Today Prescott returned to the fine and sunny weather we’ve become accustomed to, but work trapped me in front of my computer most of the day. I finally broke away in the late afternoon for our second hike over the rounded granite of the Dells.

It’s an incredible playground out there. Everywhere are canyons, cliffs, stairways, and shelters formed of rock. You can wander around and climb in them for days and not see it all. And despite the initially barren look of the place, there are many animals as well. A long Arizona Mountain King Snake crossed our path, along with more common creatures: squirrels, violet-green swallows, hawks, lizards, and even a skink about six inches long.

The snake is a rough look-alike for the venomous Coral Snake, but I caught the picture above before he slid out of sight and so we were able to positively identify him when we got back to the Airstream.

Once again the Dells proved to be a photographic delight, and so I’ve uploaded some new images to the Prescott album on Flickr. It was easy to get some nice shots with just a short zoom, a circular polarizer and a flash.

This is our last day in Prescott. We are going to wander over toward the Mogollon Rim, east of here, and then southward toward Tucson over the weekend. It’s hard to leave Prescott but I’m sure we’ll be back. Next time, I’m hoping to have a mountain bike and maybe our tent camping gear too.