Thursday and Friday, March 8 and 9, 2012 (Constellation Park, Wickenburg, AZ)

We have had two full days of quad riding with Earl, Allison, Bob and Sue...so I thought that I would just combine both days.  Our destination was a place called Castle Hot Springs...yesterday we didn’t quite make it because we stopped many times along the way looking for geocaches....and a missing GPS that required us to backtrack a few miles.  Hmmm...Geocaching...a new hobby that I think Steve and I have to look into a little more.

Both days we left shortly after 10:00 and arrived back home around 5:00...we had lots of sunshine and incredible scenery.  As usual, lots of pictures were taken but we will share only some of the highlights...

The road ahead...

An old homested out in the middle of nowhere...

Earl found a geocach...

Deadend...the Geocach is on top of the hill to the right...

Lunchtime...Allison, Dianne, Earl, Bob, Sue...

...and Steve...

Another old homested...

Old minesite across the valley...

Once back home Thursday, we invited everyone over to our place for drinks and appies...Sue, Bob, Steve, Allison and Earl... 

This Abbey and Cara...(they belong to Earl and Allison)...

Today, we all headed out with the exception of Allison...she decided to forego riding today because two straight days of riding bothers her back (she is a passenger with Earl on their 2-up).  Instead, she went into town, did a little looking around, got her hair cut and made dinner reservations for us all at the local Mexican restaurant. 

...and we're off...

This is Bandit and Coco with Sue...

We stopped at another geocaching location...

Earl walked right over the geocach...

Sue, Bob and Steve...

Wow, what a view!...beautiful countryside...

Such beautiful colours on the hillsides...

Intersection...the road to the left will be the road we take home...but we will continue onto Castle Hot Springs...not far now...

The area as we approach Castle Hot Springs...

Very cool mountains...

We made it to Castle Hot Springs...

Castle Hot Springs enjoys a rich and lengthy history reaching back to the pre-settlement Apaches who gave healing powers to the hot, clear water that poured out from the canyon rock.  Castle Hot Springs also served as the first territorial capital of Arizona as well as a retreat for many wealthy businessmen, politicians, and even presidents of the United States.

Across the road from the resort...

We were going to try to reach the north end of Lake Pleasant, just a little further along the road (about 5 miles or so) but a "No Unlicenced Vehicles" sign on the road just past the Castle Hot Springs Resort had us turning around...time to head home...

Such lush areas of greenery in the middle of the desert...

We had another awesome day finally reaching our destination ...Castle Hot Springs followed by a great Mexican dinner.  Tomorrow we are heading out again...that will make it 4 straight days of riding...