What kind of dessert do you eat in the desert?

A prickly pear gelato of course!

Today we drove from to Apache Junction which is about 20 miles north east of Mesa.  On the way we explored the Goldfield Ghost town where we also got a wonderful view of the Superstition Mountains. Unfortunately, I cannot download the picture of the Superstition Mountains, but I do have one of a giant cuckoo.

For some reason this site will not let me upload any more pictures.  I have only half the pictures loaded so this will be a little disjointed until I can figure it out!



 this was as the Goldfield ghost town which was an old west - well ghost town, in the middle of the desert.















The next ones are the amazing scenery we saw as we drove through the mountains on another windy high elevation road.  We saw Canyon lake and Apache lake as well as an area they call Tortilla Flat.

 this is a cholla cactus and I am told they are very mean!

 This is the prettiest little bush with amazing flowers, they are called fairy dusters.

 It was absolutely beautiful.  A lot of the mountains were a lot lighter in color as the rock is more sandstone.  Also a lot of them had brightest green lichen growing on them - had some pictures but cannot download them!

 This is a mesquite tree.  They grow everywhere in this area. This area is in the Tonto National Forest.  Amazing tall cactus in this forest (which makes me giggle)

We stopped in Tortilla Flats for lunch and the restaurant was in a very old building that had real dollar bills pasted to every available spot on every wall.  They had a bar in the restaurant and the stools were made out of saddles.  The bathroom was really funny too - but I did not have my camera -  ha ha.

This is a prickly pear cactus.  They make syrup, jellies, candy and of course the wonderful gelato that I tried.  It has a berryish taste that was really nice.
There is lots more to see and do in this area and we have just scratched the surface but luckily we have a lot of time to explore.
I saw a cardinal when I was out and about taking pictures of the cactus's.   For some reason every time I see a really cool bird I go on "stun" mode and stand there blubbering oooh oooh oo oo!  Needless to say, even if I COULD download more pictures, I don't have one of the cardinal.