Day 2

Dead Horse Ranch State Park Cottonwood, Arizona

Our neighbors.

We rode our bicycles first thing this morning.  We went to the Riverside Park.  The Verde River is 180 miles long and is the longest uninterrupted river in Arizona. 

The cottonwood trees living along the river’s edge are old.  This is the oldest and largest stand of cottonwood trees left here.  The trees stabilize the banks of the river and provide habitat for lots of birds and other wildlife. 

We took the Jeep on the Mingus Mountain Trail.  This is about 19 miles of winding dirt and gravel road that too us up from about 3,000 feet to the mountaintops at about 7,000 feet.  The views of the Verde Valley were spectacular. 

Among the peaks…

Our lunch spot…in the shade…among trees.

A lunch companion.

We descended Mingus Mountain.

Tim taking a picture of me taking a picture!

We drove to the barbed wire gate at our second trail…the Woodchute Trail.  Don’t go there…it was a scratchy, brushy, scraggly trail.  The branches on the bushes and trees were scraping the sides of the Jeep when we decided to turn around. 

We did get to see this view from our turnaround point.

And back to the barbed wire gate.

The scenery from the highway.

We spent the evening reading and caching up with family and friends.  The Gambel’s quails were scurrying around the campsite and this was the one decent picture.