Hay Creek Ranch

We have been here almost a month now and it is time to get things caught up here in blogland. After reading about the issues with Live Writer I was inspired to get going on my contribution. Since I made the jump to the Mac ecosystem I have been without Live Writer and sure miss it, but Blogger does a passable job, but then maybe that is why I never seem to get anything written anymore.

I have done a little riding here at Thunderbird Farms but until this weekend we had not had the LQ out of the yard. Last week we started stocking it up with supplies to carry us through 3 or 4 days of camping out near Oracle at the Hay Creek Ranch. We have heard about this place from a few of our riding friends and the Pohl's from Ponoka, along with their friend Rob Patterson were heading that way so we decided to join them.

It is a beautiful spot up on the side of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. There is a nice campground and great stalls for the horses. The first day we rode over to the American Flag Ranch House and Post Office and then a short distance up the Arizona Trail looking for a geo-cache that Ken and Verna had found online.

Looking for the Geo-Cache

Beauty doing a little trail clearing

Coming down the Arizona Trail

 We didn't take a long ride on Friday, my horses and I have not done a lot of work this summer so it was a good day for me to get some kinks out and I rode Brenda's Wink as she has only been on grandkid duty since last spring.

Saturday we woke up to intermittent clouds racing by pushed by a 30-50 mph wind and sporadic rain and snow. The mountains over there by Mt. Lemmon were covered with snow. We made a call early on that Day 2 was going to be a camp day.

There's a little snow in them thar' hills

Sunday dawned clear and sunny so we saddled up and headed down the wash to a local crested saguaro. These things are thought to be some kind of genetic mutation and only happen in about 1 in 250,000 saguaro's so they are always kind of neat to see.

And if a person was going to look for a Geo-Cache around here you might use the above picture for a clue. Today Brenda loaned her horse Wink to Rob Patterson to ride so both Blue and her were on our ride.

Rob on Wink

Mt. Lemmon complex from the Hay Creek Ranch site.

Couldn't resist a little night photography, the light pollution is a combination of Tucson and Phoenix

 Although we didn't ride far either day both Blue and Wink were looking pretty happy to get back to the trailer. All that good green grass and loafing around all summer hasn't done a lot to get them ready for hiking around Arizona washes and hills.