We took a drive to Mesa, AZ and the Tonto National Forest. Beautiful mountains and cacti.

It's also the location of the Salt River, where tubing is the preferred activity. So we joined in, rented tubes, boarded the shuttle bus to take us to Stop No. 1 and off we went for a 5 hour float.

It was terrific, floating by huge cacti and surrounded by mountains, some of them coming right down to the river's edge. With temperatgures around 114 degrees, the cool water (probably mid 70's) felt great. For obvious reasons, we didn't bring the camera along with us, so we stopped for a few pictures after. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a place to get close enough to the river to show the rapids -- small ones, but lots of fun.