Our Location: Tonopah, Arizona
A cool night followed by a cooler morning. Overcast but then the sun popped out for a while but continued to play hide and seek among the clouds until late afternoon. Even while it was raining for most of the afternoon the sun popped in and out until around 5 PM and then just stayed hidden. Fog rolled in and rolled back out, rain started and stopped and started and stopped some more. It was a multiple weather event day with some wind added in for good measure. The temperatures are dropping as the cold front pushes closer and closer to us.
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| I followed what looks like a path over there once. It was actually a water way . |
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| Heading up the side of this very high hill but it wasn't going to take me where I wanted to go. |
After a hot drink Riley headed off for a walk to the main road and I continued to catch up with friends on Blogger. She returned about the time I was finished and before long I was heading out for a hike of my own. I’ve been looking out the window at this one particular area and thought today was the day I’d go look a bit deeper into the area.
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| We are parked over there on the left behind the two big white dots. |
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| Last year Doug and Yuma parked way over that way. |
I scrambled up one side of a large hill about 3/4 of the way before I realized it wasn’t going to take me where I wanted to go and so I headed back down finding a trail along the bottom that crossed back and forth over the wash and I followed it for a ways but it too wasn’t taking me in the direction I wanted to go. I turned around and followed the trail back past where I’d entered it and found myself down and up again out the other side of the wash and into an area I’d been to last year. From there I headed upwards and found some very interesting views. I climbed as far as I was comfortable with being on my own, stopped to take some photos before heading back down again.
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| At this point I turned around and headed back down because this wasn't taking me where I wanted to go. |
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| Lots of green but the walking was over some pretty rough ground. |
I met two young ladies on the sort of almost trail and we chatted for a few minutes before parting ways, them upward and me downward. I could see them for a few minutes and then lost them but found them again as they had taken the direction I had mentioned but they were much further along than I felt comfortable going solo. I’ll share those pictures tomorrow.
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| I want to get over there toward that flat bare rock. |
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| An amazing view from up here though. We are off to the left. |
I kind of wandered around the desert floor working my way back home to the Igloo and found myself at the door just shortly after noon. I’d managed to stretch my legs for 2 1/2 hours. Not a bad bit of exercise.
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| This was far as I went. It's pretty steep going back down that gravel like area. |
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| We are once again over on the left, that little dot in little coloured area of sunshine and light brown home dirt. |
Soon after I arrived home the rain started suddenly, just a few drops start and stop over and over. The sun shining and rain falling. It kept on like that for some time before it actually rained pretty good. Water was laying around in any shallow depression in the land and the wheel tracks on the roadway were also glistening with water. It never at any time rained extremely hard but one certainly would have been wet if they’d been outside.
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| You can see the sun playing in the clouds as you look across the way. |
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| This looking in the direction that Doug & Yuma were parked in last year. |
As dark approached the winds picked up and while not anything near what we’ve experienced out here I can say it’s giving the slide awning a bit of a rustling as I type this post. A long chat with daughter Courtney tonight as she called to chat about some personal things. Courtney and Matt live in East Toronto where there has been a record snowfall last weekend, then the temperatures soared to 10C/ 50 F in which all the snow except massive mounds melted leaving bare ground/pavement but now more snow is coming over the next few days which will once again have them shoveling the wet, white stuff.
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| Amazing views even from lower down. |
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| I made it where I wanted to go and tomorrow I'll share some better photos of exactly where I was. |
So that’s it, our day here in the great southwest desert. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Thanks for stopping by.
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| You can see the V in the bare rock with the dark green behind it. I was in the bottom right side of that V when I turned around and headed back down not feeling it safe to continue on solo. |
Until next time… take care, be safe,
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| The sun peeking through the spines of a Saguaro cactus. |
Deb
