Tucson is a prickly delicacy wrapped in a warm tortilla and smothered in sunshine sauce. In December, we visited that arid nirvana with a chunk of my family. Delicious food was eaten, 150-year-old cacti were beheld, exceptional trails were hiked, and careless kids were spiked. Here’s how the piggings and the prickings went.

Tucson is the second-largest city in Arizona. It is encircled by five minor mountain ranges and a national park. Its bragging rights include being the first U.S. city to receive the title “City of Gastronomy” by UNESCO and boasting the southernmost ski resort in the United States. We wasted no time sampling its inimitable offerings intimately.

Jason went outside with some of the nieces and nephews to explore our first morning in Arizona. Within minutes, a nephew walked backwards into a jumping cholla, a barbed cactus known for attaching painfully onto anything near it. Although its hooks made removal more difficult than expected, Jason disconnected flesh from plant with skilled maneuvering.

After all those spikes were disconnected, we created opportunities for more stabbings with a hike in Saguaro National Park on portions of the Douglas Spring Trail, Converse Trail, and Garwood Trail- about 1.5 miles in total. Glorious desert!

Following our trek, we ate lunch at the humble looking but highly rated Baja Café. Yum! This restaurant is known for eggs benedicts and huevos rancheros. I got the Wyatt Earp, which is a grilled green chile and cheese tamale pie topped with tomatillo sauce, seared pulled pork, two strips of chipotle bacon, fire roasted green chilies, onions, tomatoes, melted cheddar and Monterey jack cheese, poached eggs, avocado hollandaise, pico de gallo, and cotija. If I didn’t just make you hungry with that run-on sentence, you may have no stomach for bad grammar. I’d highly recommend Baja Café, even if you prefer snickerdoodle pancakes to eggs benedict.

During the afternoon, we shopped at the Old Town Artisans, cute stores in downtown situated on the site of a fort built by the Spanish in 1775. Beyond offering distinctive handmade items, these shops contain remnants of original gold-leafed mouldings, wallpapers, and ceilings constructed from saguaro cactus ribs.

The next day, the wind picked up quite a bit. It made the mid-fifties feel more than 50% less hospitable. However, seeing as it was 20 degrees back home, you won’t catch me ungraciously complaining here. Despite the chilly breeze, we hiked about four miles through Sabino Canyon in a convoluted loop that jumped on a number of trails including parts of Esperero, Rattlesnake, and Bluff. These took us through cactus-covered hillsides and above Sabino Creek. Appearing like a vein diffusing golden blood, the land lining Sabino Creek was covered in deciduous trees just losing their fall leaves. This ordinary gilded stipe seemed almost alien surrounded by resilient saguaros.

We spent the afternoon at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Since large sections of this museum are located outside, the chilly wind plagued us still while we observed a load of desert critters including black widows, roadrunners, bobcats, and endangered Mexican gray wolves. We learned that there are over two dozen types of rattlesnakes in the Sonoran Desert. That’s a whole lot of rattling my nerves! The museum’s Cactus Garden is notable with over 100 types of these unique plants, including rare and endangered species like the Pima pineapple.

Our time in Tucson passed in a sunny, gusty, prickly, cheesy blast. The plates and landscapes were inspiring and the wind almost immobilizing.

This fall we spent a long weekend in Moab, like we have practically done since therapods pushed their toes into its scarlet mud. On this occasion, my sister joined us, and the weather was ideal, which made the trip exactly perfect.

Although November is one of our preferred months to visit Moab, conditions can be unpredictable that time of year. Fortunately, temperatures stayed in the sixties and skies remained sunny. Thank you, Gods of Not-Quite Winter!

How did we make use of all that delicious sunshine? First, we hiked the 2.5 miles to Longbow Arch, a trail we had somehow never explored or even heard of. Quite a few sights are packed into this short jaunt including petroglyphs, dinosaur tracks, and the obvious arch.

The next day, we trekked two trails, Cowboy Jacuzzis and Jeep Arch. Reaching the Cowboy Jacuzzis requires under a mile each way. Mill Creek slows as it fills these rock bowls, and sunshine striking the stone heats the water to bath temperatures… well, that’s what supposedly happens during warmer times of the year. It was cooler than any bath I’d like to dip into when we were there.

We visited Jeep Arch just a year ago, but since my sister had never been, we were disposed to enjoy this hike again. It was just as spectacular as the first time.

Our last day, we hiked somewhere between six and seven miles on the Amasa Back Trail with an added spur to an overlook above the Colorado River and Poison Spider Mesa. Amasa Back is a peninsula formed by a U-bend in the Colorado River. Its trail climbs to its crown. Rising 1000 feet has its advantages. At first, we were disappointed that our perspective on countless fins and dramatic cliffs from above the Colorado was marred by State Route 279 and other mementos of humanity. However, in the end, we found the ORVs and other Vs making their way up Poison Spider Mesa to be extremely entertaining, especially the unjustifiably confident ones. Our prospect also revealed the numerous layers of plateaus expanding above State Route 279 invisible from its pavement. An unfamiliar look on such a well-known motorway was fascinating.

What did we like about hiking Amasa Back? The vista from the viewpoint was unique and, surprisingly, made more interesting by its manmade touches. Also, we were able to appreciate this perspective in solitude. While the path had plenty of bikers on it until we passed the HyMasa Trail, a single-track used to access the Captain Ahab Trail, we didn’t see a single person the rest of our journey. What didn’t we like? Amasa Back is a jeep trail, which means a wider and more scuffed route.

It was great to share Moab with my sister and her hubby. Usually, it’s just me and Jason hogging the splendor to ourselves. Sunshine and sisters pair perfectly in the desert like cyanobacteria and lichens.