Saturday, November 10/2012

What is with me getting up so damn early when I don't have to!!  Gosh, it is still dark out.  It is only 6C this morning and chilly.  John left the heater on low so it is much warmer in the bus than I expected this morning.

He who lies here, used to be an iron worker - hence the iron headstone.

Many different grave markers - this one lava stone

Each war vet has a flag - even in death, long past the war,
these American's are still honored.

Many sites have seen better days

Many, many unmarked graves

This one belongs to a two month old baby

Korean War veteran

World War 11 and Korean War Vet

Old Miner's graves - killed by Indians.  These were the
oldest graves we found.

"Killed by Indians - October 13, 1866"

Headed down Big Wash Road

Incredible vista - Chloride down below

Hogan, out for a run along the trail

Is that our trail way down there?

We are now off the graded road and on 4x4 trail

Some of it was sandy

Some of it was rocky

The Murals down below

Most of it was narrow shelf trail

The trail actually crossed this abandoned mine's tailings pile.
This was one of the few spots where one could pass another
vehicle if the need should arise.

abandoned equipment

useless power lines - must have worked at some point I imagine

Erosion on the trail

We traveled through juniper and pine trees.  Passed tons of
mojave yucca and several varieties of cactus.

Bat guano

It doesn't look very steep - but it was!!

The Murals - painted by artist Roy Purcell

A few ancient petroglyphs were strewn in amongst the murals

Painted arrows on the rocks pointing the way to the murals

One of the many open mine shafts

Old water tank

Chloride's old train station

Old Travco Motor home

What remains of Chloride Jail

The Old Miner's Payroll Office

Our jeep, sitting outside Yesterdays Restaurant. Pic taken from
inside the restaurant and shows the light reflecting in the glass

Tonight's entertainment at the Restaurant - Bill and Debbie

The manager - Chrystal.   She is the one that poured me the wicked
vodka drinks!!

John dancing with Debbie while she is singing!!

Back at home, chillin with Hogan

I am still mad about the whole Grand Canyon thing yesterday and spent much of the trip home trying to decide how I could get close enough to the edge to push John over!!  Still fueled by my discontent, I googled the Grand Canyon West site and find that perhaps I would not have even bothered to take the tour.  The cost is alarmingly high (well over $100.00 ea for two) and from many of the reviews I read, not worth it.  You are not allowed to take your camera on the skywalk, in fact, are not allowed to carry anything on your person for fear of someone dropping it and causing issues with the glass.  The owners of the attraction will be happy to take all sorts of pictures of you while on the skywalk for the small sum of $30.00 per picture!!  WHAT!!!!  Helicopter rides are in the vicinity of $150.00 per person.  Many of the reviewers, suggested to go see the Grand Canyon South entrance as it is much cheaper and the views more spectacular.  Now, I am going to have to apologize to John for all my hateful thoughts and schemes of yesterday and say that perhaps he was right.  OH SHIT - I HATE HAVING TO DO THAT!!!  Oh well, guess I will put on my big girl panties, suck it up and do it.  Oh, how I am going to hate that smug look he is going to give me!!
We are supposed to be going to see The Murals today but will take Big Wash Road first and hopefully, end up at the Murals.
Big Wash Road, starts in the valley and travels along the top of the Cerbat Mountains.  Initially, it is a well travelled, graded dirt road gradually climbing as it makes its way into the Cerbat Mountains.  A sign at the start of the the road suggests that trailers are not recommended and I found that to be rather misleading as a smaller trailer would certainly make the climb to the campground.  However, any trailer longer than 20 feet would prove challenging considering some of the tight switchbacks we encountered as we started the more intense climb to the top.  There are long sections of shelf road.  In fact, most of  it is shelf road but two vehicles usually had enough room to pass each other up until one reaches Windy Point and the Cherum Pass lookout.
On our way up, we encountered 3 mountain bikers (coming down) along the tight switchbacks and being blind corners and narrow trail, I can't imagine the horror the first biker felt when he was faced with the grill of the jeep.  The look on his face was "OH SHIT".  It was either grab your brakes  or go over the cliff.  He managed to miss us but I am sure he would have to throw away his biking shorts after that close call.  After this encounter, John started blowing his horn around the corners just to give any unsuspecting biker a warning.  They were the only three we encountered for the day.
The wider, graded road stopped at Cherum Peak and the trail became a narrow, rocky path that in most places, left no room to pass another vehicles should one be encountered and actually in my opinion, should be deemed a one way trail.  We lucked out today as we did not meet any oncoming traffic!!
There are a multitude of 4x4 trails in these mountains and we stayed on what we thought was the "main" trail hoping that it would eventually lead us off the mountain and into the valley far below and to the murals, painted on the granite boulders of a canyon just outside of Chloride.  A sign or two along the trail would certainly have been helpful.  Instead, John followed his nose.  Many of the side trails, of which we took a few, led to old abandoned mine sites.
Once we got off the graded road, the trail that presented itself was indeed the best trail we have taken in this area.  With the increasing challenge of a well worn trail, with its large and small loose rocks, the areas of trail erosion and a few off camber sections (leaning towards the edge of the shelf!!), it was an intense trail to maneuver but done easily with an experienced driver.  There were only a few sections where I felt that having the high clearance vehicle helped although I imagine a stock vehicle could have also traversed these spots as well.  Perhaps, just not as easily as we did.  I am glad we had "Old Yella" with us.
After several hours on the trail and slowly making our way down, we did eventually make it to the Murals.  We were passed by a couple of dirt bikes just before getting to the murals and they were the only other people we saw the whole day, with the exception of the 3 mountain bikers a few hours earlier.
The Murals are paintings done on some of the huge granite boulders of the Cerbat Mountains which lay just outside of the town of Chloride.  They were painted by Roy Purcell, who in 1966 took a break form his studies towards a Master's Degree in fine arts to labour as a miner in the mountains.  While there, he painted "The Journey", a 2000 square foot set of murals on the rocks.  The work led to world wide recognition and helped launch a very successful career that still continues today.  The murals, painted in 1966 have withstood the desert weather for over 40 years.  In 2006, Roy returned to Chloride along with ten other artists to restore the fading murals.  Nineteen of the murals were restored and they are awesome.  There were a few ancient petroglyph dispersed in amongst the painting.
We took a quick tour of the town once back in Chloride and I got a few pics of some of the still standing original building from back in the 1800's.  It was interesting but sad to see how the town is allowing these building to simply deteriorate further.  We stopped at Yesterdays Restaurant for a few beverages and stayed for the entertainment and supper.  Tonight, the two singers we had seen previously had joined forces and sang together.  It was great.  We managed a few dances and John even got Debbie (one of the singers) on the dance floor - once, when she was singing!!  She danced and sang at the same time!!
We were back at the bus by 9:00 and took the rest of the evening to just relax.  What a great day we had.  Tomorrow, it is football and Monday, I think we will find ourselves in Wickenburg.  Woo Hoo!!