Entry 8: Beauty in the Desert

 Welcome back to the blog, we will be talking about some nature. As someone who lives in the desert, you don't often think about how it can be beautiful even in the most desolate places. So I wanted to talk about some of the most beautiful places that I have been to in Arizona and why it is beautiful. This list will include animals, plants, and canyons.

So a place that I enjoy to go is a 15-minute drive from my home and it is a hike. It is still in the city but gives the authentic feel of going in nature even though there are cars driving around. In this hike, you walk up steps that have been molded into the mountain, and you climb up the steps to get to a flag surrounded by rocks that people put up to support the flag. In this hike, you see so many different plants. Now I can't say what every plant is, but there are some cactuses and flower bushes. There are also snake holes and an assortment of bugs. The place looks so amazing early in the morning before the sun rises as you watch the sunrise to see the dew on the plants and watch the city wake up. We do need to talk about the other places now though.

The next place is the White Tank Mountains. This is a campsite and has some really beautiful hikes with an assortment of animals and plants. I used to go camping there with friends and family and a story that I have from camping there is when I and my friends woke up around 2 am, and we were coming back from the bathroom and we saw something moving towards us in the sand so we hopped in our tent, and we all fell back asleep. What we figured out when we woke up later that morning was there had been some snakes making new homes around our campsite that night. One thing that also is in the area is coyotes, and alone they are not as dangerous, but together they are a group to be feared. In the area, where we camped we didn't see coyotes, but saw their prints the next morning as we cooked breakfast. In the White Tanks, there is a hike that leads to a waterfall, and if you go at the right time after it has rained, a rainbow will appear while the water falls down the drop and splashes into the river. We now go on to the next area.

The final place will be the Grand Canyon which any Arizonan should know about. The Grand Canyon has two different areas that you can visit. It has the North and South sides that you can visit as well as it has many hikes that you can go down. Some of the hikes even lead to the bottom of the canyon where you can see rafters and the Colorado River. Now I don't want to say to much about the Grand Canyon because there are some people in Arizona who have not seen the Grand Canyon. In the Grand Canyon there are some mesquite trees and some golden eagles that live in the Canyon.

To end this off I would like to ask what are some experiences that y'all have had while being in nature? What animals have y'all seen while around your neighborhood that aren't normal for people to have? I am enjoying this and hope that y'all are enjoying this too. Signing off, Hadley.