Looking for Gold

The day after I got to Springerville, AZ where my sister lives we went to the White Mountains to look for gold. Golden Aspen trees that is. I made the trip at just the right time and the aspen trees had just turned the beautiful of shade of gold they turn in most Octobers. The White Mountains are old volcanos that erupted many, many millions of years ago and fell in on their selves making calderas. Now they are huge fields full of trees, native grasses and other plants. Deer, elk, coyote are frequently seen and sometimes foxes, bobcats, mountain lions. There are prairie dogs, and  other kinds o rodents as well as many hawks, owls, eagles and songbirds. There are several small man-made lakes for fishing and panics. We found a lake where there was no one and had a light lunch there watching some sort of ducks that didn't want us to get close enough to see what kind they were. We had Sarah's dog, Ruby, with us and she enjoyed herself as much as we did. We saw a couple of does and a large fawn and got a couple of pics of them. Then we lucked out and saw some of the feral horses that live in the White Mountains. Their website calls them wild horses but I feel they are probably some that have gone wild when no one wanted to care for them. Regardless we enjoyed seeing them. Check out their facebook page, where there are much better photos of them.

The vine with the red leaves is called Virginia Creeper. We saw lots of it and we both have a little one in our yards. You can buy them in some plant nurseries but they seem to do better in the wild.

The White Mountains

Photos I took on our drive through the White Mountains. these mountains were made by valcanos long, long ago. Most o the area seems to be huge meadows with scattered patches of trees and volcanic rocks. It was very beautiful, peaceful and mostly silent where we were. There is a paved road which makes for nice travel in the summer but part of that road is closed in the winter to let snowmobilers play there. There is also a ski resort, and a lot of cross country skiing is done here.

This is Big Lake. There were several little lakes scattered about the mountains.

this creek is formed by the headwaters of the Little Colorado River.

This pathway was originally a bed or a very old steam engine train. Now that so many of these trains are not running, the tracks are being pulled up and hiking pathways are being made out of the rain bed. Someone had a good idea. I understand this is being done at various places all across the US.

Some elk cows we saw grazing in a meadow.

Was it a natural hole in this lava boulder, or was it drilled by man, and if so was it ancient man or more modern man. If it was man it was long enough ago that the lichen has had time to grow around the hole.

We stopped at a very high look out where hundreds of miles of landscape could be seen. But the view of the trees to both sides of us were covered in burnt trees. Much of these mountains were burned a few years ago when a couple of stupid campers let a camp fire get away from them.

My sisters dog, Ruby, went with us to the White Mountains. She seemed to have a good time.

Along the edges of several of the lakes and in some of the snow-melt ponds there was quite a racket as the local frogs were singing to attract mates. You could really hear them but we never did see one. I have seen similar frogs in out mountains and they are quite small little critters although a very important part of the ego-system.