Buckeye, Arizona.

On March 18, I led my last hike of the season for the Hiking Club of Verrado, a group of neighbors who enjoy hiking. My involvement with hiking when we elected to winter in Arizona came about when the folks at Arizona Tourism came up with the idea of hiking 100 miles in honor of Arizona’s centennial in 2012. We joined the gym at Verrado, one of the many community developments in the city and one of the trainers took up the hiking challenge as part of a regular exercise routine.

Lynn and I completed that 100 miles and we haven’t looked back, endeavoring to do it again every winter since. Eventually the gym closed and I was asked to coordinate future hikes until two seasons ago when an “official” Hiking Club of Verrado was formed. I joined that group as a hike leader and help Carole, the club coordinator and another hike leader with planning and executing our weekly hikes. This year, with the abundance of rain, we were treated to fields of yellow and gold as brittlebush and golden poppies sprang up everywhere. On this specific hike, our group parked our vehicles at Lost Creek Trail in Verrado and one van took our group of six to Skyline Park. We hiked up Quartz Mine Trail where it met Lost Creek Trail and then proceeded to hike out of Skyline Park toward Verrado and the Lost Creek Trailhead. Once we climbed up Quarts Mine to its highest point, it was pretty much all downhill to the Verrado trailhead. The hike is surprisingly short at just over 4 miles (6.4 km).

About the photo: This view is looking toward the Estrella Mountains, southeast of Buckeye. In the distant valley below, the eastern portion of Buckeye is barely discernable. The predominantly yellow plants are brittlebush in this image. The photo was captured with my Samsung S7 at f/1.7, 1/4000 sec. ISO-50. The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple. The photo must be captured on a mobile device.

John Steiner