Riding The Desert

These two are nightly visitors, even with the dogs raising a frenzy.  They (the burros) seem to be more curious about the yapping things then fearful.

This is momma burro right up to the our dog fence wondering where supper is I am sure

She has taught her little one well-sit up to the table and wait patiently.

Gail and Neil I posted the above pictures just for you two.

Now on to exploring the desert.  David has been out often on his own, almost daily and loves it, we both do.  Yesterday I realized that even though I thought it would be great opportunity for picture taking (and it can be) the ultimate is just the wind in my face, seeing what rock or hill we can climb-get over or go down and spending time with my best friend and husband.  Getting a picture is a bonus.

Having said that I have gotten a few.  This is one that David took while on a solo ride.  He said this scorpion was the size of his hand...YUCK I so hate spiders.

Our neighbor has been schooling us on where to go and what to see.  In order to get us to the now vacated mining town he gave us the landmark of 'you will go past horse-head mountain'.  

This is what David thought was horse head mountain-he even outlined to me what was the head of the horse...I do not see it do you?

I said THIS had to be horse head mountain.  I can totally see a horse head on the left side with an ear sticking but I couldnt explain what it's nose was connected to....

On our way back home we ran into a couple of seasoned riders who showed us where the real horse head mountain was....why yes I see it now.

We made it to the 'once was a' mining town and of course David had to waddle inside to see what he could see.  Me?  I think not-this is snake country and what a great place for them to curl up.

The bags here were sample bags taken from different areas of the mine.  We have not a clue if what is in them is there because it is no good or why they were left.

Need I say more-David elected to heed the warning with this building

It's always nice to see a pop of color this time of year and the red of these cacti was stunning.

We were also told about the grave of an old miner by the name of John Pritt who died back in the late 1800's.  We seriously just stumbled onto his grave-site having no intention of trying to find it on that particular ride.

On our way to a not so long ago but fallen down farmsted we found this.  It happens to be the Copper Canyon Reservoir that gives LA it's water.  Why LA which is so far away and not here?  We have no clue. 

 

You see alot of these-old mining shafts and of course David has to explore each and every one...good gosh man do you not know what could be lurking in those scary dark holes!  Remember that scorpion in the wash...hello!

We had no idea where we were going we were just following the trails but we ran right into a group of jeepsters (well two were jeeps two were hummers).  We crashed their party and followed them through the difficult part of our journey.  Narrow paths with canyons on either side, huge rocks to crawl over etc etc.  We were both in awe at what these jeeps could do.  These were no jeeps like we had, these babies were set up to handle the tough road ahead!  

Here is a for instance.  It may not look like much from the picture but there were huge boulders to traverse.

He had to gun it a bit but made it up-

 Again-this does not look as steep as it actually was but take my word for it.  This is the kind of stuff that is totally fun-as long as we are buckled in and helmeted up.

After we left the jeepsters in our dust (they actually stopped for lunch as did we and yakked a bit), we finally made it to the homested.  I could have spent much more time here exploring but my knee was getting sore making it hard to walk much less hike.  Jan if you are reading this, these are the times that I always think of you-this is the stuff we so enjoyed doing together.

 This was, quite likely, where horses or some other animals were kept.  We found a few of these and a pile of cement that must have been the house at one time.

You find lots of cool looking rusted out cars and trucks in the desert-they make for great pictures.

I cant remember what David said this was but Chrissy, he said Brent really needs to come on out ;) 

Yep thus far we are happy with our new toy and even I am feeling comfortable going out on our own.

And then just because I thought they were kinda cool-these are the clouds that were bubbling up from behind the mountains behind our park at sunset.