Saturday January 13, 2024 - Gilbert Ray Campground day 3

Deb here. Yet another beautiful day, and each day a bit warmer than the last. Carmen had promised us all a waffle morning, and she delivered with delicious Belgian waffles with VT maple syrup. It’s quite decadent to be eating waffles from a waffle iron plugged in outside at a campsite!

Later in the morning we all (including Cote and Benny) loaded into Carmen and Dave’s truck to drive the short distance to Saguaro National Park West. John and I had visited here in 2019, but we hadn’t returned since we’d moved to Bisbee. It being a Saturday of a 3-day weekend the Visitor’s Center was busy, but we enjoyed going inside and checking it out. 

We found out about a dog friendly trail, so set off in the trucks on the park loop road in search of the trailhead. What a gorgeous drive on a well maintained dirt road! There are so many healthy saguaros in the park, and we were quickly dropped into the desert splendor. We parked at the lot for the Golden Gate Multi-Use Trail, and took the dogs on a nice walk out and back into the desert. Just beautiful.

After returning to the campground, we all had a little break before heading out to meet Deb’s son, Matt, and his girlfriend, Alex, for dinner at Zio Peppe Restaurant in Tucson. We met there at 6:15 and had a fun and leisurely dinner (with a couple of bottles of wine) before driving back to the campground and calling it a night.