Sugar Cane Trail at Beaver Dam Campground

It was actually cold here yesterday and we were wondering if maybe we left Arizona too early! But I am sure this is just a short lived thing and we will somehow make it through.  At least it is not snow and ice.  And the trees and bushes didn’t seem to mind.  They continue to grow and are turning the most wonderful shade of spring green.  There is no other green like it.  It sort of matches the blue of a perfectly clear and sunny sky.

So we bundled up and headed out in the 55 degree cloudy weather to explore the Sugar Cane National Recreational Trail that runs right through our campground.  Not one other person was out and Jake was able to lead us the whole way.  He is so good at following a trail.  He only left the trail two times and one was to show us this very dead armadillo.  We never see anything alive on our walks - we have Jake out there and I talk too much!

Since I prefer photo journalism to writing, I am going to share my photos and you can see what we saw with some simple narration.  Enjoy our walk!

This was actually taken right in the campground.  I have no idea what it used to be but it must be pretty old.

I am still working on Jake's pose.  But he did pretty good.

All of the water we saw was dark, murky and full of mud.

I was taking pictures of various bark and though this one was no longer living and in a prone position, I liked it.

The Dogwood trees are so striking in the midst of all the green.

I collected little things growing.

Right from the beginning of the trail we had red diamond markers to follow.  When I saw the pink ribbon I got all excited with the marking and just knew that the ribbon was to lead me on very carefully.  But when I got up there I realized that was not the case at all.  It has to do with cutting trees for your stove.  On one side of the trail it was OK to cut trees but on the other side it was illegal.  Not being a forest person this was new to me.  To Kirby, not so new.

These are the trees that I collected.  All so different.  I love the one that the woodpecker decorated.  Two of them have been burned but survived.