Travelling With 5 Dogs: Our Apache Junction & Superstition Mountains Weekend

Alyssa and I had planned an anniversary trip to Apache Junction. We'd booked a beautiful Airbnb with a crystal-blue pool and a stunning view of the Superstition Mountains. We packed the car slightly lighter than usual. Somehow it still felt excessive. We've definitely got the interior layout figured out though – two dogs in the trunk space, two in the back seat and one up front with us mere humans.

The weekend was planned. If there's one thing about me, it's that I like to plan everything down to the last second. Alyssa, on the other hand, has been encouraging a slightly different approach. She's slowly winning.

Whenever we head away for a long weekend, we stick to a pretty familiar routine. The first day is always for the dogs, which usually means finding somewhere new to walk and letting them burn off as much energy as possible. This Saturday was no different.

Arizona doesn't mess around when it comes to the heat, so we were up early hoping to squeeze in a couple of miles before the temperature caught up with us. The Superstition Mountains were putting on a pretty good show, and it felt like one of those mornings where everything was lining up nicely.

The other thing about Arizona is that almost everything is trying to stab, bite or poison you. About seven minutes into the hike, we discovered we'd picked the stabbing option. Both Juno and Pepper managed to find a cholla cactus.

Calling it an "encounter" feels generous. They were absolutely covered in the stuff. Given we were about to perform what felt like emergency surgery with a pair of tweezers (our fingers), we decided to take the hint. The hike clearly wasn't happening that day, so we turned around and headed back to the car. Luckily for us, the dogs still seemed pretty worn out, and we spent the rest of the day in the pool reflecting on the last year, only being mildly inconvenienced by a few bats divebombing us at dusk.

Sunday was for us, and we'd rented a boat at Canyon Lake Marina. The drive there is beautiful: nothing but desert, saguaros and narrow winding roads that eventually open up to an oasis that doesn't look like it belongs in Arizona. For the most part, Alyssa does the blue jobs and I do the pink, so obviously she was in charge of driving the boat. It was quiet, scenic, and I was on the lookout for mountain goats. (None were spotted.)

At some point I thought it was a good idea to try driving (it was not). We'd pulled into a little lay-by so Alyssa could set up the camera while I adjusted the boat for the perfect shot. The instruction I was given was, "Throw it forward." So I did. The boat shot forward.Alyssa went flying backwards. and we quickly found ourselves heading towards a rock face. I personally blacked out and "woke up" laughing so hard I gained a couple of abs. Thankfully, Alyssa jumped into action, took back the wheel, and we narrowly avoided leaving all five dogs in an Airbnb parentless. Once again, the universe spoke and we listened. It was time to head back.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip really did go to plan. We lazed around in the sun with our books, beers and babes (the dogs), feeling grateful for each other... and for still being alive.