Taking a break: hiking around Globe, AZ

 

It's a beautiful sunny Thursday afternoon, about 25 degrees C, and we'll soon drive to the edge of town for another hike in Round Mountain Park, just as we did yesterday afternoon. We had planned to do a longer hike today, but after visiting the Besh-Ba-Gowar archaeological park this morning we decided two or three miles would be enough. I still feel the last of the stiffness from the long, hard hike to the Flatiron in the Superstition Mountains three days ago, and it's good not to have too big of a program for a couple of days. I originally had planned to explore historic downtown Globe a bit, but this is not just a small core but very generously laid out, and somehow I don't have the taste for it. Being out among the rocks and shrubs will be enough, I think.

This greeted us at the trailhead - I refrained from using this restroom...

Yesterday we chose the east trail to start out with, which connected with the Rocky Canyon trail that led us down into a canyon through boulders of all sizes, then back out again. The trails are very well marked, and a few benches invite to sit down and contemplate this interesting landscape. It is a bit cooler here than in the Phoenix area, thanks to the elevation around 1000 to 1200 m. The vegetation is different, too: piñon pine have largely replaced saguaros on the tall side, although there are still chollas and barrel cacti on the hillsides, and creosote, mesquite and jojoba prevail, giving shelter to a growing number of blooming wildflowers. Here, it feels more like spring than summer, the cottonwood trees in the valleys newly clad in tender green.

Although the park with its trail system is right on the edge of town we didn't see anyone for most of the hike; only in the last fifteen or twenty minutes, when the sun already started to slip towards the horizon, we met people just starting out on their after-supper walks. Today we'll see where the western trail will take us.

Graythorn, humming with bees, a shrub with a wonderful fresh, clean fragrance

The western trail is quite different from the eastern trail both in scenery and in surface. While yesterday's trail was very rocky and you couldn't take your eyes off it for a moment because you always needed to know where to put your feet, the section today was relatively smooth and wider, and the whole landscape was less rock-strewn for much of the way. We met several joggers, which might explain why we didn't see anybody yesterday: they'd choose this part of the park because the other trail would be very difficult to negotiate with any speed.

An extra little loop took us to a place called 'The Bullseye', a rock with a hole in it. The smoke-blackened ceiling of a nearby cave indicates that this area must have provided shelter for the Apache people who have lived in this area for centuries, maybe for the Salado people before them. There is an abundance of scrub oak and other nourishing plants around, and as we read both white-tail and mule deer live in these hills (as well as bobcat, cougar and black bear).

After climbing the highest rise of the trail, visible from afar because of the big American flag flying there, we followed the western trail downhill until it met up with the eastern trail and finished the way we had finished the day before. I'm really impressed how well this trail is maintained and marked. There are also not only benches but a few shelters, even with fire pits. Those were the only places where I saw any garbage (despite garbage cans), and even there not very much.

We are leaving Globe this morning and will visit the Petrified Forest NP today. The slow way north has begun, and in a little over a week we will be home again.

I have a lot of catching up to do from last week, and since I have a few hours left before we check out I will try to do at least some of it, starting from the day we left Yuma about a week ago. I'll date the different entries so that there is some continuity.