Wandering by the Salt

On Wednesday I got tired of the constant battles I was having to fight at work (with software and machines, not people), so I decided to leave a little early and get out to the desert for some relaxation. It had been more that a week since I'd been out there. It was too gloomy to hike last weekend and I've been very busy during the week. I had to think of someplace close to go, because the sun would be setting soon.

I headed over to the Salt River and went to an area I haven't been in for a couple of years. There's a large bare patch of ground there. I'm beginning to think that if there aren't enough rocks in the dirt in the desert, the dirt will be bare (except maybe after rain). Not sure why that is, though.

Large bare patch.

I found a little fall color as I got closer to the river.

As I got closer to the river, I was wondering if I would be able to find any coins or jewelry with a metal detector. People loose a lot of stuff like that while tubing on the river. I quickly realized that might not work, though. Unless your metal detector is good at discriminating against aluminum, you aren't going to find anything but beer cans. There were a lot scattered around, and lots of caps, t-shirts, and shoes.

Looking back towards the Goldfield Mountains.

Near the river, the ground is covered with lots of lose river rock. It's treacherous footing. It actually felt good to be walking around on something like that again. I didn't know I would miss something like that.

The view of the river.

I got to the river just before sunset and headed back to the truck so I wouldn't be wandering around in the dark. It was a nice get-away.

2009_12_16