Best Hikes with Dogs: Arizona

Today we went on Hike 51 of Best Hikes with Dogs: Arizona by Renee Guillory. This is a great book for people looking to hike with their dog or just in general. Using a grid in the front of the book, you can select a hike based on several factors, including difficulty, if there's running water, scenery, solitude, and if it's ok to hike with your dog unleashed. Each hike has a topo map and an elevation map so you can see if it's level or hilly. There are detailed directions about how to get there and how well the road is maintained for car drivers like us. It even tells you the best months of the year to go there. Really there isn't a detail left out.

We picked a hike that wasn't too far away and that would have a river. It was about 108 degrees (it's an October through April hike) but there was a lot to see, and for Captain Skippyjon Jones, a lot to smell and pee on.

Here he is smelling:

It made our city dog sneeze!

After about a mile we got to the river.

It doesn't seem so hot if you can dip your feet in the water! I got an illegal fish pedicure.

There were tons of little frogs hopping around. We think they're Canyon Tree Frogs. In a moment of abandon Corey caught one. We didn't keep it.

Time to go. Big Brother's on tonight!

On the way back Captain decided we should just live here. This summer he became a true desert dog when he figured out that water cools you down. In June he started sitting in our bird bath. Friday he started jumping in the swimming pool on his own. Today he sat in the stream that feeds into the river whenever he had a chance and was stubborn about getting back up again.

Too cute.

Great book and great hike!