 | | Author: | Art (ID: 1009) | | Posted: | 2009-06-13 01:07 GMT+00:00 | | Mileage: | 3.69 km | |
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 | Tags: | Photography, Hiking, Landscape, desert, hike, photographs |
| Views: 989 |
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A few weeks ago I was on a trail near Superior, Arizona, and looked up at the beautiful cliffs to the east of town. I wanted to get to the top of those cliffs, but I didn't know if that would even be possible. If it involved rock climbing, I wasn't going to do it. I looked for a way up from the other side on June 6 but didn't get more than a hundred meters from my truck. While looking at Google Earth that night, I thought I could see a faint trail from the road to the cliff edge. This is the story of following that trail.
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This is where the trail intersects the road. It's overgrown and you have to be looking for it and directly at it to see it.
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I saw a few lizards along the trail. Most of them looked like this one. I got several pictures of this one.
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I knew that it was a real trail and not my imagination finding patterns in the noise of the satellite view when I saw all of the cairns along the trail.
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There are a lot of unusual rock formations out here. I guess that actually makes them usual.
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The cairns were usually placed close enough together that I could see at least 3 at any one time. There's a lizard perched on this one.
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Zoomed in on the lizard. It's keeping an eye on me.
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Looking back the way I came. I took most pictures facing the east because the sun was in my face if I took pictures in the direction I was going.
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There are a lot of cairns visible in this picture.
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A tall cairn.
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That's a natural rock formation up there, not a cairn.
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I couldn't figure out why somebody left that there.
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There are a lot of these pipes out here. I think they are survey markers placed by a mining company.
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Flowers along the way.
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Survey marker.
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In many places, the trail was over nice, solid rock. In some places, it went through soft soil or a sandy bottom of a wash. I didn't see any other hiker footprints anywhere. This trail is very rarely used, which explains why it is so overgrown.
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That looks like a mosquito on that flower.
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There were a few thin clouds. They didn't give me any shade.
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This tree is covered with fuzzy seeds.
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A close-up of the seeds.
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A stock tank. From Google Earth, I knew that this is near the Apache Leap cliffs. I'm almost there.
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Looking back the way I came.
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The stock tank from further up the trail.
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Zoomed in.
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Near the cliff, some campers had built a wall to block wind from their campfire.
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I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't like standing on cliff edges.
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I continued following cairns along the cliff edge. This is looking back at the camper's wall.
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As I knew it would be, the view is very nice from up here.
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I zoomed in to get pictures of lots of things far down below.
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That's the town of Superior, Arizona. Since I was up here in late afternoon, most of my pictures looking out from the cliff are facing into the sun, which makes it difficult to get decent pictures.
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I used my hand to shade the camera lens.
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That flat-topped mountain back there is Picketpost Mountain. I need to make an @trip to its summit.
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There's a large copper mine in Superior. That's why the town is there.
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That's a powre sub-station.
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That's a small mining operation.
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An even smaller mine.
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That road us US 60. It will take you to the Phoenix area. I'll be driving on that road to get home after this hike.
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Picketpost Mountain.
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There are two vehicles parked down there. If you zoom in you might see people walking around. I think they had gone out there to do some target shooting.
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The Superstition Mountains can be seen on the horizon.
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The smelter at the mine.
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There are more cairns over there, but I had to turn back. I didn't want to be out here after sunset. I wasn't familiar with the area and it looked like there were black bears around.
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Almost back to my truck.
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One last picture, of an agave.
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