2 Days - Same Hiking Trail

For the last 2 days we've started out with good intentions of doing a long hike. Both days saw us getting to Usery Park MUCH later than we had planned causing us to do our standard short hike on the Merkle/Vista Trail. Yesterday we did the hike in "reverse" by starting on the Vista Trail, going up and over the hills and then returning on the flat Merkle Trail. We were treated to some wildlife on our climb up the first hill. A snake sitting in the middle of the trail scooted off before we got any good closeup pictures. We're not sure what kind of snake but it wasn't a rattler. Immediately after that we came across a chuckwalla. Not a creature you're likely to see in the "cute and cuddly" section of the zoo! On the hike today, going out on the Merkle Trail and then up and over on the Vista Trail, we only saw small lizards and, of course, the bees flying in and out of the hive at the top of the trail. One of the joys of hiking is that you can hike the same trail over and over and, if you keep your eyes open, see something new every time.

	Snake on the Vista Trail.
	Chuckwalla. This one was about 8" long.
	Ocotillo in bloom.
	Closeup of ocotillo flowers.
	A red barrel cactus in a group of chollas.
	View from near the top of the Vista Trail. Guess which way Phoenix is.