Hi everyone! I am back with another journey to add to my blog. I hope you have all been good since I last posted on here :-) Anyways, today I took a drive from Surprise to Cave Creek via Arizona State Highway 74, drove through the north part of Scottsdale, and then came back down Arizona State Highway 74 all the way from Cave Creek to where it ends in Morristown. The drive itself was absolutely wonderful and I definitely needed to take a break just to get away from everyday life for at least a little bit! Arizona State Highway 74 runs all the way from Highway 60 in Morristown to the foothills of Cave Creek. Along the route, you will experience so much beautiful scenery that you will definitely want to take your camera along! The drive itself took me about 4 hours to complete, although I did drive a little bit out of the way to visit north Scottsdale.

Around the beginning of Arizona State Highway 74, is Lake Pleasant Regional Park which is a huge recreational park here in Arizona. A lot of boaters, fishermen, and bikers go there to have fun especially on these nice Spring weekends! As you travel northeast, you will go through various subdivisions, all of which offer spectacular views and beautiful scenery of the Sonoran Desert. I definitely recommend stopping along the way to capture some of these stunning images! You will also pass various shopping centers up until you reach the end of the road at which point you have entered Carefree. Once you reach the stoplight at the end of Arizona State Highway 74, you can turn left and head towards Carefree and Cave Creek or you can turn right and go towards Scottsdale and Fountain Hills. Either way you are bound to experience breathtaking scenery!

I decided to start out by driving up the mountain towards Cave Creek and Carefree. As you start to drive towards these towns, you will see a big boulder mountain off to the right side of the road along with a church. The boulder mountain is a great tourist spot and is something that you don't see down here in the Sonoran Desert! I was definitely caught off guard by it :-) As you continue towards Carefree, you will reach the Carefree Town Center which is about 5 miles from the stoplight that I mentioned previously. The Carefree Town Center consists of a variety of stores, restaurants, and boutiques as well as the Carefree Garden which lies in the middle of the shopping plaza. I did not go into any of the shops or boutiques and didn't eat at any of the restaurants, but I saw a couple of stores that looked cool and one restaurant, which I believe was French themed, smelled really good. It might be worth your time to check out some of these places! I can tell you that you should definitely take a walk through the Carefree Garden right outside of these stores and restaurants! In the garden, you will be immersed into the Sonoran Desert immediately with blossoming plants, bushes, and odd shaped cactuses. I definitely enjoyed seeing the various species of cactus that are displayed throughout the garden! The garden itself is free and probably takes about 20 minutes to walk through entirely. It definitely offers good photo opportunities!

Afterwards, I started to head south back down the mountain of Carefree towards north Scottsdale. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything interesting in north Scottsdale besides lots of shops and restaurants plus it was too crowded for my liking so I decided to head back towards Arizona State Highway 74. As I headed northwest on Arizona State Highway 74 back towards Lake Pleasant Regional Park and Morristown, I couldn't help but notice all of the beautiful wildflowers that are growing alongside the road. It is absolutely beautiful when you see a ton of wildflowers in one area with a bunch of cactus plants and desert plants surrounding it. Here is another great photo opportunity especially right now during the Spring months since everything is blooming!

I continued to head northwest towards Lake Pleasant Regional Park and when I had reached the park itself I looked off to the left side of the road and there were wild donkeys! I saw three of them and at first glance I thought they were horses, but then there was a sign that said wild donkeys for the next five miles :-) Who knew that you would be able to see wild donkeys in Arizona? Unfortunately I couldn't stop to take a photo of them otherwise I definitely would have! I continued to head northwest past Lake Pleasant Regional Park and went through more beautiful Sonoran Desert scenery until I reached Morristown. The drive between Lake Pleasant Regional Park and Morristown is absolutely breathtaking as well. There are plenty of photo opportunities along here too!

After I reached Morristown, I turned east and started heading back to Surprise. It was definitely a great drive and helped me realize why I live here in Arizona! While many people think that Arizona is like a heater with just a bunch of cactuses and nothing else, they don't realize just how beautiful the state is especially with all of the mountain ranges, the beautiful wildflowers, and the gorgeous red rock! Another great part of living here is the diverse animal species that live in our state. We have everything from scorpions and gila monsters to wild donkeys as I witnessed today!