Wednesday, December 27, 2017 (High Chaparral RV Park, Casa Grande, AZ)

We woke to another chilly morning...but it is supposed to warm up to around 70F today. In the meantime, we'd better layer up for our quad ride!

Just before 9:30, we headed down to Gib's place to join twelve ATV's...a combination of quads and side-by-sides, plus one jeep...going out on a ride today. I'm not even going to pretend that I am going to remember everybody's name!

It was cold as we took off on the paved road east. That is one thing we weren't expecting...almost 18 miles of mostly pavement to get to the area where we were riding with posted speeds as high as 50 mph. Not the best for our tires designed for off road riding! There were a couple of spots of off-road riding...

Then back to pavement...                                      
Before we were finally off pavement. Almost on the trails now!

With pictures from both our Olympus camera as well as stills taken from video on the GoPro camera, it was very difficult for Steve to put the pictures in order...but he did the best he could...

Our first stop was at the site of some petroglyphs...

There is not much information that we could find on this site but what we did find says that there are reports of up to 19 sites in the area with over 4000 petroglyphs. They are now found in boulder slopes that were likely once panels...probably earthquakes over time may have caused the damage. 

Steve and a couple of other fellows did some rock climbing to capture pictures. There is a wide variety of symbols...hunting scenes, maps, fertility scenes, and ceremonies are all present....

 

 View from half way up, it was a lot more difficult going back down...

                                   

  At this point we were lost so stopped for lunch...

Some of us ladies commented on the Saguaro, Steve thought they were perky! LOL

View of our lunch spot...

Eventually Gib found the trail he was looking for that led to a mine...

Looking for turquoise rocks, an indication of copper...

From above...

  Time to go...                                 

Another mine...

With turquoise and a bee hive...

Our final stop before getting home.

School House...

That's quite the fence!

Checking out the pump...

Time to head home...

Along the canal...

  On the overpass above the I-10...                                                                         

 Cough, cough!

It was after 3:30 when we got home...a great day on our quads! Thanks Gib for leading the ride! After unloading the quads and fuelling them up, we managed a quick bevie outside in the late sunshine before heading in for showers.