Hiking in the desert.

Today, we were camping at Skyline Park near Buckeye, Arizona.  The park is known for the hiking trails that take you over, around, and on top of the mountains.

Our hike was over several connected trails. We walked along the base of and over several rocky mountains with cactus all over and a few small scrubs and trees.  Some of the Saguaro cactus were huge.  Many over 30 feet tall. A 35 foot Saguaro is over 150 years old. The largest ever documented is 78 feet tall and over 200 years old. ​

The campground is starting to get pretty far away.

Time to get back to hiking.

This was the tallest one we passed close to on the trails.  My estimate is that it is over 30 feet tall.  That would make this cactus over 130 years old.

Our lunch stop had a wonderful view.

More mountain to climb. Can you see the trail heading up to the ridge?

Time to head back.

This caught my eye.  It looks like gold but is actually Pyrite.

Today, we hiked 7.5 miles and climbed the equivalent of 148 floors or a gain of 1,001 feet.

The hike was a combination of part of the Turnbuckle, Granite Falls, Pyrite, Chuckwalla, and Mountain Wash trails.