Pics from our weekend in the mountains

I was having some issues with my cell phone this weekend, which was keeping me from uploading photos. I thought I had to replace it, especially since it was drowned from the storm on Saturday! It's up and running today though, so here are some pics from our weekend...

It stormed every day at lest once while we were up there...

Pictures abound...

Every min of the hike little one was trying to get service.

Girls without cell service... it's a fun thing!

Saw a few structures like these throughout the hills

She didn't want to admit it, but she was having fun.

The joys of iPhones

Little one was picking the 'nose' of the mountain.

Just a friendly reminder that we are in the desert.

Almost walked right up on this guy, he wasn't moving for anything!

This is what I call a fire ring, hard to tell, but it's about 12' in diameter. 

These are stadium seats for one of the camps on top of the mountain, and look over the fire ring above.

This is Saturdays storm that was forming while we were hiking.

Thought this was cool, a tree growing out of solid rock.

Had a blast out hiking this weekend.

Ok, could have done without the mega storm this morning. We had planned to spend the day at the local craft show, and resident yard-sale, but nature had another idea. We did get to see a lot of deer and elk while hiking. Altogether we hiked Friday and Saturday, and plan to hike to the peak in the morning. That is if nature allows it. We have another storm heading our way now, we can hear the thunder in the distance.

On a side note, no one was hurt or missing on the mountain today, officials were just checking on the welfare of those up there camping. However the storm did touch off a brush fire 17 miles from here on the ridge.

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My insanity on display
www.pioneeringaz.blogspot.com

No stranger to desert thunderstorms...

But we were hit with the mother of all storms!

We are currently camping in the local mountains. Doing some hiking and getting some good R&R under my belt. We've had thunderstorms the last couple of days, with a good amount of water. Today however we were blind sided!

A storm came from the west, around the peak and hit us head on! We only had a min or two to run to the RV and attempt to get the awning down. Well, the 53 mph (according to another campers weather station, it also recorded 1.7 inches of rain in 30 min.) winds beat me to it, the awning snapped like a tooth pick, blocking the doors to the RV. I was able to lift it up to get the family inside, and I fought with the awning for a solid 20 min to get it out of the way. Meantime, the rain turned to hail, and the winds picked up. Needless to say, I was SOAKED!
We were the lucky ones though, after the storm Search and Rescue made a run for the mountain that little one and I had just hiked down from before the storm started. There were a lot of people on the mountain today, and I'm guessing there are a few who couldn't make it down before this freight train of a storm hit.
So here we are, its been raining on and off since 11am the roads are blocked, we are on house arrest, but everything's ok, I have plenty of beer, and we are doing it redneck style trying to dry our clothes between rain storms!

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My insanity on display
www.pioneeringaz.blogspot.com

Some Random Sights from the past couple days...

This years monsoon is one that will be talked about for a while I think. We've had a lot of moisture come through. We have blankets of wildflowers, which is unheard of for August! Really enjoying it, too bad the temperature has been triple digits at the same time! 

Too dang hot!

Coolest it got last night was 78.9 at 3am! But the rain, plus the humidity has made the desert bloom big time! Carpets of yellow and green everywhere! So cool to see.

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My insanity on display
www.pioneeringaz.blogspot.com

Waiting on another storm...