Tuesday the park offered “Coffee with a Ranger” at 11:00, which we
assumed was going to be an informative nature talk of some sort. There is a
mountain bike trail around the perimeter of the park, and we rode part of that
after breakfast and found that it went through several washes and was pretty
rigorous. We ended our biking at the Palo Verde Ramada in time for the program.
Ranger Vicky was just getting set-up and surprised us by saying she had worked
her way through 6 years of schooling as a Barista and then Coffee Master,
earning her Black Apron with Starbucks. Therefore, she did an actual coffee
tasting, called “Coffee Cupping” with us, complete with some chocolate to
enhance the taste. As we continued to sip coffee, she did a presentation on
different kinds of relationships found in the desert environment of the park,
getting pretty Zen in the process. It was a very enjoyable hour program, and
the coffee and sitting in the sunshine helped to offset the breeze and
temperatures in the fifties.
After lunch in the trailer,
we set off to hike some of the park’s trails up the towering mountains behind
us. We left out the back of our site to meet the Siphon Draw Trail, crossing
out of the state park and into the Tonto National Forest, taking the
Prospector’s View Trail to the Green Boulder at 2580’ elevation, down the
Treasure Loop Trail, across the Jacob’s Crosscut Trail, and back to the
campsite along the Siphon Draw Trail. It was a nice day for a hike and a
pleasant way to spend our afternoon. There were friendly people with whom to
chat along the way but not too many, which was just about perfect. We continued
to see blooming brittle bush and found a new scarlet flowering bush that a
woman along the way identified as chuparosa. Back at the campsite, dinner was
going to taste great!
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| We're gonna OWN this mountain! |
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| Partway up |
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| That's our trailer, waaayyyy down there in the distance. |
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Green Boulder gets its name for its covering of bright green lichen. We
learned in the morning that it's actually a sign of health in the mountain air. |
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Despite looking for over a hundred years, no one has been
able to find the Lost Dutchman's (who was actually German)
Gold Mine, hidden someplace in the Superstition Mountains. |
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| Chuparosa |
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| The moon is growing and easy to see in the clear mountain air. |
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