map and headed for the trail. Found the trailhead, geared up and set
off. Got caught in gentle rain for a
bit...we were in a wash with mountains going up on either side so it was hard
to tell by looking at the sky which way it was heading; our field of view was
kind of narrow. After about 20 minutes
it stopped...and in about another 10 minutes we were dry. 
It wasn’t clear on the map where the
petroglyphs might be but with directions from some other hikers we were able to
find them. Once we found the area it
took a minute or two to find the first one because it was faint...these were
not as obvious as the ones we found yesterday. Angle of viewing was important
also...as we stood there and slowly turned around more and more of the ‘rock
art’ became apparent.
I see these
examples of communication left by ancient Indians (today known as the Hohokam)
and I really wish I knew what the pictures/symbols meant to them. Some are easily guessed at, some others not
so much. It’s a mystery that will never
be definitively solved because these petroglyphs are thought to be from the 300
to 1450 A.D. timeframe. It is said that
these images were set in stone before Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492.
After spending some time in the petroglyph area we continued on until the next trail
sign and took the other side of the ‘loop’ back to the parking area. This trail took us higher up the mountain
side; from that vantage point we could see the wash that we had just hiked
along and more rain coming. My hope was
that we’d make it back to the truck before it arrived...no such luck. We did get rained on again except this was
more like the 12 inch rain that ‘Sam Elliott’ had told us about. 😉
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It’s now 5 o’clock; the sun finally came out
and there’s blue sky in the distance.
Too late to take a bike ride (we have plans at 6) but hopefully this
signals a change in the general weather pattern. I’d be up for a few days of sun and warm.
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Since we have a kitchen we haven’t been
eating out very much this trip...refrigerator and oven/stove make such a
difference. But tonight we went out with
Willie and Ann to a local restaurant called La Poloma. It’s one of two restaurants that I know of in
Eloy. It serves mostly Mexican food and
some hamburgers/sandwiches. I can only
vouch for the smothered burrito...it was good eatin’! Others at the table indicated that the Friday
fish fry was good too.
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Rain is out of the forecast for a couple of
days and there were big patches of blue sky when we left for supper. However,
the sky is not clear enough for Kim to image.
He hasn’t had too many clear Arizona nights so far this trip but the
weather should be clearing and hopefully that will change.
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Kim switched all the interior lights in the
trailer from incandescent to LED....that’s 21 little bulbs between the bedroom,
bathroom and kitchen/dining area. What a difference it makes! The lighting isn’t as harsh and it’s brighter
(whiter) and quieter. Previously in
order to have enough lighting to see adequately in the kitchen/dining area all
three overhead lights had to be on and it was enough to kick on the inverter
which has a sound. We’ve been sitting
here for more than an hour with one overhead and two side lights on...more
light, no inverter, no noise, using less power.
Bingo! 👍
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Very tired tonight...must have been the
combination of fresh air and good food!
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