Cross Canyon

Yesterday I wanted to go someplace I'd never been before. I was looking around Superior in Google Earth and noticed some dirt roads heading off into the wilderness. I decided to drive on some of them and if I couldn't drive, I would walk.

On Google Earth, it looked like I could drive east out of town on the old road between Superior and Globe. I turns out that you can't get to the old road, though. While I was driving through town, though, I came across the old high school. It's the second oldest school in Arizona (the oldest is in Globe). It's closed now because of asbestos. It has for sale signs on it, but I hear that some guy bought it for $250,000.

This doesn't look like a place I would want to spend 3 or 4 years as a teenager.

I headed south on 177 and turned off at the first dirt road I'd seen in Google Earth. The tires slipped and spun on the steep, gravely road for about 30 feet before I got to a place to park, and park I did.

I parked near the cross on the east side of town.

An advantage to going to Superior is that it's at a higher elevation, which makes it slightly cooler than the valley. I think it was about 95 when I got out of the truck. I followed the road to its end, so the walking was pretty easy. By easy, I mean it wasn't real steep, not any PUDS (Pointless Ups and Downs; thanks anonymous), no grass to hide rattlers, no cholla to stab my legs, etc. It was very rocky in places so it was a good ankle workout. My new boots tend to slide a little easier than most I've had in the past. On the way down I got used to sliding a few inches every now and then.

On the way up, I almost stepped on a lizard before it ran off. That's unusual. It happened again on the way down and I almost pulled a muscle dancing around trying not to hurt the lizard. I also came across a snake. I saw one just like it last Tuesday but it got under a brittlebush before I got a picture. This one stayed in the road while I took pictures. It's a western patch-nosed snake.

It's a little noisy at the end of the road, where you can hear the traffic on 60.

US 60 far below.

I wonder if I can get up there.

On the way up the road, I saw several spots that looked like mine tailings. I checked a couple of them out, though and decided that it was dirt that had been pushed out of the way while making temporary roads, maybe while fighting a fire many many years ago. Then on the way down I glanced to my right and saw a mine entrance that had been closed off with a grate. It wasn't until I got home and was looking at pictures that I could see that some of the other piles of dirt were mine tailings. In the pictures I could see grates covering abandoned mine entrances.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2009_05_16