We spent our last few days in western Arizona at Picacho Peak State Park. On the first day we climbed to the overlook in preparation for the second days goal of reaching the summit of the peak. The overlook was  a moderate climb and we were rewarded with views of the the plains and other mountains in the distance.

The view

Tomorrow's goal- the peak!

We started out at 9 am, early for us, because it was supposed to be hot and it is 3.1 miles to the top. The first 2 miles are rated as moderate, then 1 mile of difficult, and the last .1 miles very difficult.
Along the way we saw small yellow poppies that have sprouted up everywhere due to the rain last week. And, fields of cacti of all types.

 

The peak is in the distance, we have a long way to go!












At last, we reached 3 miles, and were greeted by wire cable to guide us.

I'm not sure what I was doing with my mouth here, maybe shouting with joy that I made it this far!

Just a little bit more and we could buy a t-shirt crowing that we had reached the summit! But, alas, it was not to be, we had finally met our match. As it was, we had exceeded our skills and I fell a couple of times on the way down due to very steep paths with loose rock. Luckily, no injuries, but we had to return to our RV defeated 😢

Our match, note the nearly vertical cables.

We were told that to get up this, one needed gloves and good upper body strength. I had neither. Also, coming back down was reported to be even scarier. Most we met had turned around at this point. But, we lived to blog another day!