12/4, The Superstition Mountains

The Superstition Mountains, Superstition wilderness. And the story of the lost Dutchman……… who was really German? Peralta Trail, Freemont Saddle, Tortilla Flats.

Some trails just seem to keep climbing! The route to Freemont Saddle was like that. Superb temperature, but the sun is intense, and the bouldering made the climb a workout. Views along the way were great, and from the top better! Lots of cactus and other plants, but the Saguaro stole the show for me, especially with the rocky spires as a backdrop.

We had to stop in to the saloon in Tortilla Flats. It's wallpapered with dollar bills, and has saddles to sit at the bar. The museum just 3 doors down has a jail cell out front where Ginger was talked into entering.

Evening was wonderful under the stars and Saguaro cactus, even a campfire! It's really nice not to be cold or wet.

Camping under the stars, and Saguaro!

Saguaro and the stars.

Freemont Saddle, Superstition Mountains

Freemont Saddle, Superstition Mountains

Saguaro, Freemont Saddle, Superstition Mountains

Saddle up to the bar, Tortilla Flats

Ginger gets tossed in the Tortilla Flats Jail!

12/3 Globe and the detour

I was rather ho-hum about going to the Boyce-Thompson arboretum. I think of it as a garden of trees, and I'd just as soon explore a trail in the woods without paying the admission fee. So I used Ginger as an excuse to drop Susan off, and go scout our camp site for the evening. Well, that only took  6 minutes, and Susan sent me a text saying that dogs are allowed to go in the arboretum. I checked my attitude, and thought it would be best to go on in. It was great, a huge property with a gazillion different types of cactus and desert plants. I even learned that a lot of what we refer to as cactus, are not, rather succulents. As an example, the agave plant is not a cactus, even with the thorns and thick "leaves". It was great, and we were able to spend more time than planned. We didn't get stuck :)

There were a lot of birds enjoying the trees, so we spent considerable effort spotting them- no I don't remember which ones we saw, aside from the humming bird…….

The road from Globe to Superior is only about 30 miles, but as luck would have it, it was closed for construction causing a 70 mile detour past some vast, enormous, mountain sized open pit mines. I spotted a few billboards touting the new technology used for a greener copper. "less water used means more for nature and our communities" or something like that. Would that be "greenwashing" or just "misleading"? Funny, I didn't think to photograph the mines….

Blooming Cactus

Saguaro cactus

Bunch of Pricklies

Barrel Cactus

Barrel Cactus

12/2 Aztek Peak, Workman Creek Road

From our fantastic campsite on Rose creek, we drove up workman road to explore and hike to Aztec peak. The road was steep, narrow and rocky, so we hiked quite a bit of the road. At the trailhead, it was hard to find where the trail was, so we played it safe and hiked the road to the top of Aztec peak. It seemed rather circuitous, but that's what roads do I guess. The views from the top were great, and we bushwacked thru 2 miles of berry patch vines grabbing at us on the trail coming down.

Gaia GPS is a great tool, but we've joked that staff haven't visited Arizona in a long time. The trails are sometimes in the wrong place, and roads are named differently.

After the 8 mile hike, I drove up the 4x4 road to a fantastic camp spot in the trees- that was a little crazy, but the site was really amazing. I had a campfire, which I've been enjoying more than I anticipated.

There were some Arizona inconsistencies- two of three campsites on Workman road have been converted to day use areas, with no obvious signs in the sites. The last campsite was posted "No Camping", but nothing about the camp being closed or converted to day use. The youth camp (closed for the season) has play structures for small kids, and targets for a shooting range. Hanging on the entrance gates a "no shooting" sign (for populated areas)- ??

Exquisit camp and campfire.

11/30 Montezuma's Castle and Tonto Natural bridge

Cottonwood: Wall mart! I've learned (again) that I don't like the Wall mart experience- I stopped in to see if they had butane cannisters for the stove- nope, and a bike pump for the missing one. I did find that at least.

Safeway- groceries, a much better experience.

Montezuma's Castle National Monument.

Total misnomer- no Montezuma, and no castle, but there are some very cool cliff dwellings and artifacts from how the native people lived in the area long ago, and Ginger could walk this with us. We were lucky and got a parking spot right away.

We headed south and found a nice brewery in Pine, called THAT brewery. Pine is a happenin' town, and THAT is also the place to be. Then we found a forest camp and I enjoyed a fire with wood someone left behind. It was good, but we didn't return there because it felt a bit trashy/ unmaintained.

So tomorrow (11/30) we return to Pine for a hike.

We went to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park kind of early, and got some good area information from the guy at the booth- I asked if he had a favorite hike in the area, he replied Deer Creek, so we'll look for that one.

The state parks are pretty strict on the dog thing- Dogs on paved trails only and cannot be left in a vehicle unattended.

Travertine formations make the rock look like sand castles, it's really like calcium deposits

We saw some Cardinals in the meadow, and identified the females, which have just a hint of red.

Afterwards we went back to Pine and hiked a section of the Arizona trail (6 miles out and back), it felt good to have a decent hike in for exercise.

No javelinas, but some cool textures on the Oneseed junipers. Ginger had a great time and is tired this evening.

Most of the hike was in the mid 60's, and the sun felt great.

Angry Plantlife!

Bark patterns, Oneseed Juniper

Thanksgiving!

So, today we enjoyed a bit of Sedona, maybe I’m getting used to it?

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast at “the Vault” then went for a hike in Yavapai, hmm, canyon, not really. I think it’s just Yavapai. great network of trails for hiking or Mt biking- though those trails would be tough on a Mt Bike!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Blue Agave on the Yavapai trail

Agave and Cactus