I get to do a lot of fun things with the ARC, things I wouldn't have done on my own. So I jumped at the chance to take my peeps on the Dolly Steamboat ride out on Canyon Lake. The lake is 45 minutes from our house and I've been on it many times with our friends, wake boarding. Well, I drove the boat, the girls and Hyte wakeboarded and rode the tubes.
But the Dolly is a whole other ride, slowly chugging up the lake as the boats and jet skis go zipping by. As we pull away from the dock, some music comes on and I realize it is "Hello Dolly," how appropriate. The captain begins his mild patter about the history of the man-made lake as we cruise up past Mormon Flat dam. Four dams were built on the Salt River, this one over a settlement called Mormon Flats, where settlers stopped on their way to new homes in Arizona. The narrow canyon makes for a deep lake, and high cliff walls that are a geologists dream. Captain tells us these canyons were formed from 3 old volcanos that collapsed a loooonngg time ago, and the cliff walls have all sorts of visible history.
We really did get to see a lot of wild life... I now wish I'd taken binoculars. We saw hawks and turkey vultures circling above, and I was really excited when someone pointed out a couple of mountain goats jumping around high up on one of the cliffs. We saw very old Saguaro cacti, and I was impressed with a few of the flowers the captain pointed out to us. One is called the century plant. It lives a long time, then blooms once, then dies. And we saw several of them in bloom. (My photos did them no justice so I've borrowed a better pic.)
Beth and Robert didn't ever go up top, we were all comfortable just sitting at the tables by the open window. It wasn't hot at all there on the water, despite the fact when we got back home it was 103.
We really did get to see a lot of wild life... I now wish I'd taken binoculars. We saw hawks and turkey vultures circling above, and I was really excited when someone pointed out a couple of mountain goats jumping around high up on one of the cliffs. We saw very old Saguaro cacti, and I was impressed with a few of the flowers the captain pointed out to us. One is called the century plant. It lives a long time, then blooms once, then dies. And we saw several of them in bloom. (My photos did them no justice so I've borrowed a better pic.)
Beth and Robert didn't ever go up top, we were all comfortable just sitting at the tables by the open window. It wasn't hot at all there on the water, despite the fact when we got back home it was 103. Most of the time the captain was silent and we quietly floated up and then down the lake, all the time with some quiet music like Enya playing and setting a mood. But one of the passengers just had to pipe up when she realized they were playing the theme to "Titanic." Somehow that just seems inappropriate for a boat ride, don't you think?
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