After picking up our rental car in Phoenix we headed straight for the Boyce Thompson Arboretum for a lovely hike through flowering cacti and other drought tolerant plants and trees. This is my first time in so-called dry heat and that whole analogy about being slow roasted in an oven is completely accurate. We used the shade often and drank a ton of cold water (water fountains were supplied readily along the trail) and took quite a few photos. I’ll leave you with a sampling of the arboretum below…