SALOME WILDERNESS AREA

30 March 2011:  Headed across the lake to hike into Salome Wilderness area.  Crossed at A + Bar road which the water was a little deeper than the crossing at the Bar X road yesterday.  Had a great hike and took a lot of pictures.  What a great place to spend the day.  We hiked there last year and knew we would be back.  I would recommend it.  Hiking out was pretty warm because of the elevation gain, and it is a southwest facing slope.  The sun was pretty warm.  On our way back while crossing the river, Connie saved an elderly gentleman when his motorcycle became stuck half way across the river.  She pulled along side, hoped out into the river (she was wearing her chacos on her feet) and pushed the gentleman out of the hole he was in.  She is such a Good Samaritan!  

Click to enlarge any photo - especially the last one.

Just about to leave the trailhead.  Getting the gps set.

There are a lot of desert marigolds on this corner.  We saw more flowers on this hike than any others.

The debate is on as to what this flower is.  We both think it is a lily, but which one?  Sego lily is what we think it is, but it was much taller than any we have seen.  And the sepals are wrong I think.

Our camper is across the lake in the center of the photo.

These strawberry hedgehogs are all over.

Miss saguaro?

This is the narrow part of the Salome and heavy run offs scour the rocks clean.

Not a lot of water in there right now.

The different colors in this canyon will amaze you.

Some very old petroglyphs.

A small hedgehog growing right out of the rocks.

Connie is hiking around pretty good now.

Lots of little waterfalls.

Colors.

Our lunch spot.

Of course Connie had to go wading.  It just makes my feet hurt to watch her walk on the gravel and rocks!

Lots of wild bees getting water in the little seeps.

Okay:  What is this creature?  It is half the size of a paper dollar so it is pretty good sized.  Very skittish and would dart under a rock if you moved very fast.  And it looks like there is a face on the back of the body.

NEW DIGS AT ROOSEVELT LAKE

28 March 2011:  Broke camp and headed over to Roosevelt Lake via the Apache Trial.  Much of it is a gravel road (22 miles) and quite steep in a few places.  We did not hook up the jeep to the pickup so Connie had to drive it.  There are some pretty tight turns in the road and some of it is only wide enough for one vehicle.  Great road though.  And the views are pretty darn good also.  It took us about 2 hours to drive it, but that is with a number of stops.  We camped at a place we call the point over looking Roosevelt Lake.  Great campsite.  

At the bottom of the pass.  

You can see the road angling down the side of the mountain.   Some steep sections and sharp corners.

Our new camp between the saguaros.

 And a few strawberry hedgehogs right by camp.

29 March 2011:  Had a nice walk first thing this morning from camp.  It is all uphill right at first.  They are in a drought around here.  The pond near our old campsite is dry this year.  First time in a number of years that it has been dry.  I guess that is the reason there are hardly any wildflowers around here.  We headed down to Tonto basin to check out the river crossing and decided to do a kayak trip to the other side of the Lake.  We had not planned on that, but the water was really calm and just could not pass it up.  Nice paddle for a couple of hours.  On our way out of our campsite we saw a gila monster.  That is only the third one we have seen.  We called this one stubby because his tail was shorter than normal.  Looks like something tried to get him and ended up with just his tail.  After our paddle we checked out the river crossing and picked up a few groceries at the store.

Click to enlarge any photo.

Stubby the gila monster.

He hissed at me just before I took this picture.

A petroglyph just at the turn off the road to our campsite.

Getting my watershoes on before we carry the kayak down to the water.

This gull is making sure we do make a wake with our kayak!

Thought these cows were pretty fat even with not a lot of grass to eat.

 The river crossing.

UPDATE FROM ARIZONA

20 March 2011:  We had a frustrating day.  We headed out to the Sonoran Desert National Monument first thing this morning thinking we were going to be able to do a hike out there that we have done a number of times.  It is a number of miles inside the Monument, but we could not get into the Monument.  It is closed.  Said they are doing some restoration work and will be closed for 2 to 3 years.  That letter on the information board was dated May 2008.  Well, it still is not open to driving and we did not want to hike five miles just to get to the area we wanted to hike and then hike 5 more miles.  I get frustrated with the Department of Interior as I am not so sure they know what they are doing.  When it was just BLM and not a monument, it was a pretty good place to go and hang out for a week or so.  The old Mormon Trail and Butterfield trail are there.  Lots of history.  Then they made it a Monument and started jeep tours through the area and closed off most of the roads and only allowed camping within 50 feet of the roads that they had not blocked off.  Now you cannot even get in there.  I could vent on this subject for quite some time but won’t.

