Castle Hot Springs

It was just too nice a day to stay home and do any kind of chores or work. We decided to take a drive to a place not too far from us that we haven't seen in about 12 or so years - the Cowtown western village. That was a small, and old, western town that was used for filming some low budget western films years ago. It was down the dirt road portion of the old Carefree highway. It is behind the Glider Port and Flying School just off the main Carefree Highway:

and is also the spot where the Canyon Motocross speedway is located  and also a paintball course that have been there for years. We never made it to the old town as an older gentleman intercepted our car to tell us that it no longer existed as a filming location, but was now being used as a sniper firing range by the US government. What a surprise - and disappointment. He also told us a little bit about the history of the place and related a couple stories of old films that were made there that featured Johnny Depp, Clark Gable Jr, and a few other stars. Those films never made the big time.

We decided to take another drive that we last took about 12 years ago - to the Castle Hot Springs. It is located on the western side of Lake Pleasant past the Regional Park. It is a terrific drive through some beautiful desert country. This first shot is the scene as we left the road along the Lake Pleasant Regional Park to go through the desert mountains on the way to the Hot Springs Resort:

There were beautiful cactus plants in bloom along the entire drive and we stopped on several occasions to get pictures of some of these plants that were beginning to bloom. Starting with this shot of a Hedgehog cactus:

and these prickly pear cactus:

The Resort at the Hot Springs hasn't changed very much as we remembered it, but we had forgotten how beautiful this complex is and always wonder how it must have been in its hey-day when all the famous stars and politicians used to come here. This is the way it looks today:

Amazing - in the middle of nowhere.

The total drive on this dirt road through the hills and desert is about 30 miles. We covered the road in about 3 hours and towards the end of the road we came across these cattle that weren't concerned about anything:

As we came out at the end of the road, we were close to the town of Wickenburg, so we went into town and had an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant - El Ranchero - that was very good. Of course, we had to have a margarita to go along with the meal.

The day didn't turn out to be as we had originally planned, but with the weather being so perfect, it was a wonderful way to spend one of the rare days off that Josie has had over the last month. There are so many of these out-of-the-way places to visit that are convenient to us that we have to take advantage of them while we can.

Today, it is back to normal as Josie will work at the flower shop and I will attempt to remove the topper awning in preparation for our replacement that is due to arrive today...