McDowell has to be just a slice of heaven...we have decided it is our 2nd most favorite place to camp, second only to Cape Fair on Table Rock Lake. Its high desert..many different kinds of cactus all around us...tall stately saguaros offering homes to tiny birds...and the 4 peaks, which I now know are the mountain pictured on the Arizona license plates. (I wish I could take credit for the 4 peaks with the full moon, but I can't..it was shared by friend Nancy, and taken by her friend Chris..so thanks, Chris.)
The hiking trails abound around here. We have done several of them--Bluff Trail, Granite Trail, Scenic Trail, Wagner Trail...some nice folks passing us up on the rim during the Scenic Trail hike took our picture so we could remember the moment. It was a 4.3 mile hike total, with lots of uphill climbing, and consequently downhill as well (tougher on the knees.) But its not very hot here yet, so the temperature was perfect.
Here is a photo of the home of some of our neighbors..this is my favorite cactus, called the Teddy Bear Chollo (sometimes the "jumping chollo" as evidenced when one of those little critters literally jumped under Sparkie's chin..her immediate reaction was to try and paw it off, and then we did have a massive problem!) Some bird has built not an efficiency apartment, but a whole condo...it surely has at least 3 rooms in it--its very long!)
We were treated to a rare sight this past weekend...it was a rainy one, with numerous thunderstorms passing us by. On two different occasions, we were blessed by full rainbows stretched across our campground. No photograph can do it justice but at least it is a reminder to us of God's grace and abundant love for us - and our memories hold the real picture of the rainbows we saw.
