As I write this, I'm sitting on the cabin deck drinking coffee, looking out over pine forests and mountain tops. While it's a cool 60 degrees out, the sun is baking on me making me entirely warm enough to comfortably relax on a deck chair.
As I sat on the deck I saw a mule dear come down with its young. Lauren came outside and we watched them walk acrossed the road and around the woods. We both enjoyed how much it looks like a mule and answer mixed together. It was beautiful and cute.
It's a real challenge to see, but the mule deer is in this photo.
Now, after some coffee, I am going for a walk in the area of the cabin.
I spent some time catching up on my blog, because I was a couple days behind, and then we decided to head out.
Another stop over for the trip was to see my old house in Prescott and a nearby landmark important to my childhood, the broken damn.
Pulling up the street I was instantly hit with a wave of nostalgia. I recognized the road, but it looked so much smaller. The house was still in good condition and looked to be recently redone.
We walked down the street and searched for the area we used to call the broken damn. Back when I was a kid we would go on lots of little adventures there. At the time, it was the cut off point between the neighborhoods and wild Prescott forest.
It's also probably hard to see in this picture, but you I am standing in a currently dry riverbed filled with leaves, facing the small dam. As a child, after a snowfall or rain, water would gush through the 3 foot break in the dam and pour down about 2 feet in a pretty cool waterfall.
I spent a lot of my childhood in this hidden (at the time) forested area. Now it has made into a park for local neighborhoods, which I'm glad people can still enjoy it.
Seeing the damn was an emotional and exciting moment. It is still there! It felt a little like a dream where you are playing with a beloved pet before you realized they had long ago passed away. I just couldn't believe it was still there!
Here are a few more pictures from the area. These collections of rocks were all landmark locations for me and my friends as we played in the woods. They were forts, a place to draw, lookout points, or just a place to sit and enjoy nature. I was surprised how quickly I remembered their locations.
Interestingly, this area had the remains of a native american structure. It was just hidden in the woods at the time with no marking to suggest anyone knew it was there. As kids we would sometimes play in the area and understood what it likely was, but did not think much about it, though I do remember we would try to leave it alone out of respect. It is now fenced off and shown as a historical landmark in the park.
Thumb Butte Trail:
After visiting the old house we continued up the road towards Thumb Butte to get some scenic views.
Lauren took some nice photos and we continued up the road.
We came across a state park and deciced to check it out. You had to pay for parking to get in, but we were lucky and Wednesday is free!
We decided to go up the trail a little, just to see a little.
We ended up going a good bit up the trail. We said howdy to several hikers and got some really good views.
It was pretty tiring though!
We kept pushing forward but eventually decided to head back.
We did not plan to go hiking today and the sun was starting to set. We checked and we think we made it about 3/4 the way up Thumb Butte though! We took a celebratory picture!
On the way down we ran into a small tarantula! I think they're kind of cute! They are so fuzzy!
We decided to head back to the cabin to clean ourselves up before dinner.
JAVELINA'D!
As we pulled up to the cabin we found the trash knocked over and rummaged through! The calling card of the javelina. We parked back a ways and I got out to make sure there were no animals lingering before me and Lauren went inside.
Once I found lots of hoof prints around the crime scene and the suspects long gone we went back inside.
The trash was blocking our drive, and I worry if I left it out we may attack more javelina and maybe even bears, so I went outside and picked it all up. I tried to extra secure the trash bin this time, I made sure the bungie cord was tight and surrounded it with outdoor chairs to make it extra hard to topple.
Once I had that under control, I returned the cabin and cleaned myself up for dinner.
We went out to Lindo Mexico for dinner. The restaurant was clearly a local staple with folky Mexican style decor.
I ordered a michelada that came lined with grilled shrimp, it was great!
The food portions where good and gigantic. We were stuffed and very tired when we headed back to the cabin.
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