Category: travel

Picacho Peak is about 45 miles north of Tucson, and you can see it from a long way off as you drive down Interstate 10.

I headed to Picacho Peak State Park on my first morning in Arizona.

At first, I didn’t think I would get any good photos of the peak because it was a rainy, cloudy morning.

After I spent a little time rolling down a backroad alongside the park, the sun broke through just in time.

Official site: azstateparks.com/picacho

The desert area south of Phoenix is best known for the saguaro cactus. The Sonoran Desert has lots more, with a variety of plant and animal life and large sandstone formations.

I was passing through on a day when the weather alternated between rain, clouds and sunshine.

Papago Park is a quiet place right in the middle of the Valley of the Sun.

Not far away are downtown Phoenix, Arizona State University in Tempe, Scottsdale and Sky Harbor Airport.

Hole In The Rock passes through a reddish sandstone formation in Papago Park. The hike up to the hole from the parking lot is less than a half mile.

Papago Park is located in Phoenix, Arizona, near Tempe and not far from Sky Harbor Airport.

After an early morning flight to Phoenix, I jumped on Interstate-10 east where it goes roughly south toward Tucson.

I was hoping to get some good photos and hadn’t counted on a rain storm in the desert. There were a few breaks in the clouds just after sunrise.