Back into our special, wonderful, isolated desert wilderness......with our newly repaired heart

It has been a year.  Almost to the day since we have been able to camp in our beautiful BLM areas--under the stars, completely quiet except for the sounds of the desert winds.  My open heart surgery derailed this year's trips to the desert where we find remote places to camp and hike.

This year, our first trip after my heart was repaired was to the Wikieup, Arizona area.  Last year we spent 2+ weeks here, so we thought we'd start at the great camping spot we had at that time and then find new spots....which we did.

Here are the two camping spots we were at.  The first was our old familiar favorite, and the second was a new one.  We also scoped out about 6 new spots for future trips:

From our first camping spot we did a lot of desert mountain hiking.  Some incredible views (and some very hard work for us).

Our second site was on the desert floor, instead of in mountains.  We found some of the most incredible, and largest Joshua Trees we have ever seen:

We spent 8 days in our desert wilderness.  In those 8 days four vehicles passed us on the spurs where we were camping--only four.  It was the solitude and beauty of the desert that we love so much.   We hiked every day (8 hikes, 43+ miles, 1+ mile of elevation gain) and then sat for hours listening to the wind blow through the Joshua Trees.

Addendum:  Tomorrow marks 4 months since open heart surgery.