Safford 5

 We woke up to a perfectly gorgeous day, the mountain was finally clear of all clouds!  We’ve been waiting for this day to drive up and hike the high country.  

Mt Graham has a paved road going up about 14 miles to 9150’.  We saw 4 deer running off the side of the road on the way up too.  At the end of the pavement the gate is closed, general snow plowing ends and only vehicles authorized to go to the observatory can continue on.  We parked at the gate and hiked 4 miles on the road, nice gravel road with 0-2” of snow.  The sun had softened the surface so there was a little bit of mud too.

We met four guys with 3 dogs in the first half mile.  The dogs had radio collars so we asked if they were hunting.  Yes, mountain lion hunting!  Only one of them had a rifle, so it didn’t look like a high expectation kind of hunt.  They had been 8 miles by then, they’d started out at 6:30 and it was about 11, so they were tired!  Said they’d seen one old track that they figured was a few days old.  So that was entertaining!  Did not see anyone else on foot all day.  

As we went back down the mountain we saw several cars coming up, so apparently they come up in the afternoon around here.  Probably just for the ride and view.

Back in camp in time for Skye’s dinner and some guacamole before supper.  Skye is laid out sleeping, apparently a tired and happy dog.  She really loved getting out in the snow, finally cool enough for her!

And I heard a lone coyote sing in the late afternoon.

This morning’s view

The road up is in the center of this view

Snow!

The GPS has a corkscrew road

Turkey?  Big enough to be

Cat tracks?  No claws showing

Waiting.  Again…

Playful after a rest