The Grand Enchantment Trail ~ Part 9

While in Safford, we packed up two food boxes and sent them ahead of us to Gila Hot Springs and Winston, New Mexico.

We also made sure to fuel up at an all you can eat pizza buffet.  Its an interesting thing to be able to continuously eat and drink for several hours without wavering.

Maneuvering our way through agricultural fields, we soon headed out into the desert where life was bursting from its seams.

Plants of all kinds were creating new lines and forms to color and paint themselves into.

Finding ourselves satisfactorily in the middle of nowhere, we soon registered that we were on The Old Safford Morenci Trail.

This trail was built in 1874 to haul goods and supplies to the booming mining operations in this region.

Water along this canyon filled route was equally as precious to us as gold, silver, and copper was to the miners.

Walking cross country through uniquely formed canyons was the norm.

Old homesteads and prehistoric granaries hid themselves in plain site along Bonita Creek where beavers... yes... beavers in the desert.... had current plans to develop their own homes and to store their own sense of valuable resources.

Signs of flashfloods were everywhere.  Sometimes water is an all or nothing affair.

It's especially nice when a trail knows how to maintain its self by purging obstructions on a seasonal basis.

As low as 3,700 feet and climbing as high as 6,200 feet, we ventured to see the extremes and everything in between. 

Stacey and I even came across a desert hare whose head had just been eaten off presumably by a bobcat.

Thunderstorms threatened us, but we didn't believe in their anger issues.

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Tap Here for Part 10

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