Blue Point Recreation Area

This morning we went to the Blue Point Recreation Area along the Salt River in Tonto National Forest to walk along the river. We started at Sheeps Crossing on the west side of the Salt River and walked around seeing shore birds and some otters frolicing in the river. We drove to the otherside of the Salt River at the Blue Point Recreation Area where we found a 1 mile round trip unnamed trail, for great river views, intersting rock formations and shore birds. We then walked back and under the bridge over to Pebble Beach where we walked for a while more. Beautiful morning. Overall about 3 miles. Views from the Sheeps Crossing side of the Salt River

blurry zoom of some of the otters we saw in the river this morning

Views along the Blue Point area

zoom of the great blue heron up on the rocky cliff

zoom of the bald eacgle up on the cliff

Views from the Pebble Beach Area along the Salt River

Loop HIke at Round Mountain Park

We drove up to Round Mountain Park in Globe AZ to get out of the heat today. We hiked clockwise startin at West Trail, Bull's Eye Rock (counterclockwise), continuing on West Trail, up to the Summit of Round Mountain and back to the East Trail, to Boulder Canyon with the Upper Ridge Traill, back along Boulder Canyon and then the Box Canyon Trail back to Boulder Canyon Trail and finishing on the last bit of East Trail. 4 miles with 700 ft of overall gain. Lots of fabulous rocks and lots of wildflowers in bloom!

On the West Trail: Round Mountain, distant peaks and dropping down along the Bull's Eye Trail

Views of Bull's Eye Rock

Cool rock formations as we continued along the Bull's Eye Loop

Views from Lookout Vista on top of Round Mountain, and a zoom of some deer we saw coming down the East Trail

Along the Boulder Canyon and Ridge Trails

Box Canyon and finishing the loop back to the trailhead

We saw a great variety of wildflowers in bloom along the trail today