After shopping in Surprise today, we took a drive up toward Castle Hot Springs. The area up there is a beautiful Sonoran Desert saguaro forest with teddy bear cholla, compass cactus and prickly pear among the usual creosote and mesquite.
This was our first trip up castle Hot Springs Road. The first mile or so of the road north of SR 74 is paved, but then it becomes an unimproved, but properly graded road. As we got near to the top of the road, I was able to get a closer photo of this peak. The peak is visible from US 60 and we have posted pictures of it before, but this image frames the peak as seen from the saguaro forest below. Click on the image to enlarge.