More Time In Arizona

 Sadly, vacations don't last forever :-(

After we left Lost Dutchman State Park we went to The Resort RV Park in Mesa, Arizona.  It was an easy 30 minute drive from the state park.  Our work sites, we had three of them, were all within a half hour of the resort.  The park is huge!  It has nearly 800 spots, some of which are for RV's.  I can imagine they're quite busy during the winter.  They offer a large swimming pool, Jacuzzi, laundry, dog park, pickleball courts, tennis courts, a post office outlet and so much more.  They even have plenty of activities to keep residents and visitors entertained.

site #392, all sites are back-in

We ended up staying there two weeks.  Dog owners are separated into a small section in the back of the park.  You must drive your dog to the dog park (at the front of the resort) because they aren't allowed on certain streets.  They do, however, have an access gate at the rear of the park which leads to a street.  Many dogs are walked out there but I didn't see any evidence (if you know what I mean).

There are quite a bit of outdoor activities to do in the Phoenix city area.  It can be as simple as visiting a neighborhood park, riding horses, backpacking, bicycling, going to an outdoor museum or one of our favorites - taking a walk with the puppers :-)

One afternoon we went on a hike at nearby Papago Park.  It's short buttes sure make an interesting hiking area.  Although the parking lot was nearly full, we didn't encounter many people during our visit.

such a cool place to hike

We didn't have much time there.  But it was for a good reason.  Just down the street from the park entrance we saw a huge (drive through style) area where Covid vaccines were being given.  I parked across the street from the entrance while Ron went and spoke with a volunteer.  He said come on in!  :-)  Maneuvering our beast through the zig-zag of cones and ropes was a slow process but I handled it well.  Yippee!  We each have our first Covid vaccination shot!!  

Another day we drove to nearby Usery Mountain Regional Park.   It's actually on the same street as our RV park so it was super convenient.  The park is over 3600 acres, has a campground (we'd fit, barely), plenty of hiking/riding/biking trails, an archery range and even an outdoor fitness area.

Wind Cave Mountain from Blevins trail

A popular hike is up to the Wind Cave.  It's 1.5 miles, considered difficult and has plenty of switchbacks.  We may try this hike sometime in the future but we felt that Rufus would have a hard time so we decided to venture to the south end of the park.

even some rock scrambling too

We ended up hiking 4.25 miles.  We started on Blevins trail and made it a larger loop by adding Cat Peaks trail.  While on Cat Peaks trail we got a good view of The Superstition Mountains in the distance.

There are plenty of cactus to photograph too!

The cactus skeletons are interesting

there are nine fitness stations

long shadows after a full day :-)

While staying at The Resort, we did a thing...

some assembly required!

We got an E-bike! :-)  It was packaged very well!  The directions aren't the best but Ron managed to put it together after work one day.  The neighbor was nice enough to sign for it and call us when it arrived :-)  Once it was assembled Ron took it for a test drive.  He managed to get it up to 27MPH!  The speed limit inside the park is 15.  He's such a lawbreaker...  I can see lots of fun adventures with the bike.  This is primarily for me to use as Ron already has a mountain bike.  

That's it for now.  When we leave Mesa, AZ we're planning to do some desert boondocking outside of Yuma on our way back to Sacramento.

As always, feel free to click on the photos for a larger view.  All links open in a separate window.