Back to a Normal Routine

While so much of the country has been experiencing utter chaos due to the severe winter weather, we’ve settled right into our post-holiday routine.  No snowdays for these boys – they are back to work! 

We took down all of our Christmas decorations, and even burned our Christmas tree.

 

We’ve had some really great sunsets here at Lake Pleasant, but I was getting a little tired of the same view from our campsite, so tonight after dinner Tom and I took a drive to the Sunset Ridge Picnic Area for a new view.

 

There weren’t too many clouds tonight, so the sky wasn’t as dramatic as other days, but it was still pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the sun dropped below the mountains, the lake began to reflect the pink tint from the setting sun.

Looking to the south, it looked like there was a pink haze hanging over the mountains.

Before it got completely dark, we decided to drive to the north end of the park to see if we could find any of the wild burros.  The park was home to a small herd of burros, who quickly multiplied to over 900 roaming wild in the park!  We haven’t seen any in the campground lately, but still see the evidence they leave behind . . .

As we reached the north entrance gate, one was running down the road toward us!

We saw several more as we continued into the park, but they kept running away and hiding in the brush.  It was a little hard to get photos of them in the dark . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back outside the Main Entrance, we saw a large group grazing on the side of the road . . . I hope they watch out for cars!

We’re still working on our list of things to do around Phoenix, and have quite a bit coming up in the next couple of weeks, but we’re also looking ahead to the spring and summer to determine our travel plans when we leave here.

I plugged a few key locations into Streets & Trips last night, just to see what it looked like . . . not too bad . . . almost 6000 miles.

We’ve still got quite a bit of research to do to pick our actual stops, and time it all out to get us back in Michigan around mid-summer, but at least it’s a start.  If anybody has any recommendations for things to see and do, or places to stay – especially in California, Oregon and Washington – we’d love to hear them!