Then we headed over to the Woolsey Mountain Wilderness area and according to the map, you could drive to it as there was a road depicted on the map.  Well that was not the case.  No road existed.  So we just headed out on the old highway from Gila Bend to Buckeye and got to see some country we had not seen before.  Then headed back to the Air Force Aux field and got ready to go to Phoenix the next day.  I had to go into town to get propane also.  The wind started to come up in the late afternoon.

21 March 2011:  What a night we had around here.  There was one of the worst dust storms we have ever been in.  I guess the real bad ones were in Big Spring, Texas, but this was a close second.  The wind really blew in the night.  None of us got any sleep.  And the dust in the camper was pretty bad in the morning, but the dust in the front of the pickup was really bad.  We had left the passenger side window down a little as well as the window in the back of the cab.  What a mess, dust everywhere.  We didn’t have time to clean it up before we headed to Luke AFB in Phoenix, but got a lot cleaned up when we got back.  We had to go up to Luke to get a new military ID card for Connie.  Hers expired at the end of the month which meant she would have been dropped off the medical coverage.  That would not have been good.  While we were there we stopped at the BX and commissary and bought a few things. 

22 March 2011:  We broke camp and headed to the Lost Dutchman State Park just outside of Apache Junction.  Big campground and it was full.  Busy place.  After we set up camp we went up to explore Canyon Lake and where we would go kayaking.  Also stopped at the famous Tortilla Flat bar and grill for a cheeseburger and a beer.   Pretty good they were.

23 March 2011:  Broke camp and moved up to the Forest Service campground at Tortilla Flat.  Great place.  The first FS campground I have been to that has sewer and water at the sites.  That is all we need.  Our solar panel provides all the electricity we need so we are set.  And it is so clean and well taken care of.  What a find.

After getting settled in our new digs, we went and kayaked on Canyon Lake.  Did almost 9 miles and my arms can tell it.  It has been six months since I have had a paddle in my hands.

Click to enlarge photos.

An Eared Grebe who was pretty leery of our kayak.

Two bald eagles hanging around on the rocks.

 A sight you don't see very often - a floating Saguaro Cactus.

At the end of an inlet.

  This is what it looked like most of the paddle.

24 March 2011:  Did a little hike up to boot hill I think the name was.  It is just across the wash from our camp and is a pretty steep hike.  Connie’s knees did very well as did Connie.  It was not an easy hike and probably should not have done it this quick after her surgery.  After a quick lunch we went kayaking again.  Not a long one as we had done yesterday, but got to explore a few little nooks and crannies.  

Our new digs at a FS campground with sewer and water.

 View of our camp from our hike.

The Brittle Bush is really blooming well this year.

At the top and that is Canyon Lake in the background.

And here we are with our tans on top of the boot.

A Great tailed grackle - fun to watch them use their tail as a rudder.

25 March 2011:  Went into town to get a new socket for our 12 volt system.  Something seems to be wrong with our old one so can’t charge anything from the “cigarette lighter” in the camper which means my computer!  We also checked our emails , the weather, and any messages on Connie’s phone.  Her droid phone is a great tool.  And it has a real good navigation system on it also.  

26 March 2011:  Went for a hike just up the road where the pavement ends and the gravel begins.  Round trip was 8.3 miles – maybe a little long for Connie’s new knees.  She was getting a little sore by the time we got back to the jeep.  We had to walk on a jeep road for 3 miles before we really got to the trailheads.  Lots of trails around there that go out into the Superstition Wilderness area.  Saw many hedgehog cactus in bloom.  Think they were the Engelmann variety.  “Note to self” - don’t camp in this campground during the weekend.  When we got back it seems half of Phoenix was out here camping!  There was like a family reunion camping next to us.

The Superstition Mountains in the background, foreground is me by a Century Plant. 

27 March 2011:  I went for a hike first thing this morning to the northeast of the campground.  It was a good hike and gained a little elevation in the process.  Also saw the first poppies in bloom this year.  Only a couple of plants, but at least we have seen them now.  Connie’s knees were a little sore this morning so she did not go.  They felt good enough for her to walk down to the Tortilla Flat area and do some shopping!  After I got back, we headed down to Canyon Lake and did a nice short kayak trip to the southeastern part of the lake.  We had lunch out on the water and a mallard drake and two hens came over to beg food from us. Too funny.  This evening we went down to Tortilla Flat and had supper.  I had this huge burrito and Connie a cheeseburger with fries.  Then topped it off with ice cream!  Must walk 10 miles tomorrow!!!

The first poppies were spotted on my hike.

Nice view from up on top.

A rare sandy beach at Canyon Lake.

These ducks new we were an easy touch.