Canyon Lakes and Miner's Town

The day started with a beautiful breakfast that Casey had got up and cooked for us before he went off to work. It was a type of sausage wrapped in a croissant mix with cheese on top. It is a favourite of the family and a Christmas morning tradition. On offer was also bananas, yogurt and biscuits. These are not ordinary biscuits, they come in a can that pops. There is a dough type mixture inside that you cook for about 15 minutes. They look like scones but they're not - more like a light pastry?

Annie, Crissi and Mike (Crissi's hubby) picked us up and we all headed off to Canyon Lakes. The scenery on the way up was just beautiful and so very different to New Zealand. What wasn't so different was a very chilly wind that went to the bone very time we hopped out of the truck. Once at the lake we boarded Dolly, a paddle boat and spent the next hour and a half cruising the lake. It was just beautiful. The land formations and cliff faces impressive. We spotted big horn sheep and eagles. Once back at the pier we found a wagon and decided to have some fun! Crazy posed photos became a bit of a feature of the day.

By now the wind had died down and the warmth of the sun made our next stop, a picnic packed by Crissi, really lovely. We found a very pretty spot by the lake. On our way there we turned into the wrong car park and there was a big notice saying don't back up or you will do damage to your tyres. You can go against the required direction or on the wrong side of the road as spikes come up. They are serious about sticking to the path! Lunch was a feast of yummy treats and some skylarking as we tried to get some arial photos. Mike was incredibly patient, taking hundreds of photos on four different cameras.

After Canyon Lakes we stopped off at a pullout (lookout) and then headed onto a miners museum. The white church is where Elvis starred in the only movie he made where he didn't sing. It was a fascinating place. We learnt about the lost Dutchman and his treasure somewhere up in the Superstition Mountains. The gold has never been found but many have lost their lives trying to find it. The mountains a a real landmark and are in many of our photos. Next was the miner's village. Annie and I found some great shopping options there so effectively put some gold back into the town! For tea we meet up with Casey (Janice's hubby). We shared a bottle of wine before going into dinner and a show.

Another full on fabulous day.

Keywords for other stories - hand cream.