another national park ride for me... but this time instead of stying straight and going to jumbo rocks or beyond like we usually do... this time i wanted to explore more of the road heading down toward the lower desert.. and more specifically... i wanted to ride to the cholla garden!

again i had lead for legs on the first part of the climb up to the entrance.. but musta warmed up... did better on the part until the turn off.... had a few miles of slight climbing (and some gorgeous views) until we hit the downhill to the lower desert.... we kept going.... and going.... and going... and thinking "we have to climb back out of this hole we descending into!") after about 6 miles of descending... i told hubby it was ok with me to turn around anytime... we didn't HAVE to go all the way to cholla garden.... but alas... we kept going.... the asent ended up being 8 miles (that means i had 8 miles of climbing to do to get out of the hole!)

unfortunately... with the lower elevation came more heat.... so we didn't hang around the garden too long... took a few pics (which i will add to this post later... i was too lazy to upload them last night!)

the descent wasn't that bad.... mostly 4% til the upper part which got up to 7-8% for a short time... but that was near the top.... then the descent back out of the park!

ended up with 44.43 miles and 3916 fee of climbing!