Oak Flat

When I was trying to decide where to go hiking yesterday, one of the main considerations was that I didn't want to do a lot of walking on level ground. It's easy to find lots of places that satisfy that requirement. I wound up in the area near Oak Flat that's going to be a copper mine soon.

There are lots of interesting rock formations in the area. This one looks sort of like a duck to me.

I wandered slowly around the rocks, with no particular destination in mind. I was wondering how many people might have been where I was and thinking that it couldn't have been many because there aren't a lot of reasons to go there. As is usually the case whenever I think that, I find evidence of people having been there. In this case, it was survey markers for the future mine.

These are all over the place out there.

There's a drilling rig site near the center of this photo.

It can be difficult to hike off-trail in this area. Sometimes the only way to get over all the jumbled boulders is by crawling. In places where it's flat enough to walk, the ground is often covered in chest-high oak bushes and catclaw. The bushes are sturdy and difficult to push through, and you do NOT want to push through catclaw. I was wondering if leather hiking clothes would be comfortable. Probably too hot.

There might have been some interesting views up there, but it would have been too much of a struggle to get up there.

A military jet roared by pretty close to the ground. Haven't see that before out there. Looked like it might have been an F-4. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_03_03