Box Canyon & Martinez Canyon

We are getting into early to mid March now and it is heating up.  We are very aware that the rattlesnakes etc are also coming to life along with the fresh spring foliage and flowers.   We think it is time to come home!

Trail head into Box Canyon and Martinez Canyon - looks pretty easy - just wait!

OK we can handle this

Group photo op

Amazing dessert grasses along the canyon floor

Just to prove that we were there!

Barry blazing a more difficult portion of the trail

Hmmmm - how are we going to do this now?

Thank goodness for one of our hiking leaders literally pulling us up with his hiking pole!

Some of the back country ATV and Jeep trails - you really need back country GPS tracking skills if you are on your own out here!

 A back country off road jump site.  Sadly there was a cross and memorial just below this where a young adult lost his life!

Sharing the trail

More sharing of the trail.  Barry decided ATVing is way too dirty and not for him - Whew!  One thing off his bucket list.  He's still undecided about a jeep!

Queen Valley Golf Course - just down in the village below our RV Park.  A beautiful and very challenging little golf course.  We take carts as the  back 9 is very hilly and long - and challenging!  Our weekly hikes make up for not walking our 18 holes of golf.  Sandra's military golf - left, right, left - means she still gets lots of walking in spite of taking the cart.

Barry Teeing off on the 13th hole on the back 9.  Sandra has donated lots of balls to the golf Gods on this hole!

We took a longer drive to get to this trail head for this hike - closer to the town of Florence.  It is amazing though, as one drives off the highway on some side road that leads up into the hills and voila - there is this amazing setting in any number of canyons for a hike or an ATV or Jeep ride.  We would never have known these sights were if not for our hiking guides.  These two canyons get very crowded with back country adventurers - on foot hikers, horseback riders, ATVers and those in Jeeps (Sandra is nervous that Barry is going to want a Jeep or an ATV!).  We met all of them on this hike.  The pictures will tell the story.