View at the End of the Trail
4/25/2023: This is a beautiful hike! If you do the whole thing, then you must go on the right fork near the end of the trail. Forgot the name but it's on the map and there is a marker on the trail. Walk down towards the lake, down the ravine and get your camera ready. Is really gorgeous with rippling water, cacti, wildflowers, and serenity. I would do this hike again for sure. Saguaro Lake is very pretty, but there are boats on it. During the week it isn’t too crowded, so the serenity holds. I suspect the weekends can get a bit crazy with boats and people.
Marg’s Notes: Slept in a bit today. Our drive was only ~ ½ an hour to Saguaro Lake. On the trail at 7:45. Nice morning. Our trail was called Butcher Jones Trail. It basically went along the lake. A few bugs right at the beginning. A Great Hike! Nice views of mountains, lake & river. There were lots of offshoots along the trail that led to the lake. Of course, Rod took lots of pics! It was not too crowded, only met ~10 people! The best view was at the end of the lakeside trail. Didn’t really make it down to the lake tho. The trail was fairly easy, a few rocks here & there & up & down. About 6.6 miles all told. We hiked out pretty quickly. Back to Resort for a soak in the hot tub, nap, then lunch! Back by the pool now. Probably an early night again 😊. Note: The breeze seems to start around 9:00 am every day, which is nice while hiking!
Chicken, veggies, pasta tonight.
Rod’s Ramblings from the Trail: Leaving at about 7:45, temperatures about 65-66°. Beautiful day. Not too many people.
There are a lot of bugs along the edge of the lake here. They look like mosquitoes, but none are biting, so let's keep a good thought on that. It is very pleasant under the trees as you walk around the edge of the lake.
Buckhorn Cholla in Bloom
Those spindly cacti (Buckhorn Cholla) that don't have blooms that I've been whining about on earlier hikes, have blooms here and they're quite beautiful and yellow.
We met some nice folks on the trail, four of them. A little bit older than us, I think. Two were from Wisconsin, two from here. I struck up a conversation about football. They are Wisconsin fans, but didn’t boo me when I told them I was a Buckeye.
We are about 2 miles in now and have only seen those four people that we talked smack about football they don't count.
At the end of the trail or near the end of the trail when you take the right path going down that little ravine is just chalk full of beauty. This is actually one of the most beautiful little hikes we have taken, at least the part of the hike at the very end with the lake, flowers, blooming cacti, the sun rippling off the. If you choose to go right or left at the trails end, go right down the little ravine. It is stunning.
We made it to the end of the shoreline part (right branch) of the trail about 9:50. We're going to go ahead and run around to the other shorter end (left branch), have a snack, drink some more water, and then head out. This has got to be one of the prettiest places I have ever seen.