Granite Overlook Trail

We had a mostly free day yesterday. It was our last day in Oracle, and we decided we'd done all the ATV riding we wanted to do for this trip. Instead, we took a hike in nearby Oracle State Park.

The park acts as a wildlife refuge and a center for environmental education. It's located in the northern foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains near the community of Oracle. The area reminded us of the Vista/Escondido area of southern California, where Mike grew up. It felt like home to him. 

Here is the informational sign we encountered on the way to the visitor center to pay the $7 entry fee. It's a little hard to read, and so I broke up the sections of the sign to make them more readable. 

Indeed, this whole area is "dark sky," and we've really enjoyed the stars at night while we've been here.

Approaching the visitor center, this is what we saw. 

The small structure is deceptive, because a beautiful old home, The Kannally Ranch House, descends along the hillside behind. The woman working the cash register was having some technical difficulties, and she encouraged us to tour the house while she figured things out. We were happy to do so. 

The house is set on the hillside, and the rooms were on separate levels. We moved from one room to the next down spiraling tile stairways between them. This was the main room of the house.

Check out the dried up Century Plant stalk on the far side of the room. It was decorated with Christmas lights.

The original 160-acre ranch was purchased by Neil and Lee Kannally in 1903. The ranch eventually grew to almost 50,000 acres. Initially, the Kannallys slept in a small adobe cottage on the original 160 acres, but later a second cottage was built. The present Kannally Ranch House was built in 1929-1932.

In 1976, the ranch was willed to the Defenders of Wildlife, which later deeded the ranch to the Arizona State Parks Board. It is included on the National Historic Registry of Places.

Outside each room there was an inviting terrace for enjoying the outdoors. 

This was the bathroom.

Here was a dining room, with another terrace outside.

This was a pantry we walked through before reaching the kitchen.

Turning directly around, there was an ice box. One wonders where ice came from in Arizona.

This is the kitchen. A few modern conveniences have been added. I'm guessing park staff uses this kitchen.

Turning and looking in the other direction...

There were more rooms, but these were the only ones open to the public. The walls were adorned with some paintings, seemingly from the same artist. I note there's a placard on the wall there. I missed it when we toured, and so I can't tell you anything more about the art work.

This woven basket was in the pantry.

This interesting bench was in the dining area. The back folds down and turns it into a table.

Having paid our entrance fee and having purchased the requisite refrigerator magnet, we headed back to the truck to find the trailhead. Along the way, we noticed the pavers had names on them, no doubt from donors. This one caught our eye.

The grounds were beautifully landscaped. I took some pictures of blooming things, but they were blurry. This flowering shrub was the only one to make the cut, unfortunately.

Okay, so we drove just about a mile toward the entrance to find parking for the Granite Overlook Loop Trail.

It was a moderately difficult trail, 1.6 miles in length, but steep in certain areas. We read reviews of the trail and took the advice of fellow hikers who said to take the loop in a counter-clockwise direction. Along the way, we found a barrel cactus in bloom. All the ones we've seen have been bloomed out, and so it was a treat to see its actual flower. It was a distance away with lots of stuff blocking my view, and so this is the best I could do photography-wise.

The first 6/10 of a mile took us up and up and up to several high points. Each time we reached one, we could see yet another ahead of us. All-in-all, we climbed up 4 hills before we reached the highest one.

The views were lovely, as was the sky.

We encountered several welcome benches along the way. Each one had a placard with a quotation from the donor. I especially like this one:

So true...I remind myself of this every time I complain about the aches and pains that accompany aging. I know too many people who died much too young, including my only brother, who died at age 56. 

Moving on, there were more expansive views of the surrounding desert.

The ambient temperature was only in the low 80's, but it was hot in the sun. Our shadow selves were grateful for every bit of shade we encountered. They put on their hats to avoid getting sunburned.

There were a few blooming things along the way, but not as many as our first ATV ride. This one is Bigelow's Tansy Aster.

Here was another donated bench.

As we reached the 2/3 mark of the hike, we were getting pretty hot and desiring a place were we could sit in the shade. Seeing this shelter was a godsend.

We sat there for about ten minutes, cooling off, drinking some water, and eating our Clif bars. The sky was beautiful.

Here's something else we saw. The look a little like cherry tomatoes. These were on the ground.

Beside them were the living plants they grew from. They stood about three feet high. I tried to identify these, but couldn't find anything that looked like them. Maybe one of you knows.

Back at the camper, Sadie was keeping a weather eye out for woofies. She watches them from her catio.

When necessary, she watches from the door.

This morning, she took her shadow self out with her as a reinforcement.

Smitty stands by waiting for the Daily Woofie Briefing (DWB).

This morning we'll be heading off again. We'll be driving to Flagstaff today, a journey of around 300 miles. We'll have one night in Flagstaff and then move on to Fredonia, Arizona, where we have a couple of sight-seeing items on our agenda. From there, a death march to home. We have to put the camper back on the truck this morning and hitch up the trailer. It always takes us quite a while to get all that accomplished, and so it's time to get a move on if we want to reach Flagstaff before dark.