Estrella Mountain.......

Estrella Mountain Regional Park is another park in the Maricopa County system. For more information, click here.  It is not too far from the campground. On the way to the park, we passed Luke Air Force Base.  Normally, during the week, we hear and see the fighter jets flying over the campground. We are on the flight path for these planes, and they seem to come in pairs. They are loud, I will say that, but they are also very fast and I  enjoy watching them fly over us, sometimes going sideways. The servicemen and women are training, so these planes can come anytime from 7am to 9pm, excluding holidays and weekends. No matter, I feel safe knowing this training is going on, and what these guys are doing for all of us for our freedom. So no complaints out of me!!

lots of palm trees here

we see lots of fast fighter jets whizzing by

this is a regular commercial airport (in Goodyear)-just thought that looked cool-the pod of airplanes against the mountains

 Estrella Mountain Park has a visitor center, camping and picnicing areas, and several trails within the park. The trails are very well maintained. We did not have too much time, so we hiked the Quail Trail - a short trail, about a mile each way. The views were very nice and we enjoyed the desert flora and fauna. The trail we really were interested in, which goes around the base of the mountains and has great views, was closed due to bees. I'm assuming they are the African bees, that can be deadly. We hope to get back to the park and explore that trail, and some of the other trails there as well.

Maricopa County Park Systems 

Bee's?????  Thanks for the heads up!

walking up the wash a bit

pretty desert environment

pretty cacti 

flowering at this time of year?

 The trail was fun, gentle up and down through the desert. We had a good view of the golf course too...which is the only golf course we've seen that did not have bright green grass, which looks so unnatural in this area! Ha! Golf courses really stand out here in the desert.

I spy a golf course AND a crested saguaro!

check that out!

love this trail....it meanders through the desert and among the hills

very well maintained trails

pretty rocks here in this segment of the trail

atypical rock for this area (at least we haven't seen any like this around here)

continuing on the trail

now isn't that pretty? A little hiking treat!

desert environment

more

warming up now! And soooo glad I have this dorky hat!!

I still want to do the beaded band thingy around this hat...hahahha

 We haven't seen too many quails here in Arizona...just a few at our campground. Until we came here! We stumbled upon a whole bunch of quails, and they were very shy. They literally ran away, with their feather heads bopping along. Its was comical to watch. I'm not sure when they fly, but they seemed perfectly content running away from us, instead of flying.

A little internet search revealed that these are Gambel's Quail. As with a lot of birds and ducks, the males have the more striking plumage and coloring. These birds are found exclusively in the southwest U.S., mainly in Arizona. To learn more about them, click here.

isn't this just the cutest?

there were about 20 of them, all running into the brush

hard to see

and hard to catch up to them for a good photo!

put the camera down and keep walking.....come on!

more desert flora

this is so much fun....you never know what you will see

posing for the camera

another trail...very short and informative

another pretty hiking area!

doesn't he just look great?

The weather has been a little chilly here, most days not getting out of the 50's.  The nights have been freezing, literally. Actually, below freezing. I woke up one morning (okay, it was early....like 6:00 before the sun comes up) and there was no water!!!! My big nightmare, being here in the desert with millions of other people!! Well, turns out the water pressure thingy we have attached to the water hookup froze. No problem-haha. The campground had water. The "well did not go dry" yet.

Lots of things going on here in "summer camp" - we are keeping pretty busy. We hope to be doing more exploring in the area soon too. We'll see!!