The morning started out a little chilly, yet my faithful companions showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a hike to clean up one of our historical inner-city parks. We enjoyed a gorgeous salmon sunrise while awaiting our entire group to arrive.

One important lesson learned: next time we will need tougher garbage bags and more pairs of grabbers!

We started out by the Phoenix Zoo, walking by Hunt’s Tomb with high hopes of seeing the majestic big horn sheep in the hills. No such luck, yet on the way back we saw a group of bucks standing grand and handsome!

Although much trash was found, one could always see beyond, to the beautiful rewards this park has to offer, from the porous foothills full of caves and uniquely shaped formations. Amazingly enough, we found piles of fruit in various areas that were higher and separate from the trails. Michael thought maybe the Zoo had placed the food out for the wildlife for Thanksgiving. How nice!

At the conclusion of the initial hike, a handful of us ventured out across another portion of Papago to seek out an old amplitheatre and historic memorial site. Thank you, Michael, for showing us history, as well as a portion of Papago a few of us had not seen.

I want to sincerely thank everyone for sharing in the adventure, yet more so for volunteering to clean up what we could in a short amount of time. I am proud to say we put a nice dent in the woodwork of trash cleanup! I hope we can incorporate more of this in many hikes to come! I would also like to thank our three guests who accompanied us on this trek! We welcome you back for many more adventures!

Two distances: 6.7 miles and 9.2 miles, +-1000' elevation change.