Due to some reviews from fellow bloggers, I was excited to get reservations to Catalina State Park on the North side of Tucson Az.  Eric and Tina run a fish hatchery in South Dakota for 8 months of the year and then run south to Az to do some hiking and biking in the winter months.   They have a nice you tube channel called “GoneNoMad” and due to their recommendations, I decided to try a few Arizona State Parks.  Since they were in AZ right now, we were able to meet Eric and Tina in person when we visited Kartchner Caverns.

We are here for 11 Days, until the end of January.  So I am going to break this post into two parts.

First up was a visit to Kartchner Caverns an hour away.  You make reservations to tour them in small groups through different air locks to preserve the atmosphere.  Since you cannot take phones into them, here are some photo’s from the internet.

I will just say pictures do not cover the grand scale of the caverns and I think it is worth seeing in person.  Here is a view from the outside looking into the valley

Next day we decided to go on a hike to Romero Pools, about 3 miles one way and a climb of about 1800 feet

After a few days of taking care of business like laundry and getting systems backed up and such, we took a ride up Mount Lemmon…you start in the dry desert with all the cactus at 2500 feet and end up in  pine forest at 8000 feet

On our way down the valley, I got to use my winch to pull someone out from the snow.  They tried to go down a side road and got stuck about 50 feet off the main road.  I had to do a few pulls but got him back on dry pavement…quite a lot of fun actually.

If you want to see a short video, here is the link: https://youtu.be/MpqSKcHq73k