Everyone should hike this Phoenix area oasis: a pond, a creek, springs, ruins, and so many saguaros

Matate? Matate, but east or west. East or west. Is that how you say it? Matate? That's how the lady said it, so. Okay. We're going this way, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I think we break left then. Right? Put this paper map away. Do we break left? We're breaking left. Wow, look at all those saguaros. So many. Alright, here we are at Spurcos. I can't even talk. My mouth's so frozen. It's so cold. Why is it so cold? We were hiking in the rain today when I was warmer than this. Stacy, what are we doing? What are we hiking today? Apparently, I don't know what the loop is called. Are we hiking six miles or ten miles? Or nine miles? We have options. What trail? We are going up the Matate Trail. We're heading for the Limestone Trail. And then we have options for coming back on the Tortuga Trail. Or we can go all the way around by Elephant Mountain. If we're feeling good. If we're feeling up for it. And we're not frozen to death by then. But if we're craving Mexican, we're out of here. We're out. Look at this. Look at the lily pads. They're so cute. They are cute. Apparently, there's leopard frogs here. It's too cold for frogs. It's freaking freezing out here. It's freezing. The land of the giant toads. With a bajillion arms. I look so stupid with this thing on. Oh boy. So hey, you know. You got to do what you got to do when it's cold outside. We just passed a couple other hikers. That gave a five-star review to this trail. So hoping it lives up to the hype. Matate. The one reason I brought the poles. Hey, hey, whoa. Give me one of your poles. Only easy steps. It's all in your mind. Be mentally tough. Oh my gosh. Are you serious? All right. I think I'm not going to make it. Bye. Oh, easy. You're making that look so easy. You made it look so hard. I know. Adventurous, not hard. You're going to need your poles for the water crossings. Here's where it gets fun. Yes, Sue. Commit. Yes. It's not flat. I think you just have to give in. You just got to, yep, full send. Good job. You got it, you got it. Oh. You survived. Uh-oh. Bad news. We're up there. We were supposed to turn back there. You know what that means, right? You have to cross that again. That was so sketchy. No way I'm keeping my feet dry twice across that creek. Oh, you made that look easy. With a snack in her hand and everything. Move it, toots. It's freezing out here. Alright, we're heading back and looking for the junction. Oh, there's like a whole sign that we missed. And a corral. I feel like we're in a magazine. Hiker magazine. Alright, here we go on the limestone trail. Putting your puffy back on? Get a little chilly up here? Yeah. It's cold outside. It's like the wind. It's chilly. The sun is deceiving. It's not enough. It's not enough today. Too hot for the full puffy, so let me go with the house. It's a style choice. It really is stunning. It's what the Kardashians would do. Yeah, that looks a little iffy. In a desperate situation. I mean, real desperate situation. Where's the spring? Off to the left, it said. On the trail. Oh my gosh. It's like a little pumper. This will run dry. Okay, I'm going to try it. You just didn't try hard enough. Okay. Whoa. Put your heart into it. Come on, baby. Oh! Didn't try hard enough. Oh, that looks... Put your water bottle right there. Oh yeah, no. What are we going to do? Okay. Before I commit to anything dumb. You don't trust me. So this is the decision point. You can either go back to the park down that way, or go up and over this saddle. Four and a half miles to go. Four and a half miles, like a bit of a climb, and then boom. Smooth sailing. I think we're going. All the way home. We're going to send this Elephant Mountain. All right. Send it. All right, we're heading up over the saddle. No regrets, baby. No regrets. So many saguaros. We are in a saguaro wonderland. I cannot get enough of this. No. Eat your heart out, Saguaro National Park. They should make this a national park. I am right there with you. It is just too awesome. Can you believe all these saguaros? All of those sticks are saguaros. All those saguaros? That's just freaking crazy. So many. They had so many children. Look at all those. So many saguaro children up there. They're propagating like bunnies. So we're headed back to the mountain now. And I started wondering if we're ever going to get to the parking lot. But apparently, here's the junction. How many stars are we going to get? I don't know. It's pretty darn good. Pretty good. Like, I'd do like a four, four and a half stars. What would you say? Yeah. Think of that. I mean, I was pleasantly surprised. Especially for like a Phoenix area hike. 100%. Yeah. I take my four and a half star view back because it was a freaking stupid uphill. At mile 9.9 of a 10 mile hike. That's just rude. So we started here. Up Mataji. And then all the way up here. And then up here. And then down. And then all the way across here. When it says unmaintained, it's true. And all the way over here. All the way down here. Oh. Pretty much covered the whole square cross. We did it. It was rad. Do I see something? I don't see something. What is that? I thought it was a peacock. Peacock? What? This thing. This wooden thing. You thought that was a peacock? Doesn't it look like a peacock? What the? What? I can't find my chapstick. This is. You don't even know. This is cause for panic. This is like that. It's a catastrophe. This is. It's not in there. Do I need to SOS? Yes. My lips are not going to survive this hike. It didn't work. Wait. I have a maybe acceptable substitute. What? It's a contact case. And it has Trail Toes anti-chafing gel in there. I feel like that could work. It works for toes and lips. Gross. Still rocking the puffy shawl. I think it's going to catch on. That's what it is. It's a puffy shawl. It's just. We just came up with a new fashion statement for the outdoors. Okay. We got to have a photo. Come on REI.