Tuesday, December 6/2016

Headed out

It is moving day today so there is more activity in camp today and the cats are wondering just where we are headed now.  Apparently it is to the Harquahala Mountains.
The Harquahala Mountains are the highest mountains in Southwestern Arizona.   Originally called "Aha qua hala" by the American Indian tribes, it means "water there is high up".  The mountains are 32 kms long and reach 20kms at their widest point.  They consist of two prominent peaks, Eagle Eye Peak and Eagle Eye Mountain.  The highest peak is Harquahala Peak which rises to 5681 feet.  Man, it is a good thing there is Google cause that is where I get all my information from!!

The ride to the recreation site was relatively short and for that, I am sure that the cats were happy. They are pretty good about all the travel and seem to have settled in nicely.  We made a quick stop for ice then headed to the recreation area.  We camped right at the staging  area and it didn't take the cats long to come out of the trailer and start to check out the new "digs".

The Harquahala Mountains

Our destination for today

The recreational site was created in 1990 and is an area of 22,880 acres of desert ecosystem.  There are several trails in the area but we are only doing one.
The highest peak is Harquahala Peak, which rises to 5,681 feet.  Of course this would have to be the peak that is on our agenda!!  The summit can be reached by a rather rocky, steep roadway.  It was used by the army in the 1880s as a heliograph station and then in the 1920s the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory was built and used for 5 years before it was moved to the State of California.
We settled into camp,  John and Kay went in search of some firewood and I got supper ready.  They returned with a good load and we sat around the campfire and enjoyed the sunset.   Life is good!!