Pigeon Spring Trail

Our last day at Roosevelt Lake.  It's Monday and yesterday night the Campsite really cleared out. Only 2 other parties here this morning. A blessed relief from constant generators.

To get to the trailhead at Pigeon Spring we drove up and up into the mountains until we reached pine forest, unfortunately burned in a forest fire. 

Still some pine trees surviving

 The Oak trees were recovering nicely.

There were a lot of charred logs across the trail that had to be scrambled over.

Lots of waterfalls too this high up.

This was, you guessed it, a portion of the Arizona Trail.  If Clint Eastwood had made it to Pigeon Spring he would have been very happy to find the constructed tank there overflowing with water.  We could see that it and some of the creek crossings were campsites for trail hikers.

We hiked until the trail connected with the Oak Flats trail, ate lunch and took in the views of the 4 Peaks Wilderness and the lake below.

This was a popular spot for ATVs.  On the way back we ran into numerous groups touring the backroads. 

  

Tule Canyon Trail

Today we were supposed to move on to 4 days in the Prescott area today but the forecast was for snow and sub-zero temperatures so we canceled our reservations and stayed on in Roosevelt Lake for 2 more days.  Next we'll head for Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. It was cold and blustery today but remains above zero.

This trail was a little different in that it did not start up on a steep uphill.  Instead we drove a road past numerous RVs boondocking (it was the weekend) in the desert.  From the trailhead we hiked through rolling terrain down into washes and up out again.

Lots of the usual desert birds, including this black-throated sparrow.

Eventually we came up on a flat-topped ridge between two washes.  We ran into a herd of cows.  We told them to moo-ove on and they did.

In the second wash was an empty corral with a water trough fed by a tank.  Because of all the rain the water was spewing out of the tank.  Again it had the atmosphere of a spaghetti western. Any time now Clint Eastwood might ride in to find the ranch abandoned. This was Tule Canyon.

From here we ascended into the Superstition Wilderness.  You can't tell from this photo but this entire slope
 

Was covered with lupines and blue dicks and other blue and purple flowers.

Eventually we reached Two Bar Ridge where we met with the Arizona Trail.  From here we had a great view 

Master of all he surveys

of the valley below

And the mountains of the Superstition Range.

Not sure what this mountain is called but it looks like the Temple of Mordor!

Cemetery-Cottonwood Canyon Loop

Another day,another hike up to the Arizona Trail.  This one started next to a trailer park and led to the historic Roosevelt cemetery. It hold the graves of some of the 77 workers killed during construction of the Roosevelt dam and relocated graves from the flooding of the reservoir.

From there we took the Thompson trail, planning to go as far up the AZ trail as we got and turn around.

We spotted 2 Couee's deer, the tiny desert race of whitetails that live in this part Arizona.

Do all whitetail deer have this fluffy ruff?

They spotted us too, and took off up the slope.

The trail filled a Forest Service road for a while

Then turned down to a corral in  Cottonwood Canyon

Here it intersected with the Cottonwood trail which looked so green and inviting that we decided to make a loop hike instead.

For now' we crossed the canyon and continued up into the Superstition Wilderness.

Where we found some desert paintbrush growing in the shade of a yucca.

 Is it just me or are these saguaro giving us the finger?

We found this cristate saguaro, a malformation thought to be caused by frost damage.  Now it's grown a million new arms.

Closeup:

Then we turned around and hiked down via Cottonwood Canyon.

A very nice trail along the creek.  It came out at the Frazier trailhead, and then we had to walk along the highway and across abridge to get back to our truck.

Here's an owl clover.  Not a real clover but a Castilleja like the paintbrush we saw earlier.

Vineyard Trail

 

The Vineyard trail is a section of the Arizona Trail that runs from the Mexican border up to Utah.  We hiked down a portion of the Vineyard trail when we drove up to the Mill Ridge trailhead, and today we tackled it from the bottom up.

Here's Leo at the start of the trail right by the bridge.

A little further up the trail.

Some spectacular views up here of the Jetson-like Bridge below.

And the Roosevelt dam.  

The Roosevelt dam was completed in 1911 and is featured on the Arizona State Crest because it was so important to the development of the state.  

We hiked until we got a view of Apache lake, then turned around.  The trail continues much further on till it reaches the Mill Ridge trailhead.

Leo in amongst the flowers

We had views of the Four Peaks mountains.

No shortage of Saguaros.

Lots of blue dicks blooming here.  We saw these as well at Oregon Pipe, where they were more blue than these.

 

Later that day when we took our 5 pm bird walk, Leo photographed this great-tailed grackle looking rather sculptural.

Tonto National Monument

The Tonto National Monument is just down the road from our campsite at Roosevelt Lake.  It protects two cliff dwellings.  The lower cliff dwelling above is accessible by a paved walkway that switches back up from the visitor centre.  The much larger upper cliff dwelling, below, can only be seen by a four-hour guided hike.  

Photographed from far, far away

These guided tours are sold out but we were hoping for a cancellation so we put ourselves on the waiting list.  While we waited we walked up to the lower cliff dwellings.

Here Leo chats wraith the ranger. She told us that though all the posted information refers to the Salado culture that lived here between 1250 and 1450 AD, now they think there were a variety of groups that lived here over the centuries.

Nice views from up here.

Looking out from the cave:

The whole walk up is through a lovely cactus garden.

I liked the southwest accents on this park bench.

When we visited here 6 years ago, the whole hillside was abloom.  Not as dramatic this year, but still some lovely flowers.

Poppies and lupines

 Everyone showed up for the guided hike so we were out of luck.  Lots of time for another hike of our own.