Hiking in the Arizona Desert...

Over Christmas we went to Phoenix to spend the holidays with my parents. I found some pictures today of the hike we went on while we were there. There is a good story that goes along with these photos.

In Arizona when you go hiking you must stay on the path. I can not stress this enough - stay on the path! Did I tell you - STAY ON THE PATH!!! There are too many poky plants and you don't want to mess with them!

So my mom and Bob took the four of us on a hike. We were having a great time learning about the different plants and being in Ah over the Cactus. The Saguaro Cactus which are the ones in the picture above are my favorite. Well, we ended up going off the path to get a picture near the largest Saguaro Cactus we could see. You can see where this is going right?

STAY ON THE PATH!

On the way back to the path Mikayla accidentally stepped into a little bundle of Teddy Bear Cholla. Believe me they are not as cute as it sounds. Here is a little blurb from a website about these little monsters.

"When a piece of this cholla sticks to an unsuspecting human, a good method to remove the cactus is with a hair comb. But because the spines are so well barbed, be prepared to give a good tug. "
And they were not kidding about giving it a good tug. So here's when it gets interesting...

So, here we are off the path and Mikayla stepped in a little cluster that had fallen to the ground and two bundles stuck to her. When she saw the two hanging from her sock she freaked out! She started screaming at the top of her lungs and jumping up and down. With each jump she was actually pushing the little spikes into her leg even further. We all just stood there and watched her - it was the hardest thing ever to not run to her. I had to carefully move closer to avoid other nasty little Teddy Bear Chollas. Once I got her to calm down, Mike and Bob moved in and with 2 rocks and pulled out the main cluster and then Mike had to carefully pull out each spike. At one point Mikayla looked down and saw the blood and then threw her head back and said "oh no - there is so much blood". She had 24 puncture wounds- poor little thing.

Once the screaming had stopped and the barbs were pulled out, we started to head back down to the car which was about a mile away. So off we go and that was when I realized Caitlin was frozen in her shoes. I had to carry Caitlin, the uninjured one, back to the path. Once there, both girls held onto my hands as we carefully walked back.

Once we got home Mikayla's ankle was totally bruised and swollen. We decided that a good swim in the pool would make her feel better which it did. She survived the day and now she just remembers how brave she was.

Walking path - STAY ON THE PATH!!!





Beautiful Desert - Stay on the path!



Ah- the Teddy Bear Cholla - you can't see the little ones on the ground.

Stay on the path!

Close up of Mikayla's ankle- Before it was all bruised and swollen.

Stay on the path!!!!!

The picture didn't capture how bad it really was - poor little thing!!!

So to wrap it up I would like to say it's always fun to go off the path and have an adventure but if you do it in Arizona make sure you take a comb and some band-aids with you!