From Vicksburg to Salmone The Hard Way

In the late afternoon when the sun hits the mountains to the east we have all remarked that it looks as if the mountains have snow.  Well, the sun is just creating the effect for those eastern mountains but the snow on these mountains we could see off in the distance this morning is real snow!

These snowed covered peaks are northeast of Wikieup and about 100 miles by road from us.

John—you wouldn’t have to dig for water for Meg in this hole now— Emmi was glad to get a drink.  One day when John and Meg were out walking, he dug down just a little at this site and water started coming into the dug hole.  You can see why—it will take a few days for all this water to soak in and evaporate.

We have this great book—Backcountry Adventures Arizona purchased in an Arizona Costco several years ago and never used it much until this year—we love our jeep!  The book is similar to an Alaska Milepost book with detailed descriptions of what you will see at each point on the road, difficulty ratings from 1-8 with one being the easiest suitable even for normal passenger vehicles, scenic ratings from 1-10 with ten being the most scenic.  The book also gives remoteness ratings, driving times and a whole lot of other stuff.   There is a link to the book on Amazon.com in the upper left corner of this blog.

Today we took the Desert Queen Mine Trail—difficult rating #3, 9.9 miles,  and a scenic rating of 8.  We included a side trip on the Glory Hole Mine Trail—difficulty rating #5 (scared the you know what out of me! not sure I want to do any more difficult than that!!!) 2.1 miles and a scenic rating of 8.  We had a ball bouncing, jouncing, bumping and rolling along.  High centered ourselves once (see parentheses above)—Emmi and I got out of the jeep while Michael maneuvered us off high center!  It took us 4 hours to drive the 12 miles from Vicksburg to Salmone—normally an eight mile trip on highway—we definitely took the scenic route!

What’s left of the Desert Queen Mine and the mine shaft going in the mine.  When walking around all these old mining spots you have to watch your step—see those timbers on the ground out in front of Michael—they cover a VERY deep hole in the ground. Michael took this photo leaning out the jeep window looking down—the very edge of the tire is visible at the bottom of the photo—very narrow road to say the least!Those irregular shaped whitish looking rocks are all quartz—the photo doesn’t do the colors or sparkles justice.  There was quartz all over the hillsides surrounding the old Glory Hole Mine.

We took a picnic lunch and spent the day—another great day in the desert!

Rollie and Gina—look at your new garage-- Thomas, Rollie and Gina’s son deployed to Afghanistan today with his Marine unit—may God watch over them all and bring each one home safely.  May God also watch over Ashley, Thomas’ wife who is pregnant with their first child.