2020 Winter Camping Trip Day24-Siphon Draw

2020 Winter Camping Trip Day24, 2020/12/19

We went more South in Arizona and did a hike in a state park near Phoenix.  The hike is called Siphon Draw and the Flatiron. It is a 6 miles with 3000 feet elevation gain! Coming this south, cacti appeared in the field. More specifically, Saguaro! Saguaro is an iconic cactus. When you type cactus on your phone, Saguaro emoji automatically shows up. It is that famous, but actually I had never seen Saguaro in person. Saguaro and other cacti in the field was really beautiful and I loved the cactus scenery! The hike was very steep (fun), pretty, but crowded. 

Going up

The hike starts in the state park, but only a half mile it enters national forest. State park charges hikers but only a half mile is actually in the state park! Hummm. First 2 mile is only 1000 elevation gain.

The first 2 miles were like in the left picture. Going up to the flatiron in the beautiful rocks was nice. On the grass there are some Saguaros. I loved this kind of geology. My English teacher when I learned English in California is from Phoenix and this reminded me of her. She says she loves desert and sometimes need to go back there since she now lives in Vermont. 

flatiron

Going up more, the flatiron got in the sight. In the left picture, the most left rock is the flatiron. The destination of the hike was there. You now might think, "Oh it is up high!" Yes it was. The last mile is 2000 feet elevation gain. There is not an official trail and you just climb up a gully. I was surprised that this type of hike exist in the West: very similar to New England steepness. Surprisingly, despite the steepness, many people were here. Probably because 1) it is not far from Phoenix, 2) it was Saturday, 3) more people are already off on Dec 19th, 4) students are definitely off (we saw many student-looking hikers). Since we are used to this type of steepness we had no problem, but we saw many people stopped before the gully, especially people with whining dogs for the steepness. 

From flatiron

From the top, I saw very very West-ish view. I love this kind of scenery. I always think this is the America. Japanese don't call United Sates as US or USA, we call it America. Since my first place to live in America was West, I always think the West-ish view the America. The Western view always linked to my new chapter with mixture of fear and excitement. If you are an immigrant, you know the feeling. The feeling something you had never had before. Looking at the vast West view always brings such waves of sense into my heart.

After we enjoyed the hike, we stopped by a Japanese grocery store in Phoenix! I was really happy to learn that there is at least one Japanese store in Phoenix! We stocked up some camping food there (always Japanese one is good!). Next to the grocery store there was a Japanese bakery shop: of course we stopped by and had some bread for the hike next day. Yay! Phoenix....big enough and a lot of hiking, and warm. Not bad to live there.