Jenny's Top Hits - Hiking Edition

This is my friend Jenny. Last night she took me on one of her favorite hikes. Even though I had been there before, it was still incredible to see such lush landscapes in the middle of the desert. 

There were these awesome signs towards the beginning of the trail. The arrows pointed in the direction of certain cities. Was kinda fun!

Finally we got to the dam. It's a pretty easy hike to get here and worthwhile too! It's one of the only green places in the desert. With the sound of rushing water we felt like we were transported to a tropical island! Haha!

Jenny told me that sometimes she brings a picnic and has lunch at this spot. It's surrounded by water and you have to leap across a few rocks to get here. 

After posing for a few pics we headed back to the car. The total hike only took us 45 mins but well worth it. You should check it out next time you're in Prescott. The trail is pretty easy so just about anyone can get to these "secret" spots! 

Watson Lake Hike

A friend and I went on a hike this morning around Watson Lake. We started bright and early so we could hike around the whole lake before she had to take her daughter to church. 

We started our loop with smiles and went on our way. 

We had to stop and take some photos of this incredible looking tree! 

Here it is again overlooking the lake. 

Silly hiking selfie. 

The weather here has been so amazing (well except for yesterday) and all the cacti have been sprouting flowers! Our hike was riddled with these beautiful plants. 

Climbing up out of the riparian zone. 

Beautiful view of the dells. 

This really was a beautiful hike! Near this section of the trail there's a few houses. What I wouldn't give to have this beautiful scenery out my front door!

Before our loop met up with the Peavine trail there was some seriously gorgeous panoramas! 

Another shameless selfie! 

When Andrew and I first moved to Arizona I never thought I would like it. I wasn't outdoorsy or active and there's not much else to do here if you aren't interested in those things. I figure all of the desert was the same - boring landscapes and too hot to handle. Prescott has really changed my mind about Arizona and being outdoorsy. I still can't get over the beautiful vistas I see everyday. The more I get outdoors the more I fall in love with our new home. 

Earth Day - Lake Clean Up

In honor of Earth Day, and for a class assignment, the boy I tutor decided to spend his time today cleaning up trash from one of the local lakes. 

Look at those beautiful granite dells! Love them.

Glad I changed into my jeans - the wind picked up and got a little chilly.

He did such a good job filling up his bag. 

Spotted these lovely daisies and desperately wanted to make a daisy chain!

Tough Mudder Done and Dusted

This past weekend I was able to conquer Tough Mudder in Phoenix with the help of my fellow crazy friends from Captain CrossFit!

The majority of our group were smart and went down on the Friday night. Andrew and I opted instead to drive down Saturday morning. That's a screen shot of my phone right after I woke up. Yup...4.30am wake up call. That's the price you pay for living in the middle of nowhere, it takes you forever to get to the closest big city!

Repping my Captain CrossFit team tank and our bag of goodies! Since Andrew and I are on Whole 30 we had to bring our own snacks to make sure we didn't go off plan! 

This is our whole Captain CrossFit crew! Little did we know what was awaiting us on the other side!

Mile 1 of our 11.2 mile course! Pretty sure I got swamp foot right around here!

The partner carry. I was actually enjoying this, not that my face shows it.

This one was called "Balls to the Wall"! It looked much more intimidating than it actually was. There were foot holds nailed into the wall so you were able to get your footing and then pull yourself up.

Ha, the look on my face is priceless. This one actually surprised me the most! I have never been able to do monkey bars - not even as a kid - and I was actually thinking about walking around this one, when I told myself to at least give it a try. At the very worst I would drop into that disgusting looking water.

So I gave it a go and was completely shocked when I past the third rung. I knew then that I could do it as long as I kept going!

Probably the proudest moment of my day! Definitely worth the hand pain.

This one is around mile 9, right before we had to walk the plank. Thank goodness too because I was caked in mud at that point! 

Electro Shock - the one obstacle that most people are afraid of! It wasn't really all that bad, except I did get hit on my back right at the very end. Definitely wouldn't say it was a pleasant feeling, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had hyped it up to be.

After completion, beer in hand, and ready to pass out! So happy that I had such a supportive team with me the whole way! I definitely don't think I could've gotten through without these guys!

At this point I was exhausted and beat up. Had to take a selfie to commemorate the event (especially in my swanky new headband), but I couldn't stand to be covered in mud anymore. After we completed I showered, changed, and headed straight to the car!

One of our members had organized us well since we were all staying in the same hotel. We managed to commandeer the outdoor BBQ space and cooked up some delicious tri-tip! Everyone else ended the night by celebrating a teammates birthday with cake, while Andrew and I chewed on some carrot sticks! 

And lastly, here is a compilation of all my major traumas brought on by Tough Mudder: a ripped hand courtesy of the finger hang, two feet with blisters from swamp foot around mile 1, and scrapes and bruises from the mud mile! Super sexy!

We Went On a Hike

Anne-Marie found an awesome hiking spot through one of her field courses and suggested we go check it out. It ended up being Spruce Mountain which is the second highest peak in the area, so I was excited about the good views.

We rounded up the dogs, packed them in Anne-Marie's new car and off we went!

Riley looks so little compared to Dooley!

The road to get to Spruce Mountain was a bit treacherous! It was a crazy dirt road that went on seemingly forever. I'm really glad we took Anne-Marie's car because I don't think my little 4 cylinder engine could have gotten us up there! 

When we finally got to the entrance the gate was closed. It wasn't a problem though. We just parked the car and hike up the remainder of the road. The hike was fairly easy, although we raised about 2,000 miles in elevation from town so we were pretty winded by the time we made it to the top!

The hike was totally worth it though! Look at those views!

Dooley was being a bit silly and loved exploring everything he could. 

I don't think he sat for a minute the entire hike!

We walked around a bit but decided to head back to the car before we completely lost the sun. I can't wait to go back and check out some of the other trails out there. It was so beautiful it definitely deserves another hike!

The Drive, The View

Sometimes I forget just how beautiful the landscape near our little town is. Seriously gorgeous. We live in the high desert and when the monsoon roll in everything turns green! 

Our drive yesterday was no exception. Just beautiful landscapes (for the majority of the trip)! 

 I was even able to capture this awesome image from the side mirror of the clouds reflecting off the car windows! Now that's a cool shot!