Hiking the Tortolitas

We've been hiking.  Yesterday was from the Genser Trailhead up to the overlook.  It was a good hike. However, it's one we've done a lot lately.  Hidden and Bowen trails are full of rubble, and aren't that much fun for the feet.  That part of the mountains has a lot of pointy rocks that start to hurt after awhile.

Today was overcast and cool.  Jim and I have become such weather wimps, that we decided to hike again.  I suggested Pima Canyon, but Jim demurred, saying it's too rocky.  So, we went up to the Tortolitas at Dove Mountain, because it's much less rocky, right?  HAH!  Double HAH HAH HAH!  We headed out towards Lower Javelina, because it's not as steep as Upper Javelina.  We diverted to the Alamo Springs trail, deciding to do 20 minutes up.  It's so steep!  Much of the trail is piles of big rocks.  This is a benign section of the trail.  For some reason I didn't photograph the piles of rock.  Maybe I was afraid of falling off.

This is the view from where we turned around.  Closer in is the Dove Mountain resort.  Farther out are the mountains.  You can see how overcast it was.

Then we took the Lower Javelina trail.  There is more up on it than we remembered.  We haven't been out there since Christmas 2014.  Check out this saguaro.  There is a lot going on with this cactus.

Look at all of the arms on this guy.

It was a strenuous hike.  We're both feeling somewhat tired, my knees are yelping from all of the stepping up and stepping down.  It's interesting how different the Tortolitas are from the Tucson Mountains.  The Tortolitas have big round rocks, while the Tucson Mountains have small pointy rocks.
Have you seen the national weather forecast for late next week?  There's going to be a cold snap that affects all of the lower 48 states with the exception of southern Florida.  Should be interesting.  The article is here.