Madera Canyon

My brother Dick and his friend Sue arrived in town last night on their way to Barstow, CA with a truck load.  They spent the night at the Tucson Truck Terminal (TTT) as they usually do while in the area.

Gerry and I met them for breakfast today and got caught up on family matters.  We decided to take a trip to Madera Canyon today and took the back roads through the Pecan Groves and down past the Quail Creek housing community.  Quail Creek was having their Canadian Days so we stopped to see what was going on.  Gerry and Sue went into the sales office and got their pictures taken for free.  They checked out a $349,000 house and said that was enough.  Dick and I stayed in the car and guarded it from bad people.  

We then drove up to Madera Canyon which is east of Green Valley, AZ.  The drive takes you from 3,000ft through desert and finally into pine trees and a narrow canyon at 5400ft.  There are some houses in the Canyon and a number of picnic areas, plus a Federal campground.  No hookups!.  The view from the end of the road was beautiful with some snow still on the mountain peaks.  It was about 10 degrees cooler up there and very refreshing.

We picked up a few geocaches up on the mountain and I showed Sue how to geocache and what it was about.  She loved it and is hooked, but I am not optimistic that my brother Dick will take up the hobby.


Gerry wanted to get some photos of a hammer head cactus and one other interesting on the way back.  They were both very large and quite old.