Monday, January 28/2013

The sun is shining this morning and I can actually see blue sky.  Woo Hoo!!  Hopefully the rain has run its course and there is nothing but blue sky and sunshine in our future.
It will be nice to get out and spend the day outside.

Water running over the road.  This road passes through
the Hassayamppa River which is usually dry - except when it rains
for several days in a row.

The river is running!

Sun on the water of the Hassayamppa

One funky looking saguaro cactus - seen along
Scenic Loop Road, on the way to Box Canyon

Lots of water in Box Canyon

Pak Rat house

More water running in "the box"

Erosion - water emptied into the Box

Looking down into Box Canyon

Vulture Peak in the distance

Kay and I headed out to the grocery store today and stopped at Mitch's to see if his agave were doing OK.   We were pleased to see that they are all looking pretty good although the tracks of the javelina were around the plants but there was only a few fronds disturbed.   Now that is a good thing.
We headed off to town and noticed that the Hassayampa River was flowing.  Now this is normally a very dry wash but with the recent rains, it is now running.  It was awesome to see.
We headed up to Rincon Road where we were able to actually get out of the truck and walk to the water's edge and get some pics.  I was surprised at the amount of water that was running and Kay mentioned that there are times that the whole river runs.  At one point, a few years ago, it was running so much that it actually eroded the river bank so much that a whole house went crashing down into it and was swept under the bridge.  Ray was lucky enough to witness the spectacle and said one minute the house was floating down the river and the next it hit the bridge and came out the other side as nothing but toothpicks!!  Now that would certainly be something to see.  Needless to say, the bridge sustained some damage as well.
Today, the river was not running anywhere near that capacity but it was still pretty awesome to see.
After we did all our running around, we came back to the park and unloaded then, decide to take a drive up to Box Canyon via Scenic Loop Road.  We both wanted to see how much water was "in the box".  We asked John to join us but he was not so inclined so once again, it was just Kay and I.  Ray had gone to visit his sister.
We headed out and got to the box without incident.  We stopped a few times along the way to take some pics of a pretty unique looking saguaro cactus and Kay spotted a pack rat's nest that was pretty awesome as well.
Once at the top of the box, we parked the truck and walked down into the wash/canyon.  We could hear the rushing water before we saw it and once we did, it was pretty cool.  Although we have seen this canyon much fuller, it was still a great sight to see.  There was a lot of erosion evident on the walk down and even that was pretty awesome to see.  Man, it must have been flowing big time in the middle of all that steady rain that came down.
We then hiked back up to the truck and headed back to town stopping every now and then to collect garbage along the road.
Once back in the Park, Marybeth came by so that Kay could help her with some computer stuff (Kay is our park techno geek).
It was time to feed the birds so I threw some seed out there while it was starting to spit rain again.  I guess I won't be sitting outside today to watch them.
The javalina came by - actually it was only Scarface, so I grabbed some food and chatted to him while I threw it to him.  I was actually standing fairly close to him.  He is not really afraid of me anymore and since it was only just him out there I was feeling a bit braver.   He took his time eating and while I was standing there, I heard Marybeth and Kay in the garage so I went over and joined them for a beverage.
Ray came home shortly thereafter and Marybeth and I both took our leave.
Supper was simple fair again tonight.  John had already eaten so it was just myself I had to worry about and vegetable soup and fruit salad was what was on the menu!
After that, it was relaxing in front of the TV until bedtime.  Another great day spent with some added adventure today.