Always around Christmas, with family showing up, we take it as an opportunity to explore new canyons in the mountains. This year a lot of time was spent in Milagrosa Canyon in the Santa Catalina mountains that border Tucson. It's beautiful and very rugged. Hiking the trail is "sporty," as the rock climbers say, meaning leave your vertigo behind you, enjoy scrambling up and down substantial smooth boulders, and finally be rewarded by beautiful vistas and a sense of accomplishment. This spot is a favorite with rock climbers, and while I am still up to the standards of these pitches -- I am looking forward to working on that skill this year in hopes that next year I will be able to see the canyon from the heights!
Waterfalls with pools spreading out beneath. My son managed to get me to the top of these with some encouraging and prodding ---ok a lot of prodding! These rocks are smooth as silk with few hand holds. But once I reached the top, the endorphin rush -- following on the heels of the adrenaline rush of terrified climbing -- was entirely worth it!
Midori Snyder is the author of nine books for children and adults, published in English, French, Dutch, and Italian. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition....
