When we lived in California, Brad and I used to occasionally knock off work early on a Friday and go do something fun. (Not that it outweighs all the extra hours we put in, but this is one of the nice side benefits of having our own business.) Often, we went down to the beach or the harbor to walk, people watch, and, of course, eat.

Yesterday, in celebration of finally getting my desk cleaned off, we decided to go out and look for some more abandoned train cars. We found one, but then got sidetracked following a canyon road. This time it was Price Canyon, which is a few miles south of Apache (10 or 15 miles south of where we live.) These canyon roads, like the one our property is on, are all dirt roads that run west off 80, typically starting with with a few miles of beautiful open range land.

As the roads get closer to the Chiricahua Mountains, they meet up with the national forest.

Then the terrain gradually changes to more rocky mountains. This road first went through one of of the densest oak forests I’ve seen. It was beautiful. In general, the road was very good, but as we got back into the forest more, it got rougher, making us glad we have a big truck. There were some dry rock creek beds that were easy to imagine as rushing rivers in the wet season.

We saw a couple beautiful whitetail deer and many birds. Back in the forest, the rock walls and mountain faces were stunning. We can’t wait to come back and hike here. (From the end of the road, it’s 6 miles to Sentinel Peak and 9 miles to Rucker Lake.) There were some astoundingly tall pines as well. It is amazing how fast the flora changes here.

This was a pretty long road, going about 10 miles back before it ended at a trailhead that we can’t wait to hike and explore more. I rode most of the way back standing in the back of the truck bed (“safari-ing” as we call it), shooting some video. (Stay tuned for the video; I have a big work project to get through first.)

The day finished with us driving back into a beautiful sunset.

I have a feeling this will be the start of some great new Friday “happy hours,” possibly extending into some nice long weekend backpack trips. :)