Today was another exciting day here in Tucson Arizona. while we were supposed to make our way to Mount Lemmon for an incredible hike our plans were changed due to icy roads so instead we took a 2-hour drive to go and explore the Chiricahua Mountains. While driving in Texas can be filled with boredom due to a lack of exciting things to look at our drive was amazing. although we were driving through the desert we were surrounded by mountains, a unique landscape, fascinating rock formations, and thousands of cacti. On our way to the mountain, we stopped a little more than halfway to briefly look around what used to be a massive lake in the middle of the desert back before the last ice age. Dr.Salem did an incredible job of explaining the geology and history of the land we explored on foot and throughout our drive. When we made it to the mountain we were all excited to start our hike, so after a brief stop to eat some Subway sandwiches we picked up on the way we started our 4-mile hike through the mountains. While some of the students had experience being around snow, some of us, including myself, had never been around this much snow and to say it was incredible is truly an understatement. Just at the starting point of our hike, the parking lot was lined with snow giving the perfect opportunity for snowballs and a bit of fun before our adventure took off. As we all took in the scenic view around us we were amazed by the stunning rock formations that covered the mountains. As we started the hike we all went at our own pace with Dr.Salem leading our pack through the trail surrounded by snow, forest, and rock formations reaching high above us. Our trial led us up and downhill through incredible scenery of snow and trees and even through a frozen lake where many of us spent some time breaking through three inch thick ice to see the water that was frozen over. While the plan was to walk a 4 mile hike by the time we made it to our halfway point we were met with so interesting news as we realized we had taken the wrong path at the beginning of the hike. We made our way on the 9 mile trail instead of the 4 mile hike and given we were only a little over 2 miles through we would have had much further to go. And, given the sun was on its descent, we made the decision to turn around and go back to at least complete a 4 mile hike back to our car. the hike back was still an incredible walk as we got to revisit the trail we had just walked and look back on the amazing scenery that we may have missed. after a little over an hour of walking we made it back to the car safely with a final sunset view before we left the mountains. As we all got ready to head out we made the decision to head to Waffle House but given the closest one would have taken closer to two hours we decided to go to another iconic spot here in Tucson, The Tripple T Dinner. The Triple T is a truck stop with a nice little dinner that provided us with some good food and a great way to end the long day. I personally got a Breakfast burrito while everyone else enjoyed burgers, pasta, and a lot of breakfast food. So after a nice meal after a long drive and a long hike, we all headed back to the hotel to rest up and get ready for another day exploring everything Tucson has to offer.
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