6/5/17

Chilly start to the day at just on 60 deg (about 15C)… Arizona and 15deg?!?  Anyway, like I was saying we are in alpine country with the ski fields just down the road so I probably should have expected it to be a bit chilly!

We took off heading east towards the ski fields and the White Mountain range (which runs north, south close to the New Mexican border). Gorgeous drive through a real alpine region. Ski field still had snow on the runs although the field itself is closed for the season. Snow still sitting in drifts around the edges and under the fir trees etc. Really pretty. Plenty of lakes and open meadows. We saw some local wildlife, a coyote, deer and a little cute chipmunk!

Morning tea saw us stop at Big Bear Lake for a cuppa and a little hike in the woods. (Seeming I’m even picking up their lingo—before I had even thought about it I wrote hike in the woods.. not bushwalk!). The hike itself was fairly mundane but the interesting point is the altitude.. Big Bear Lake is above 9000ft and the “little hike in the woods” actually had us huffing and puffing! Pretty funny when you know the walk isn’t strenuous but that impact of lower oxygen really does pack a punch!

From the serenity of a gorgeous mountain lake we hit the road and headed south on the Cortez Scenic drive. So named for Cortez the conquistador who travelled through the white mountains looking for El Dorado. What a drive.. Not quite on the “oh my goodness check out that view” drive (like we had yesterday) but a very windy, very high altitude drive.. In fact, so windy that the 80miles took us at least 3.5hrs with a lunch stop. About 10mins after leaving Big Bear Lake a storm front hit us and the temp plummeted to 45deg (about 7)! Yikes!! M actually commented that if the temp dropped any lower the rain hitting our car would turn in to snow.. Anyway, that gives you an idea of the coolness of the outside temp. Not long after I commented that it was lucky I had packed a jumper (I packed it for plane travel) as I had no thought that I would need long pants or jumpers on this trip!

Lunch was a half hearted attempt at a bbq and a cup of tea. Welcome warmth on an otherwise coolish afternoon. Actually, it was quite ok in the sunshine, but when the clouds came over, the wind really did cut with our meagre winter gear!

Finally we left the windy-ness of the white mountain range and started heading down onto a plateau. Really spectacular views over yellowy grass filled plateau covered in dark coloured rocks. Really pretty. At the bottom of the drive we came to Morenci.. O.H M.Y G.O.O.D.N.E.S.S  The biggest open cut mine I’ve ever seen up close. It went on and on- basically many mountains had been dug out and re-created as tailing mountains… Incredible! (I know we have big open cut mines in AU but they are so off the beaten track and usually behind fences so that unless you fly over them you can’t really comprehend the scale.. the road went right through the middle of this one!!) Down at the town we found someone who could tell us what they were mining.. apparently it is silver and copper.. Seriously mining on a mammoth scale! The town had been pulling out silver and copper since the 1800s and the town is still pulling out silver and copper.. NUTS!

The rest of our afternoon was fairly uneventful, we hit the I10 and headed Westwards towards Benson and our nights accom. Before I talk about Benson though I’ll mention our drive from Safford south to Willcox.. Nothing especial about the drive except for the fact we drove straight through a pretty impressive sand storm. At one point we were driving towards Safford and all of a sudden D and asked me whether there were any mountain ranges near by.. No joke, out of the sand we could suddenly see this huge mountain (which is on the map listed at over 10,000 ft).. Really amazing that the sand could hide such a big mountain!

Dinner was an all American diner affair with us spending dinner debating our next day’s activities… Tombstone! Home to Wyatt Erp and the shoot out at the OK Corrall!