Bracken's Loop

 

Okay, so no NCAA Tournament. That stinks. No start of Major League Baseball. Also stinks. Spring Break, awesome! First day of spring, great! Going back to school online. Confusing, but still kind of awesome just because it is so different. I was going to be blessed with a lot of free time and nowhere to go. Luckily we could still go under the freeway. I invited the family to go with me on this day. Jacqueline was excited. The kids were reluctant enthusiasts. They were happy once we were out in about. It was up the paved hill behind the house and down by what we call the water tower, though it was only a water tank. The hill was somewhat steep but everyone was excited going under the freeway through the culvert.

 It was like emerging to a brand new world. Gone was suburbia and hello wild nature. I had just been here a couple of days before, so it wasn't too new to me, but the rest of the group was thrilled. Jacqueline took many pictures that she would never look at again. We wandered up the wash. Jacqueline was excited to see some flowers coming out and the tent caterpillars filling up the sage. The way was open at first and we stuck to the wash until we encountered Bracken's Loop. I had hiked Bracken's Loop once before only to find it one of the sandiest trails I have hiked. Today, was not so bad. If it rains in the desert, the trails can harden up a bit and that is what we found. 

Plus, if we get on there before the horses, we were okay. On this day, we would run into some horse ladies and the trail would get a bit more difficult, but for now we were able to just hike. To describe most of our hike was that Conrad and I would be in the lead. Jacqueline would be last taking pictures of absolutely everything that seemed somewhat interesting. Zyla would sometimes be up with Conrad having conversations about imaginary worlds and sometimes hiking on her own. Regardless we kept moving forward and heading toward the big blocky peak that made up our view. At almost exactly noon we stopped for a lunch break.

 Lunch on time was very important to the kids. After this is when the horse people passed, so we were stuck following the beaten trail. It was not much farther to get to what we were going to call the endpoint of Bracken's Loop. At this point the trail dropped steeply off below the blocky peak. There were some potholes of water and nice views, but a good place to turn around with the kids. The way back was slower because of the horses, but at least it was downhill. Everyone had an easy time with it as our kids never seemed to complain about distance. I enjoyed the place we got into Grapevine Wash. The lava rock capped the slickrock of an ancient lava flow. You gotta appreciate the contrasting colors. We made it back home a bit after 2 having 4-5 hours out and about. The kids and the wife did well on the exploring hike and were up for some further adventures exploring the area around Red Cliffs.