After one day in the black-top parking lot world of Mesa, John and I were ready to leave this busy civilization behind, at least for a day. We decided to head to the McDowel Mountain Park just a 40 minute drive from where we are staying. It is supposed to be a beautiful desert park with many trails to chose from. We made it there just before noon and gave our pups an opportunity to drink some water before heading onto the trail. The park ranger at the entrance had recomended the North Trail for us as she saw that we had dogs with us, and it was supposed to be an "easier" desert trail. There were many varieties of cacti to be seen and felt. After having been on the trail for a few minutes we were glad we had heeded the ranger's advice and not gone for the more moderate trail. The North Trail was indeed an "easy" hike for us, but for the dogs it was much harder. They were hot, tired quickly, and poor Teddy got multiple cacti thorns stuck in his paws... three times. (Teddy has had a rough vacation!) The other trails were a bit harder in grade and narrowness, which would have made it even more difficult on the pups to not step on throny vegetation.
We had worked up an appetite so we decided to head back to the town of Fountain Hills that we had come through on our way to the park. It had looked so cute and we were now ready to explore it. The town has a small lake in the center with a fountain that shoots a stream of water 350 to 500 feet into the air, every hour for 15 minutes. The only times when the fountain does not blow is if there is a wind higher than 10 mph. There is a nice walking path all around it that is frequented by the locals all day long in the winter. When I say winter, here that means 75-85 degree temperatures. It was fabulous. In the summer when the temperatures easily reach 120 degrees, the people only use the path in the wee hours of the morning.
The whole town of Fountain Hills is very clean, landscaped beautifully with native plants, and the people are very friendly. We used Trip Advisor to help us find an eatery. The #1 in town is DJ Bagel Cafe. Neither John nor I can remember a time when we had such good sandwiches. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of our orders. Next time we make it down to AZ in an RV, we will stay around Fountain Hills. There is supposed to be a beautiful Native American site that is right on the river. Live and learn. Next to Sedona, this is our second favorite town we've visited. Back in the RV, everyone is taking an early evening nap, except yours truly.
Before going to bed tonight we decided to try the pool that is in our section of the park. The water was a balmy 82 degrees and the air temperature was 76 degrees. The hot-tub was too warm for me; it was huge... 20 feet in diameter. There is only seating around half of the hot tub so I can only guess that this is so you can walk or swim in it.
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