Picket Post Mountain Ride

     Located  between Superior and  Apache' Junction along Highway 60 lies  Picket  Post  Mountain. This  ride  ws  on my  bucket  list last  year and  for some  reason we never  made it. This  year, we  rode it as a  day trip.
     Picket  Post  has camping  spots available  on the  BLM portion. You can camp up to two weeks , then you've  got  to move. The  nice  thing  is that even the  biggest  rigs can fit in and  travel on the  roads.
    There are  miles of  hiking trails too so you  might see some  of those folks  out there while  you're riding as well (we did).
    Picket  Post also has  a  large walk-in  Arboretum that is  unaccessable  to horse back riders.It is strickly  drive-in entry. It  boasts lots of the  areas natural fauna and  I'm told is  worth going  in to check out  because  of it's natural beauty.

   We parked  at the  large  trailhead  parking area  with our 2 large stock trailers. We arrived  about  8:30am and  unloaded  in an empty  lot.

Part of  the  lure  of  Picket  Post  for  me  is the  fact  that a  portion of The Arizona Trail runs through it and  I wanted to ride that  just  because of it's  history.

We started  out  from the  parking lot and  headed West to the highway underpass along  the Arizona  Trail. Once  we  crossed Highway 60, We continued  a couple  miles to the  East  before  crossing the  highway again through another  underpass.

This  was the  only  section of this  ride that  I found boring. but, we WERE riding  the  Arizona Trail!

For those  of you that  know me, I love western history and Picket Post has  no shortage of  it! Above  you can see  the old  wagon tracks carved into the  stone where  they travels  the  same  route  over  many  years.

Between the  wheel tracks  are  the  permanent  hoof prints of  the  mules that pulled  those  wagons  down the trail. This was an awesome  site  to see. It  got me  thinking  of  how it must've  been.

    Further  down the  trail we decided to take a  break in a  black cottonwood grove that  had  a  wonderful little stream running  through it. It was a  natural oasis!

Peg and  Rita enjoying a  break in the  ride

Peek a boo LuLu!

From our  lunch spot we travelled up hil past  some  old building  foundations that were  from when the   U.S. Army  had  their  outpost  stationed  there. There were several indicators of where  their buildings and  corrals were  setup along  the  waterway. We even found  an old  hand dug well site. But, further  up hill was an even more  interesting find. Abandonned  native dwellings.

Gloria was  enjoyiing this  ride as well.

We continued  our trek up the  canyon and came across  several groups of  hikers  that where  prospecting  for "Apache' Tears". they are  small black onyx stones that are  used to make  jewelery.

This  phot is  looking  across  to where we saw  the  people mining for Apache' Tears.

this trail below is  the  one we  took.

this is  part  of the  trail we  took going up.

there was a  lot of  Cholla Cactus  here.

It was a  really  fun ride and glad  to cross another one  off of the  "bucket  list"!