Hiking the Gila

I was able to get off the ranch a few times as well in the past few weeks. One day I headed out for a really nice hike. Seth had told me about a place near where we ride where you can get a good vista of Taylor Creek Canyon, Wall Lake, and Docking Head and also see a lot of pottery. 

Looking back up Taylor Creek Canyon

It was very neat to poke around and see all the different rocks and shards. I wandered around the top of the canyon for awhile which was pretty neat since usually I am riding through the bottom of it. 

View down to the trail

Up on top!

After lunch atop the canyon, I made my way down to the bottom of the other side to check out Akes Meadow which we also ride by because I wanted a closer look at the old foundation of a homestead. 

Homestead

The meadow was filled with lots of desert poppy which was pretty. For being so dry I am constantly amazed at all the different wildflowers that pop up. 

Jumping for joy among the poppy

For the remainder of the hike, I hiked back up to the top of the cliffs and followed our normal horse trail back to the ranch, doing some trail maintenance along the way. On the rides I usually take pictures of the vistas but this time I was able to stop and take my time and get close to the flowers and get some nice pictures. 

My second outing started out in my vehicle. I realized I hadn't started up my car in the 3 weeks since I'd been back so I took a drive down the road to give it some exercise. I drove to a pullout where I hiked up to Ant Hill. I had ridden there once before with Meris but its a hell of a view so I was glad to revisit it. The vista is 360 so it was neat to see the clouds and sun. I was hoping the rain would move towards us but it only rained for a few minutes. 

Ant Hill

The Mazda surveying the territory