In February 2017, I was visiting Scottsdale, Arizona, for the second time. After spending a couple days at the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa for a work conference, which also included eating a delicious client dinner at The Herb Box and meeting Jeff Ma, I was so excited to extend my visit and see a bit more of Arizona.
Grand Canyon 
WM Phoenix Open
Of course, I was also excited to spend some time with my friend Emily, who lived out there. She was happy to host and escort me to all sorts of cool outings over the weekend, including…
- A day at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, now the only golf tournament I’ve ever been to – way more fun than I expected.
- An early morning trip to the Grand Canyon, which was absolutely marvelous and gave us the chance to play in a little bit of snow.
- A night out in Old Town Scottsdale, where we hopped from bar to bar, and I desperately wanted to dance with a Harry Styles lookalike.
Since Emily also had to work a little bit while I was visiting, I also took the opportunity to opt outside and do a little exploring of my own. I researched and really enjoyed the Lost Dog Wash trail by myself, but I was looking forward to sharing one of her favorite trails on my last night there: Brown’s Mountain.
JW Marriott Scottsdale 
Lost Dog Wash
We had to hustle over there after her shift to make sure we had time to get up to the top and back before sunset. Our timing was slightly off, so it was darker than we would have liked as we made our way back down the mountain. This, combined with my knack for falling, had unfortunate results.
I ended up slipping on a gravel patch, and I stuck my hand out to catch myself. What I actually ended up catching was a cactus. A piece of the cactus broke off as I stood up, and we stayed connected. Emily and I weren’t sure what to do, and we ultimately decided that the best solution was to hit it off. She used a stick to get the cactus off my hand, but I was left with dozens of cactus spines in my hand.
It was only getting darker, so we moved as quickly as we could to her car (while being very careful not to fall again) and drove back to her house, where she proceeded to spend the rest of the evening tweezing spines out of my hand. I ended up having a bit of an allergic reaction afterward, so once I got back to Tampa, I saw the dermatologist. They were very confused as to where a Florida girl fell on a cactus, but they got me a topical ointment that cleared the reaction right up.
Key takeaways: get your hikes in before sunset, and be mindful where you put your hands.
Want more Arizona? These are my outdoor must-dos!