Quartz Ridge Trail

'We feel happy when we see lizards in the wild.' Lucas, 11 and Josh, 9

'We love lizards because they are cute.' Josh, 9

Quartz Ridge Trail (No. 8) sits beneath Piestewa Peak, gave us an amazing view of the Valley. The path was rocky, but not too steep to walk. The elevation gain is about 220 feet and the length of the trail was about 5 miles roundtrip. As we were hiking, the distant large white rock was our driving force to keep going, we just had to make it to the biggest hunk of quartz we had ever seen, no matter what! We had read that the white quartz and the rocks surrounding it, date back billions of years to a time when our planet was changing from molten lava to solidified land that would finally evolve into the continents. Wow! Can you imagine all those rocks have seen and endured? If a rock could talk...

The quartz contained many flecks of black mica and the kids enjoyed finding their way over just to touch the monstrous mound!

We did this hike following our visit to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. What was exceptionally notable about the day was all the lizard and gecko finding going on... they're everywhere! The kids are fascinated by them and we could barely keep moving for all the stops we made to see these little creatures. Life in the desert!!!