Two Fridays ago my daughter Katie invited me to go hiking with her at Boyce Thompson Arboretum. It had been three months since the last time I’d hiked, so I was interested in an easy trail. In Katie’s memory, the High Trail at the arboretum was fairly level.
But to this old lady, it wasn’t. Not that it’s steep, but there are plenty of rises and dips, lots of rocks and steps. I was glad I’d brought my trekking pole; I couldn’t have made it without it.
The Arboretum is located on 392 acres adjacent to the Tonto National Forest. Its landscape is desert, plus hardy trees and beautiful flowers. Many of the trees have been transplanted from other locations.
We were fortunate to be there on a Friday, because we had the place seemingly to ourselves. There were plenty of cars in the ample parking, but the arboretum is large enough that you’re not bumping into the other visitors. On the weekends I believe there are larger crowds.
My daughter Katie ahead of me on the trail.
An example of the lush forest.
Interesting rock formations.
A fallen tree in the eucalyptus forest. Look at the root structure.
We’ve had an unusually dry summer, even for Arizona. Usually we have monsoons in July, and this little stream would actually have water in it.
All the pictures up to this point were taken by me. Unfortunately, my camera’s battery ran out halfway through our hike. Luckily, Katie took some gorgeous pictures with her phone that she was willing to share. All the rest of the pictures in this post are hers.
Yours truly.
Garden path.
Butterflies!
Wildflowers.
Shady path.
Here you can see the roughness of the trail. Not horrible, but not smooth, either.
ARHtistic License 
Stunning photos!
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Beautiful photos! I’ve always wanted to go there, but haven’t made it yet.
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Oh, you’ve got to go, Linda. There’s so much to see, so much beauty.
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Very beautiful and a lot different terrain than I would find in my area … New Jersey. Thanks for sharing.
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We’re from NJ. My hubby and I grew up in Rumson. We’ve lived all over central Jersey–Edison, Perth Amboy, East Windsor, and Hamilton Square. We moved to Arizona 31 years ago, so we’re almost natives now.
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Very interesting. I live in the north Jersey area, Verona. I have been to Arizona once as a high school student traveling with other teens on a drama/music trip. I was the only East coast kid on the team. The Arizona native thought it was so funny that I was excited to see cactus. 🙂
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Looks like someplace for us to go hiking together again next time I am in Phoenix!
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Yes! Let’s do it!
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We’re considering Arboretum for our hike. So far we have to decide which place we will be doing our activities.
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Reblogged this on Doing Life Together and commented:
I’d like to share some pictures of one of the loveliest places in Arizona.
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