Monday, February 13, 2023

Salt River to Coon Bluff

We drove out to the Goldfield parking/picnic area in Tonto National Forest to hike along the Salt River and up to Coon Bluff and back, There are lots of user trails here, so we ended up doing a 4.6 mile loop hike. We didn't see the wild horses, but we saw lots of birds including: egrets, quail, a large hawk, woodpecker and as we were driving out, a bright red cardinal. We only saw one other hiker on the trail this morning. View along the trail as we began our hike.

Looking back to see the sunrise in the east.

Salt River looking east

Salt River view to the northwest
to the east

Back on the trail 

Another view down along the Salt River
We took a short 0.3 mile side trail up to the ridge trail on Coon Bluff from the Coon Bluff Campground, view along the ridge trail.

Barrel cacti

Looking to the east and the Salt River below.
new growth on a cactus

Views from Coons Bluff looking east along the Salt River


There was a possibility of thundershowers later on, so we did a short hike today

The wildflowers are beginning to bloom, we saw most of the flowers up on Coon Bluff.
The poppies will soon be open.
A many armed saguaro on the main trail back to the Goldfield area.

Chain fruit cholla 
a large hawk
blurry woodpecker on the middle cactus
some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today:
 

 

  

 

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