Fall Settles In

I do ride in more areas than the Bradshaw mountains. I don't know that it's even my favorite place to ride, but looking at my blog, one would think otherwise.
Usually it's due to necessity. The heat can be too much in the summer months, and as many Phoenix residents will attest, the Bradshaw's offer a cool respite from those 120 degree days.

But I would argue that the best time to ride ( or walk or drive ) them is the fall. During this time, they provide a little glimpse of my NC home...or other areas where the foliage is famous. A lot of people agree, as this past Sunday the Bradshaw's were a busy place and many different forms of travel were present.

On this day I cared not for racking up miles as I unloaded on Senator highway. My main goal was to take some pictures of the fall colors. So south I went...and then onto Walker rd and Hassayampa lake and back to Senator.

A landmark of the Bradshaw's is Palace station. I'm not sure if anyone lives there full-time, but their backyard gets busy with trail traffic at times. And color today.

Palace Station

Continuing south on FS82 for a few miles past Palace station, the trail crosses Crooks creek several times ( I can find no name for this creek that flows past Palace station ), and a nice spot for my trail lunch of meatballs and spaghetti and some Little Debbie's is found. Washed down with Mtn Dew.

Lunch spot by the water.

At this point I headed back up to Palace Station and turned back on Senator Highway south to a trail marked FS83. I had ridden this trail a year or two ago on my quad when it was signed as a 50" trail ( one of the few I have seen here ). Now the signs have been removed and it is presumably open to all including a 60" Honda Pioneer...which makes sense, since there is nothing to stop anything larger. It winds its way around various canyons and crosses Turkey Creek.

Turkey Creek

From here this trail joins FS706 and heads to the old Dandrea ranch site and then to an area known 5 points.

After a brief break its time for FS261 across Mt Union...a trail which seems to find its way into most of my rides. As I crept up over 7000 feet, the shadows were growing long and the layer of cold that signifies nightfall is approaching settled in over the land.

I've been seeing some sort of sign near a little side pull-off as I ride up the mountain. This day curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check it out. This is what I found...

I can find nothing about New blizzard #1 in a quick search. Maybe I will email the person.
Doesn't surprise me the marker was stolen...some people have no respect for anything, and I am actually surprised the sign is still there.
Funny that I had never noticed the stone-works here.

Water underneath the lid.

A few stone walls line the area.

Photo's didn't turn out so well since its getting dark on this side of the mountain ( that's my excuse ), so I chug on back across and rejoin Senator hwy in time to get a few rays still hitting back into some of the turns. Aspens abound near Hassayampa creek, and they are a nice color this time of year.

Fading light near near near Hassayampa creek.

A few more miles and I am loaded up and heading for home. Dusty, tired, happy...

If you don't like to read...

..