being watched

After spending a few days taking care of retail business and dealing with traffic we decided to take our lunch and our sweet Lewis and head off onto the back roads south of Tucson.

We traveled south on route 83 then turned off onto FR 92 aiming for the Gardner Canyon loop.    We drove through gentle hills of golden grasses, mesquite and scrub oak.    Because we move along slowly I noticed that there are many different kinds of grass that make up these yellow vistas.

We stopped for lunch under some tall trees.   Lewis enjoyed his bite of turkey and the chance to run around and stretch those long legs.

All along the way, we felt eyes on us. 

Lewis had a good time getting out, checking out all the new smells and leaving p mails for future visitors to read.

leaving a p mail for future passers by to read

sniffing cow smells on a water tank
(the stone ramp is for critters to get out if they fall in)

guys, guys, here I am, right over here, behind the tank, guys, guys!

We got to a  steep, narrow and washed out section of the road and decided to call it a day and return the way we came. 

Dave walked down to see what the road looked like up ahead -
can you see him coming back up?

For us, it's the journey not the destination so we enjoyed the rest of the ride back to the highway.

Once back on Rt. 83 we made one more stop before actually heading home.  We took a little time to check out the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area and decided that it would be a great place to return and explore, another day (and not at 4 p.m. in the afternoon).    Next week perhaps, it's Empire Gulch area looks to be a good place to do some birding without noisy Lewis.

So after a lovely day without seeing another vehicle it was back to the Tucson traffic.    We hit the mother of all traffic jams on I-19 and we didn't arrive home until 7 p.m.     Sigh.

my kind of road