South Mountain

South Mountain is a city park, though it's more of a nature preserve. Hiking and biking trails are everywhere. Mom and I didn't do much hiking because of the heat, but we drove to the lookout point at the top and I took some pictures.

The stone building is for visitors to look out of and get some shade. Or that's what I assume, anyway. Hundreds of people have written their names on the rocks inside, professing love or that they "were here."

On the way out we looked all over the place for a flowering cactus I could take a picture of. The drive down was precarious in places. Even my mom, who I think is fearless in many ways, showed a little fear of heights. Only a few pieces of metal keeping you from going over the edge. Finally near the bottom, we found a place to pull over and walk over to this amazing cactus.

I find saguaro cacti--which were all over the place--almost alien. It looks like they're green stick-people with many arms. Like those broomstick-people in The Sorcerer's Apprentice in Fantasia. Except prickly. If there ever were aliens in the southwest, maybe they brought the saguaro.

Today we arrived in Sedona, and I finished reading The Girl Who Played With Fire.