A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

Decades ago I realized that my friends who went out drinking on New Year's Eve, too often awoke on New Year's Day wishing they were dead. I decided I wanted to establish a tradition of not drinking on New Year's Eve, and awakening to the prospect of a hike in a beautiful area. This year, Keith and I chose Usery Mountain Regional Park. We'd been here before, of course; but this time we headed out on the Noso Trail, cutting over to Blevins Trail for the return.

Dry as it might look, those patches of green on the ground attest to this year's unusually wet winter.

Digital zoom into the Superstition Mountains massif a few miles away.

As always, Ella and Lilly accompany us on leashes. But dogs on leashes make unappealing photos. So I digitally removed them from this picture.

These are the spines of a teddy bear cholla. From a distance, the cholla look soft and fuzzy. But they are not!

Keith and Lilly.

There is still snow at the higher elevations from last week's precipitation.

The trails are very easy to follow, thanks to these very clear signs.

Towards the end of our hike, clouds began moving in.

Two photos merged into one, to serve as the basis of our New Years' greeting.