Views from a Mountain

Another place that we took my sisters was South Mountain Park. According to Wikipedia, "South Mountain Park, in Phoenix, Arizona, is the largest city park in the United States, one of the largest urban parks in North America and IN THE WORLD."

The park covers a mountainous area of over 16,000 acres of land, with 58 miles of trails for cycling, hiking and horseback riding. The park was originally called Phoenix Mountain Park when President Calvin Coolidge sold 13,000 acres of land for $17,000 to the city of Phoenix back in 1924. It has expanded since the 1970's and 1980's.

On the drive into the park we saw this sign. I always love these, being that we drive in Big Blue.

 
I'm not sure what this building was originally used for (I think administration), but it was built by the CCC, Civil Conservation Core back in the 1930's. I love the texture of the brick and how this building was built.

The restrooms were right next door to this building. We continued on our way up Summit Drive to get to the top of the mountain.

We could easily see all the towers for the radio and TV stations and cell towers sitting at the highest point.

This is Dobbins Lookout, at the top of one of the peaks of South Mountain.

That tall metal structure in the middle of the lookout shows the various points of interest like mountains and cities.

This is the city of Phoenix through my zoom lens. That is a combination of haze and smog hanging low over the mountains in the background. It used to be that people came to Arizona because of the clean, dry air. Well, not anymore! The air is still pretty dry, but there is a lot of pollution!

Another view from Dobbins Point.

The airport was in the distance and we could see the planes taking off. A little to the left of this picture was this cool shelter made of rock.

Inside the shelter

Looking out from the shelter

Another view

Couldn't you just sit here for hours and just soak up the sun and scenery?

We drove to another viewpoint.

My sister, Ann, and Jim decided to walk a little bit down the path.

They didn't venture too far, because it was already getting hot. Here are my sisters and me:

Ann (l), me (c), Linda, (r)

We started the drive down the mountain and saw this ambitious bicyclist riding downhill at a good clip. The one white arrow is pointing to the curvy road that we had just driven on.

Now here's a REAL trooper. He's riding his bike UP the hill!

We also saw a paraglider coming over the mountain while we drove on by. Now that has to take a lot of talent, landing perfectly with all those saguaro, cholla, prickly pear, and barrel cacti around!

We got to the bottom of the mountain and had a wonderful picnic in the shade. The afternoon was spent in the pool.