Day Two: Hiking Tanque Verde Falls

On the second day we had two hikes planned first one was to Tanque Verde Falls.  The write-up sounded awesome..."Spectacular waterfall in the middle of a desert canyon"  and also a bit dangerous " More than 30 people have died at the falls as a result of jumping into shallow water or getting washed away by flash flooding, which can happen suddenly due to a rainstorm many miles away."  We had a perfect day, so no chance of flash flooding and no plans to jump into the water so we were good... one thing...it was January and the dry winter gave us no falls whatsoever... but still was a great hike!

Heading down into the canyon

Looking down the canyon at the Tanque Verde Wash (in Arizona, arroyos are called washes, back east...dry creeks)

Where the waterfall should be 

Almost to the bottom of the canyon

One of the many large boulders in the canyon that were moved by the force of the water

Joe stands next to it for size comparison

Hiking towards the waterfall area

I love the varying colors of the rocks

The remaining pools reflect the beauty of the canyon walls

Joe is ahead of me (obviously) hiking towards the Falls

It turns out to be quite a climb

Amazing colors

Joe decides to stay here as he still is not too stable after the foot surgery.  I continue by myself

This is about as far as I get by myself, the rocks were quite smooth and slippery even without the water

Looking down on Joe

Marking my accomplishment

Naturally, going down was harder than going up

I called this denture rock

Often in the winter the chollas will turn magenta

This small saguaro is growing along the ground...and yes we all know what it looks like

After this hike we head over to Madera Canyon....see the next blog posting!