Roper Lake State Park

What a ...
I spent the whole day at Arizona Dodge.  8 AM to 5:10 PM to get that torque converter installed.  Broken bolt, variation in the wiring.  Good grief.  But the transmission felt better, smoother, than before on the way home to camp.  Had to move camp today because we have used our 14 day limit on BLM land in the area.  So we are at the state park again. 
Here's the kicker.  I got one mile down the road with the camper attached and the check engine light came back on.  Now back to the garage in the morning. 
%^$*#%$#@$#%^&#&^$&@^%#@$#@$^%&*$^&$%
Now I've made a reservation here for tomorrow night too.  Just in case.
A really memorable day.
But our niece had her baby today, on my birthday!  Now there are 3 in the family with this birthday, the other is my 5th great grandfather, Nathaniel Tracey, 3/31/1734.
Sorry there are no photos today.  I didn't really want a picture of the dodge dealer.
No good sunset here tonight, fairly overcast.  A grey sunset.  Perfect ending for this day!
Well, the Jack Daniels tastes mighty fine tonight!

Camp Haekel 8, Dutch Henry trail hike

Went back to a place we tried to hike last week, the one where we lost the road in the wash.  This time we just parked the truck and hiked the wash to find the trail.  That worked quite well.  We also met the rancher who owns a spread from there to the Bear Creek trail a few miles south of there.  He was on a 4 wheeler because that goes through the wash so much better.  And he said it was tough going even for that rig, in one place.  Glad I parked the truck!
It was a nice hike up into some rocky hillsides that Carlene really likes.  We saw some wildlife on this trip.  Lots of birds, some reptiles, and a chipmunk.  A Red Tail Hawk, Road Runner, Gambel's Quail & even a frog!
We had the usual confusion finding our way sometimes.  These are old trails in range country where cattle use the same trails and often add their own routes in the process.  The topo app on my phone is great for finding some of these routes.  People have built small cairns along the route in many places.  Those are a great help where they exist but they are not everywhere.

This is the wash I didn't want to drive in

More cattle checking us out

A couple bulls who didn't care about us

Dutch Henry Trail

In case you wondered what was inside a Prickly Pear Cactus

These are a couple of the cairns we followed

I see a grinning fish here

Gambel's Quail

Camp Haekel 7, road walk

Another leisurely morning in camp, a bit of lunch and then we went out for a walk on the gravel roads to the south.  The map suggested this was a regular road that went somewhere.  We knew there was the cattle guard that Callahan could not cross so we drove down to see where we might want to hike.  The road ended much sooner than expected.  There was a flood control dam and when we saw the spillway we thought "crap, another hike cut off by water".  Not this time!  It was a dry wash but way too rugged for the truck.  This was a 4 wheeler place.  Down here the 4 wheelers are all side by side 2-4 passenger rigs, and they're street legal here.  We've only seen a couple of the one seat 4 wheelers that are so common at home. 
So we walked for 2 miles out and then back.  Had to do some looking around to find our way occasionally.  I had to use the satellite image on the map program to see where the trails disappeared to.  We only saw 2 pick up trucks out there, on a Sunday afternoon.  There are miles and miles of roads out there, most of them passable by pick up.
Back at camp in time for some gin & tonic and sitting in the sun reading until sunset.  It's a tough life!

A dry spillway, but a very different design

Downstream

Camp Haekel 6, road trip to Wilcox

We took a leisurely morning in camp while browsing emails, internet stories & future campgrounds.  Then we got the bug to go down to Wilcox to check out a free campsite nearer to the Chiricahua Monument.  The actual site is at an AZ Wildlife Area where whooping cranes winter. 
We got down there easily since it's just over an hour away.  Took Callahan out for a 3 mile walk on the bird viewing trails, there were no birds out there except for a raven in a tree.  The Wilcox Playa SWA is fairly large and home to many cranes in the winter but they leave in March.  We were there in midday so we can't be sure whether they have left or not.  They spend the days out in the nearby croplands.  They don't allow you to approach the lake itself, probably due to birds wintering along the shore. 
The so called campsite is just the gravel parking lot by the highway.  But it's free so we'll head down there on Tuesday.  Not sure how long we'll stay there.  It's only 30 miles to Chiricahua where there is likely a lot of hiking possibilities. 
Diesel is $2.99 to $3.15 here in Safford.  In Wilcox, right along I-10, it's $2.59 to $2.70.  And I got it at $2.48 with the Safeway discount card.

That's Graham Mtn from the south side view

The Chiricahuas have snow on them, and it looks like snow in the foreground.  Just gypsum on the sand.

Camp Haekel 5, short road hike

It was supposed to be a longer hike but we knew heading out that we were going to new unexplored places.  This took us a little farther to the north side of Graham from the town of Pima.  We wanted to find one of two trailheads there and didn’t really care which one.  So one was supposed to be past the Cluff Ranch (we were there several days ago).  But I missed a turn and ended up at a dead end.  No problem, it was near the second trailhead road so we went down there.  Until we got to a gate labeled private property no trespassing.  The trail on the map was farther down the road.  OK, so much for that trail.  It was a very nice ride out a gravel road through more open country.
Back to Cluff Ranch and this time we found the trail.  Well, actually we found where the road deteriorated into a 4 wheeler road that would lead to the trail.  We hiked up that for 1.3 miles until we got to a creek ford that was too deep to cross with dry feet.  It was a cold windy day, 55 degrees and 30 mph wind.  Didn’t want wet feet.  Short hike.
Back to camp and an afternoon of relaxation.  Actually it was 2:30 when we got back.  Catching up on some emails and reading.

The end of the first road

Another wet ford, no thanks

We found this campsite with a swing!

Later, back at camp