Hikes in the foothills

 

While in Arizona we went on an adventure every day. Usually this entailed hiking to some place cool. Twice we went hiking in the hills. Once we drove up into the mountains on Constellation Road and left the car and went for a hike when the road got too sketchy for the rental car.  Another time we climbed a mountain near the house.  We've always called it 'Red Peak'.  This year we looked it up in a trail guide and I gather it is officially called 'Red Top'. Most of the photos in this post are from the latter hike.  The bottom three are from the Constellation Road hike.

Despite how close Red Peak is to the house this was the first time Polly had ever been to the top.  Last year Nora, Jack, Stuey and I had climbed it for the first time in ages (click here for post). I see that I wrote about it pretty extensively in last year's post. In any case, the trails to the mountain are maintained by the BLM as part of the 'Sophie's Flats' trail system. In the past we've always gone and climbed the far more crowded Vulture Peak.  It is certainly nice to have a nice trail and mountain climb so close to the house.  It is sort of like a 'mini' Vulture Peak but without the crowds.

Patrick

That's an operational gold mine down below us in the valley

Finally some deep Snow

 

Finally.  We got some decent snow! We did have some snow earlier this fall and I even went skiing a couple of times, but it was 'scratchy' going.  The kind of skiing where you had to do a lot of hiking and had to use your oldest pair of rock skis.  Yesterday I skinned from the car and skied back to the road.  There was 8 inches or so of wet stuff at the road and 2 feet on the mountain and it was still coming down HARD.

It was raining in town so I did not expect so much snow.  So I brought my 1/4 century old rock skis.  And on a whim I brought my 1/4 century old climbing skins - and boy am I glad I did.  Hiking in the deep snow would have been exhausting, and the dogs did struggle.  The snow was so deep that going down my rock skis had no loft and I kept on digging into the snow and coming to a complete stop.  I had to lean way back to keep the tips of my skis up and sort of ski out of control on the ski tails.

So today I am going to take up the newest ski gear!

Patrick

I ran into another skier Ryan too - I could hear him whooping as he skied down before I ever saw him

A little bit of archaeology

 

An old walled in cave on ridge by house

As usual in Arizona we did a bit of archaeology on our hikes. On this trip the archaeological highlights were visiting the remains of an old road house far up into the mountains on Constellation Road, the usual visit to the petroglyphs,  looking for modified caves on the ridge behind the house, and a visit to the old mine just to the west of our driveway.  

At the old mine we found bottle and can dumps and foundations all around the area.  In the past I had only looked at the mine shafts and adits.  But it is clear that there is a lot leftover from the miners who lived there and clearly they did not take out the trash.  The trash around the old mine has been augmented by recent visitors and sometimes it is hard to say what is old and what is new.  And the actual mine shaft is where my grandfather used to dispose of his bottles up until about 1980.  I even found a photo of me adding to the mess from the 1970's.  At 50 years old it will count as archaeology - so it seems I am about to officially add to the archaeological record for the area.

The road house up in the mountain had been a place where travelers stopped to stay, and supposedly there were women of ill repute etc.  There was nothing left but foundations and this place has clearly been the focus of a lot of use right up to the present day.  We even found a gravestone for a 'Rick' - I suspect it is more a memorial stone than an actual gravestone - I hope so anyway.  The coolest thing about this spot was the 2 water hole caves that had been extensively fixed up.

We checked out the caves on the ridge behind the house on the way back from visiting the petroglyphs.  On this trip we noticed a lot of evidence for chipped stone quarrying on the ridge.  Little piles of flakes where clearly someone in the distant past had found a hunk of suitable rock and had started to make stone tools out of it - if the rock was suitable then he took it with him for making finished tools later back at his camp or village.  But on the ridge we also found a completely walled in cave.  I am not so sure how old it is and inside there was an old drone, a pitch fork, and a jean jacket.  Very weird.  And sort of spooky too.

Patrick

Early 20th century can dump by an old mine

That's me on the left adding to the mess in the 1970's

This is the old mine shaft - it got partially filled in for safety reasons in the 1990's

The petroglyphs we visit every year - I worry that one year there will be more bullet holes

Hiking up the wash to see the petroglyphs

According to writing on the slab this was built in 1926

The Spring for a late 19th century roadhouse

checking out caves

Remains of late 19th century roadhouse

The desert

 

'Teddy bear' Cholla and Saguaro Cactus at sunset

The Sonora Desert is a beautiful place and completely different from Kodiak.  Kodiak is very wet with tall trees and Wickenburg completely dry with very little vegetation - mostly just 'bushes', some grass and cactuses. On arrival once you leave the city it is a stark reality.  Here you are in the middle of something completely different.  Leaving Phoenix the highway is pretty much a straight arrow on a flat plain and there are little mountain ranges sticking up in the distance on the edge of the 'pan'.

Walking in the desert I am always struck by the lack of soil.  In the desert the ground is not soft and there are always exposed rocks and sand.  The geology is RIGHT there for one to interpret.  And then there are the cactuses (or more correctly cacti).  Everything has thorns.  Even the bushes.  About the only thing without thorns is the grass and the greasewood.

Patrick

Hiking the ridge behind the house

The house is by those trees in the middle distance

Mostly Palo Verde trees

Prickly pear cactus

Ocotillo, Saguaro, and Palo verde

Sun stars, sunsets, and sunrises

 

Sun stars are pretty easy to create if you have a camera with manual controls - set the aperture as high as you can (close it down) and then partially block the sun and click away.  And you got the stars.  In Arizona I got kind of obsessed with creating sun stars in my photos, and Polly even mentioned that she had gotten a little 'bored' with my sunstars.  I think I might have over done it.

Of course the best light for pictures is at sunset and sunrise.  In years past I have gotten up early to get the sunset light and made the best of the evening light too.  But this year I was a bit lazy and did not take many photos during the 'golden' hours.  I was too busy ready my books and soaking in the actual 'golden moment'.  Still I did get a few.

Patrick