Sentinel Peak, Enchanted Hills, and Valentine’s Day nonsense (Weekend Coffee Share #25)

February 11, 2022 /

Good morning, and happy Friday! This week we’re going to trek to the west side of Tucson for a visit to Sentinel Peak (also known as “A” Mountain) and Enchanted Hills Trails Park, then complain about Valentine’s Day. But first: Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! If you have a blog and want to interact with some cool people, join us!

Sentinel Peak (“A” Mountain)

Last Saturday, Long-Suffering Husband and I decided to get out and do a little hiking. I didn’t want to carry a separate camera, so my photos were all taken with my iPhone.

Sentinel Peak is known as “A” Mountain because:

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The A is made of rocks and was created by University of Arizona students back in 1915. It’s usually white but gets painted in other colors occasionally.

A few trails crisscross the mountain and provide panoramic views of the city.

For some reason, a lot of the saguaros up there are blackening and lumpy, like they have cactus cancer.

An ocotillo leafing out:

And one decorated with a lovely Guadalajara charm:

View looking toward the west, away from the city:

Wildflowers:

Enchanted Hills Trails Park

When we finished at Sentinel Peak, we drove a couple of miles and found ourselves on a road that dead-ended at the Enchanted Hills Trails Park. We’d never heard of it before but loved it. The mountains are tall enough to cast some shade, which I suspect is why the landscape is a little more lush than the usual Sonoran Desert terrain.

I’ve said it before, but the desert is in the details. This flower was about the size of a dime, easy to overlook–but stunning up close.

See-through saguaro:

This saguaro looks proud of his, um, assets:

Sorry, but immaturity is pretty much my brand.

And finally, your intrepid blogger, looking like I combed my hair with a cactus:


Valentine’s Day theme song

Monday is Valentine’s Day. If you know me IRL you probably know I have some Valentine’s Day trauma. Part of that comes from being the nerdy kid who got through most of high school without a date, but most of it comes from 2 back-to-back incidents when I was in college:

  • Freshman year: Got my heart broken bigtime by someone I was head over heels for–who went to a Valentine’s Day dance with one of my best friends. Holy love triangle, Batman.
  • Sophomore year: Got dumped by my first-ever boyfriend the night before Valentine’s Day–and an hour before learning my father was terminally ill. Good times.

That last story has a partially happy ending, though. The night after Valentine’s Day, my best friend from high school ran into a guy I’d been lusting over the previous summer and told him I was newly single. He called, I stopped crying long enough to clean myself up and go meet him, and things went well. So well that I married him 5 years later. *waves at Long-Suffering Husband*

Still, hatred of Valentine’s Day has been part of my identity since I was 18, and I’m not one to break tradition. So, here’s your Valentine’s Day theme song:

Valentine’s Day memes

If you love Valentine’s Day cards and pink hearts and all that other crap, you might want to skip this section. I’d hate to kill your buzz.

Me throughout my teenage years

Romance advice

The bright side of singlehood

Here’s an idea I can get behind:

There’s more than one way to celebrate Valentine’s Day

Let the Valentine’s Day hate flow through you…

Valentines for old farts

And finally, for those of us who, like me, have had the same valentine for decades:

And on that note… Happy weekend! Happy Valentine’s Day! Anyone have anything exciting planned? Tell me about it in the comments so I can live vicariously through you.

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25 Comments

  • rawsonjl

    February 12, 2022 at 2:41 am

    What neat hiking trails and views. I have never seen a cactus up close and now I’m googling things like what makes a cactus turn black…

    • Janet Alcorn

      February 12, 2022 at 7:45 am

      Cactuses are fascinating, especially up close (though be careful getting too close!). I have a bunch of cactus pics on the blog, including some of their flowers, which are stunning.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  • Maria

    February 12, 2022 at 4:07 am

    The desert is so beautiful in the winter! When I lived in Las Vegas I loved exploring the Mojave desert during the winter.Thank you for sharing your hike with us.

  • Deborah Drucker

    February 12, 2022 at 12:20 pm

    Funny valentine memes. I am kind of a curmudgeon about many holiday expectations. You had a rough go of it for several Valentine’s Days. The scenery on the hikes looks great.

    • Janet Alcorn

      February 13, 2022 at 2:41 pm

      I’m a holiday curmudgeon too except for Thanksgiving and (sometimes) Halloween and Christmas.

    • Janet Alcorn

      February 13, 2022 at 2:44 pm

      Saguaros don’t grow arms till they’re 50-75 years old and live to be 150-200, so most of the ones in my pictures are pretty old.

  • leannelc

    February 14, 2022 at 5:01 am

    I’m really glad that Valentine’s Day isn’t a big deal in Australia. Most of the time it’s pretty much ignored, so no broken heart stories from my end. I’m glad you got your happily ever after (esp with a couple of broken heart moments preceding it). Interesting cactus things – something else we don’t really have in Australia – despite the hot, dry climate.

    • Janet Alcorn

      February 19, 2022 at 10:28 am

      Interesting you don’t have cactus there. I know there are some in South America (because they’re sold in nurseries around here), but I don’t know about the rest of the world. Clearly I need additional cactus-related education.

      Valentine’s Day was an annoyingly big deal when I was young. Kids would pass out valentines in elementary school, and in high school you could buy flowers for people on Valentine’s Day, and they’d be delivered during class. Not the most emotionally healthy tradition.

    • Janet Alcorn

      February 19, 2022 at 10:28 am

      Yeah, stumbling on a hike around here can be dangerous to your health. Pretty much everything has thorns or spines, including the trees.

    • Janet Alcorn

      February 19, 2022 at 10:30 am

      Yeah, I loved that one too. I think that’s how you know it’s true love, when you’re with the same person for 3 decades and still not sick of him.

      Cactuses are really sculptural–such interesting forms and shapes, both from a distance and close up.

  • Amila Wickramarachchi

    February 22, 2022 at 6:38 pm

    All these pictures are beautiful. Great captures of cactus. I had interesting time reading these quotes too.
    Amila- leisureandme.com