An evening in Pine Valley

We had to go up to Pine Valley for some business and turned it into a nice dinner date.  We checked out a fireplace at a cabin and ate dinner on the porch.  While waiting for a fire to die down in the fireplace, we took walks around the Whipple Trail trail head and saw such beautiful sights.  It was also nice that it was about 60 degrees and the air so fresh.  The stream was bursting at the seams and there were so many flowers with many Crimson Columbines, some of my favorites.  We brought our little book, The Dimwit's Guide to Southwestern Trees, along and feel like we learned more about identifying the differences between fir and spruce and Douglas Fir and Engleman Fir, identified Water Birch that the native Pine Valley folks call "Red Willow" and decided we are still confused by some of the several different species of Junipers.  We also are pretty good at identifying Limber Pines now. We even took off our shoes and went wading in one place where the usual passage was washed out.  It was very cold and refreshing water!  It was a lovely evening and it made us wish we were camping out.