Usery Mountain Regional Park

After a false start or two, we headed out this afternoon northeast of Mesa on Ellsworth Road. We had seen the Usery Mountain Regional Park on a map and thought we should check it out. What a gem we discovered! They charged us $6 for a day pass (though there is an annual pass available). The park is run by Maricopa County.
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One of the nice things about Phoenix is that you can drive just twenty miles or so and be out in some beautiful desert --

This park has an incredible variety of prickly, spiny plants --

Usery  Mountain looms colorfully against the desert lowland --

With the Goldfield Mountains purple behind --

We didn't see many birds today. I don't think they liked the showery, overcast day either. We did see the Gila Woodpecker perched on a saguaro.

The park has some incredible saguaros.  When you think that they are usually a hundred years old or so before they sprout arms...

These Thrashers were a long way away. Too far to identify which kind they might be --

 

This directional sign is just outside the park boundaries --

I got a chuckle out of this cute little budding arm on this nice plump saguaro --

It was starting to get dark as we finished the loop around the park. We are definitely going to have to come back here again. Maybe we'll even get out on some of the trails.