Decide on a Ride.
Jo Ann's nephew, Johnie and his wife, Diane arrived in town on Wednesday.
They partied with Sue, Denis, Lise, Frank, Jo Ann and Dave at Silly Al's that evening.
Around 9:00 pm Denis stopped by our place and asked if we wanted to go for a ride to Harquahala Mountain with them on Thursday.
We had planned to go shopping on Thursday but we decided to go on the ride instead even though we had been to Harquahala Mountain once already this season.
We met them at the Arco station around 9:30am and headed east on I-10 to Highway 60 where we took the turn off and continued east on Highway 60.
We followed 60 to the town of Salome. Here we turned south. We drove to Eagle Eye Road where we turned east and turned off at the staging area for the Harquahala Mountain trail.
After airing down we got on the trail up the mountain.
Once at the top of the mountain we sat around enjoying the view and eating lunch.
After lunch we headed back down the mountain. A short distance down the road there is a trail going to the left. You can see the intersection in this picture.
We took the left turn and followed the trail.
The trail gets a little rough in spots. Eventually we came to a split in the trail. We took the left branch and followed it to its end.
Old Mining Camp.
At the end of the trail was an old mining camp. There were several stone ruins around the area.
One thing we found was this old piece of machinery.
There had been two of these (for lack of a better word) wheels. The "wheels" had no center axel and we had a hard time trying to figure out how they were used. In the below picture you can see that there were two of them. Notice the metal parts at the right and in the lower part of the picture you can see a piece of the other "wheel".
I decided that this may have been some sort of grinding apparatus but since they were made of concrete that may not be what they are. If you know what they are let me know.
On the way back up this trail we noticed a large square tank
and the tower of a wind mill. This was the camps water supply.
We headed back to where the trail split and turned left.
We followed this trail to its end.
There was a great view from here.
We stood around here for a while enjoying the view.
After a while we headed back toward the main trail.
Patti and I stopped at the intersection to get the picture of it and then headed down the trail. You can see the others below us.
No matter how many times we drive on this trail we are always struck by how fascinating the trail looks from above.
We all made it to the bottom where we aired up and got on the highway headed for home. We got back to Quartzsite around 6:00 and went to The Grubstake for a fish supper.
Another Good ride to Harquahala Mountain.
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