Patagonia

This weekend we loaded up and headed off to the Patagonia region of Arizona to do some off roading and then make it to Patagonia Lake so Jackson could swim some.  This would be true adventure, none of that locking ourselves out of the house adventure.

The trail we chose was listed as pretty easy off roading, which was nice, and had the ruins of a ghost town, Alto, on it.

(Arizona is really beautiful)

While on the trail, we saw a few horses and lots of cattle, as free range cattle seem to be pretty common and there are just the cattle guards spattered about.  Since there were cattle, we were pretty sure these guys belong to someone, but nonetheless, I imagined the movie Spirit and that these were wild horses.

(don't worry, I was safe in the car and Ben had the foresight to bring my epipens)

As it turns out, Jackson isn't quite the biggest fan of off roading.  He likes to take naps in the car and the bumps just really make that quite the struggle. 

But, Jackson does love to explore outside of the car!  We were able to see the ruins of Glove Mine, which made me want to buy Arizona history books and read all about the history of our new state (probably not what Ben was imagining when he said, "let's go explore the mountains!")

(yes, Jackson is still itching quite a lot. we're working on it.)

At the highest point, we probably reached 4,000 ft of elevation and it felt STELLAR! Maybe 70 degrees with a nice cool wind.  I have been mighty jealous hearing about the fall weather back east and for a few minutes, we were also able to feel the cool.

(look! Arizona is green!)

 Since moving, we have heard many times about the javelinas, the scorpions, and the tarantulas.  As I have actually never seen any of these in the wild, I was somewhat excited (and very much not at the same time) to see my first wild scorpion!  Naturally, I would be freaked out by the larger scorpions, but Ben says these small guys are the ones we have to worry about.

(HOW ARE WE EVEN SUPPOSED TO GUARD AGAINST HIM WHEN HE BLENDS IN SO WELL!?!)

 We finally made it to the Alto ruins!  My first real ghost town which was super duper exciting and again, made me want to go read history books and fully immerse myself in the wild west.

After a couple of hours on the trail, we came to ranch land where there were more cattle.  This time the cattle were in the road and required some encouragement to move.  This guy had a standoff with us for a bit and I strongly advocated for us to let him move at his own pace.

 We then drove to the lake, where it immediately started to rain so we decided we'll try again soon for that part of the trip (we want to make sure Jackson doesn't forget what water is).  So we drove home, and enjoyed this fabulous sunset that we get to watch every night from our backyard.

Twas a good weekend.