At the crack of dawn Wednesday morning we were leaving the green space at North Ranch heading east into the rising sun—destination:  Black Canyon Creek, Cleator and Crown King.
Nine rigs and fifteen people enjoyed some challenging riding and fabulous scenery—it was a pleasure to see water and fall color in the desert.

At one stop the guys located a “treasure”—an old basketball hoop which someone dumped in the desert or it washed down the gulch during a monsoon.  Seems the metal attaching the hoop to the wood frame was valuable to certain members of our party—it was hilarious watching all these guys dragging tools out of their rigs—I think we had enough tools to take apart and reassemble an automobile!!! 

As I said above, the riding was challenging at times and we crossed Black Canyon Creek many times.  The fall colors were beautiful and we even saw two crested saguaros.

Massive, strange rock formations rising up out of a forest of saguaros:

The folks calling Cleator and Crown King home are a hardy bunch—miles and miles of bumpy, dusty gravel road must be endured before reaching either settlement—Cleator is a collection of eclectic dwellings but it does have a bar and general store inhabited by friendly, knowledgeable folks:

The cowboy and I took a jeep ride to Crown King a couple years ago coming in from the west—this time we came in from the east and I must say—the ATV made for easier transportation than the jeep.  The elevation at Crown King is about 5700 feet—it was chilly up there!  Crown King is a mining/summer home type community and has a saloon, store, and a couple restaurants.

It was a glorious, beautiful day spent with the best of friends—thanks Tom for suggesting this one!