March 11, 2014 Picacho Peak State Park, Arizona

We got a bright and early start of 10 am to climb Picacho peak. It is 2 miles, 1,400 vertical and rated a difficult climb.

The desert has a green fuzz on it, tons of tiny plants. this is only a small bump on the way up to the peak. We climbed up 1,000 feet of switch backs in less than a mile. Parts of it were cabled.

When we got to the top of the saddle we though phew, only 400 vertical feet left. But no the trail then goes  even  steeper down the other side of the mountain 1,000 feet, then back up 1,400 straight up, cabled rock climb to the top of the peak, in the afternoon sun. To come back would then be down, up and down again. We decided up to the saddle and down again once was enough for us. We turned around. Lichen, blue flowers in a crevice, desert tobacco, pink hedge hog blooms. When I looked close the yellow stamens in the flowers were moving- like a sea anemone - it was little bugs down underneath., rose mallow and copper ore.

Next weekend they are having a civil war enactment here. In Arizona?? Yes the most significant  civil war battle in Arizona took place near Picacho peak on April 15, 1862 when an advance detachment of Union forces from California attacked a Confederate scouting party. The confederates ports were all blockaded and they were looking for a port in the west to use.  The battle lasted 1 1/2 hours and 3 Union soldiers were killed. Every  March ‘civil war in the southwest’ comes alive again as over 200 re-enactors converge on Picacho Peak on foot and horseback.  Visitors enjoy mock battles that took place in Arizona and New Mexico and get to experience  military camps and living history demonstrations.  There is a monument to the dead, erected in 1928, a cannon and numerous interpretive signs, and a diagram of the battle.

The first step of doing laundry in our bus consists of removing the food stored in the washer. We have a dryer but the clothes dry almost immediately here in the dry  hot air. Sunset was lovely.

John prepared dinner and we dined at sunset on the picnic table.