30 Miles on the Middle Fork Gila River

May 23-26, 2024

Day Two: Base Camp to (Almost) The Meadows

We had planned on day hiking from our base camp to the Meadows on day two, but Dennis and I were pretty sore from the first day's outing. Neverthless, by 9 am the next day we were on the trail, and the scenery was so inspiring that we forgot about our aches and pains.

Clouds of lupine near our campsite.

Dennis perfectly captured a single blossom!

New Mexico raspberry.

Grass-leaf lettuce, about three feet tall with a spectacular blossom (and a red bug).

At first we thought it was a very long skinny snake, but on closer inspection, it seemed like a string of eggs (about nine feet long).

The trail meanders back and forth, across broad meadows and through enchanted forests worthy of the Pacific Northwest.

Yes, the cliffs are that high, the sky that lapis blue, the trees that crazy lime green.

As we made our way upstream, the Gambel oaks and Arizona alders ceded to Ponderosa pines and even Douglas firs that marched down the slopes nearly all the way to the river.

Honestly I thought maybe the prettiest part of the canyon was between the confluence and the warm springs, but upstream the gnarled rhyolite cliffs fracture into a maze of bizarre pinnacles and hoodoos that tower at least 200' above the the stream bed.

Garçon, un autre capuccino s'il vous plaît !

Dennis and I turned back at about 4.5 miles.

Ken, the stronger hiker, would make it all the way to the Meadows and back. Daily Mileage: 9.0/11.0

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