Ridge Riding in the ATV

Our friends Connie & Bruce from Lethbridge area in Alberta wanted to go for one more ride before they packed up and headed for home. Connie and Bruce are farmers so needed to get home for the planting season. Bruce offered to take us ridge riding which we have never done before. We take trails that run along the top of the foothills below the Superstition Mountains. We go up one ridge and then onto the next till we were quite high in elevation. The wildflowers and blooming cacti were spectacular. The weather was gorgeous and very warm. Luckily, the higher we went the cooler it got till it was quite tolerable in temperature.

 Before we got up on the ridges, we stopped to explore a couple of open mines along the way. You have to be very careful as you just come right upon them and they are very dangerous as they are often very deep! We figure this was an old silver mine

 Doug and Gordon heading up the hill to look at another mine shaft

 These are Engelmann Hedgehog cactus. They grow at a higher elevation and are a deeper fuchsia colour and the petals are more rounded in shape instead of pointed.

 

 Bruce in the RZR and Doug in the Rhino

 This is a desert Mariposa (wild Lily) and it doesn't flower every year. We were so lucky to see it this year. There were many of them all along the ridges as they tend to grow at the higher elevations

 Yucca plants flowering. The individual flowers are so spectacular!

 Connie & Sharon among the wildflowers

 Doug placed a Yucca flower among the flowering hedgehog, quite a beautiful contrast!

 We are not quite high enough yet that we lose the saguaro cacti

 This is the Strawberry Hedgehog - not the more pointed flower petals compared to the rounded Engelmann Hedgehog petals

 Both sides of the ridge trails had flowering hedgehogs, Mariposa, Fairy Dusters, California Poppies - it was a sight to see!

 We are now up on the ridges and there are no more saguaro cacti at this height. You can see the trail ahead we are heading for.

 This is looking back from where we came and we can see the town of Superior way off in the distance. When it is very warm in the Phoenix valley, it gets very hazy with all the dust in the air.

 Again, you can see the trail ahead as we continue along the ridges

 I had to take this picture with the dead agave plant and flower stalk. It is called a Century plant as it only flowers once in its lifetime and then it dies which can be after a 100 years - hence its name

 Our riding group from left: Larry, Doug, Sharon, Connie, Bruce & Gordon

 We came down off the ridges via a wash and it was a very interesting ride scenery wise but very rough and lots of good size boulders to go over and tree branches to miss!

 Part way though the wash we went through this beautiful riparian area, with wild grasses growing, lots of birds and small trees and bushes, very beautiful. We have never seen anything like it out in the desert

 We came upon 2 fellows out for a ride in their new Can-Am side by side and I noticed they were driving with a flat back passenger side tire! We quickly let them know and if you can believe it, they were traveling with out tire plugs or an air compressor!! They were darn lucky we came upon them as they were a long way from home on a very hot day! All of us had both tire plugs and air compressors so we had them fixed up and on the road again in no time! You can see the fellows above talking to the guy before they fix his tire. He had a huge piece of barb wire fencing in the tire

 Looking off into the distance 

 We had to stand at the base of this saguaro just to emphasize the size of it. It was a pretty gnarly specimen and most likely 150 - 200 years old.

 

I was driving and we were almost home when I spotted this snake, it wasn't a rattle snake though, thank-goodness but just a harmless bull snake! All in all it was an excellent ride with spectacular scenery and a great way to end the season with our friends Bruce, Connie, Larry and Bill!