Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona

As the temperatures soar past 100 degrees here in the East Valley, it was time to make a quick get away and head to an area with cooler temps. Pinetop, Arizona in the White Mountains was the destination. Pat and I left Friday after work and planned a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains for Saturday. It took a little over 3 hours to get there on a windy mountain road, the elevation is over 6,000 feet and the temperature was perfect for me. Saturday AM it was 55 degrees when we started hiking and by the time we finished it was near 80. We hiked an 8.5 mile loop trail which wound through the pine trees of the Apache National Forest. We lost the trail at some point about halfway through and walked along a forest road that was probably a shortcut, by this time it was sunny and hot for me and I was worn out and exhausted. After the hike a stop at Red Devil Pizza for lunch then the long drive back home.

 The beautiful town of Pinetop-Lakeside

 This was the original jailhouse moved to a location in town for preservation. It also doubles as Santa's house at Christmas.

 All ready to start the hike.

 This was pretty much the view the entire hike.

 Geocache number 1, found under a pile of rocks.

 Geocache number 2, found under a pile of rocks. 

Sensing a theme here?

 Geocache number 3, was found under a pile of rocks.

 More trees

Somewhere soon after this sign we lost the trail. The trail was very hard to walk on, it had a lot of rocks and I had to walk with my head down, watching where I was stepping as I kept tripping over the rocks. Not that I would have noticed anyway. it was nice to get away if only for a day.

Sixty Years

June 13, 1953

Hiking in Prescott

Pat and I went to hike in Prescott, Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. We were up and on the road by 6AM. It is a two-hour drive to Prescott add in the requisite bathroom stops when traveling with me and we began our hike about 8:30AM. We finished the hike about 2PM, to put it mildly I was exhausted and worn out by the time we were done. Granite Mountain Trail #261 was found in another of Pat's Arizona Highway magazines. It was 8.2 miles round trip and the elevation change was 1400 feet or somewhere in that area. It was pretty much a steady climb all the way to the top, then pretty much downhill the whole way back. Needless to say I liked the way back a lot better. I almost didn't make it all the way to our destination, and truth be told there was another little bit of a climb to reach the very top, but trust me when I tell you there was no way I could make it any further up. The views were gorgeous and I really liked the Granite Mountain area, I am not sure why we have never hiked in Prescott before, but now that we have I believe we will again.

 You might have to look hard here to see it, but there is a javelina in this picture, I have never seen one in the wild before. There were two near the start of the hike and they are kind of scary. Read more about javelinas here.

 How very nice and peaceful does this look? Starting early in the morning gives us plenty of time to enjoy the quiet and solitude before all sorts of loud annoying people show up.

 Pat on one of his many stop and wait breaks. He gets a lot of them because I am always so far behind.

 Lots of these dead looking trees in the area, and I believe that mountain behind there is where we ended up hiking to the top of.

 Little cactus growing up out of the cracks in a boulder.

 Whew, I made it to the top, believe me there was serious doubt along the way whether I would or not. It took me 3 hours to get up there and according to all the guide books it is a 4 hour round trip hike. Guess I need to up my game a bit. We spent about 30 minutes sitting up here, enjoying the view, having a snack and recouping for the way back down. It was a lovely day, the weather was perfect and I can't wait to go back. HAHA I say that now because I have recouped from the pain and exhaustion of that day.