Verde Canyon

It's starting to cool down here in Phoenix. By that I mean that it's been in the 90's instead of the 100's, and maybe 70's at night. We even tried to go to the pool the other night, and it was too chilly to be much fun. I'm happy to be able to go outside and not feel oppressive air practically baking my skin.

Even with the lighter weather, I felt the need to escape a little to a place that is a bit cooler than Phoenix. This weekend we went north to a place called Verde Canyon.
It's still a very arid desert climate, but since it is at a higher elevation, the temperatures were cooler, no more than 70 or so. We took a popular train ride, which takes you past the winding river and red rock structures. We could sit inside the train, or walk out to the open air car. There are a lot of twisted mesquite trees and prickly cactus. Sometimes you can see eagles, but we didn't during this ride. They don't move very fast on the train so you can take pictures, but it does make for slow going. The ride lasts about 4 hours. It was pretty fun at first, but towards the end I was tired, and admittedly a little dizzy from the rocking motion. Still I would probably recommend it, although Tony and I talked about if you bring kids it's probably a good idea to have a game or something else for them to do, since it is so long.
Overall, a beautiful, out of the ordinary day, albeit long. Nice to get out of the house once in a while.