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The hard part comes first; lots of lumpy rocks to get through.

There is a lovely fragrance that pervades this part of the trail.  It comes from this plant, a large leaf bursage.

The trail takes an abrupt turn into the Canyon.  Watch out for those chollas!

Part of the fun is dropping down into dry stream beds and clambering back out of them.

In and out of shadows.

The Canyon walls start to rise.

Not too many blooming plants along the way, but plant ap says this one is an American Threefold.

This just gets prettier and prettier!

You can see how steep some of the stream bed crossings are!

We'll enter the Pusch Ridge Wilderness, part of the Santa Catalinas.  

All the spines are missing from the underside of this saguaro arm.  Any thoughts on why?

Some of the prettiest crossings are filled, unfortunately, with invasive buffle grass.  

The warm morning air brought out these sweet butterflies.  A new one on me, I had to look this one up--Asterocampa leilia--Empress Leilia

We reach the end of the easy part and decide to leave the steep climb to the Maiden Pools for another day.  Take your time hiking back to the car.  It's a beautiful trail whether you're hiking in or out!