Somewhere near Saddle Mtn

During the failed off-road adventures earlier in our weekend, we were catching glimpses of a majestic mountain to our North. It’s shape just kept drawing my eyes up to it, and I wished a dirt road led out to it from where we stood, but none did. Since we could go no further on our current road, Kerri and I set out toward the oddly shaped clump of soil and rock, which we found out to be Saddle Mountain.

Saddle Mountain turned out to be only a few miles off Interstate-10, so it was much easier to get to then we first thought. Just as we were getting near, Kerri found that it was also a known boondocking location on Campendium. Now-a-days we try to steer clear of the known locations, so we jumped onto the next dirt road as if it was a fox hole behind enemy lines with the spot light approaching. This road would – hopefully – lead us along a Southern circumnavigation of Saddle Mountain, where we planned to stay a night about mid way.

As luck would have it, two and a half miles down that very road – and for the second time in two days – we ran into yet another instance where Big Blue could go no further. As we were scouting a wash on foot a fellow off-roader pulled up and advised us not to continue as the road worsens ahead. We took that advice to heart, thanking him, and pulled Big Blue up a side path about a quarter mile off the main four wheel drive road.

Although we still had another full day in our weekend, we chose to stop early for the upcoming work week. We couldn’t think of any place better to be then where we were. To the West the Saddle Mountains embraced us with a view nearing that of Zion National Park. To the East lay 20 miles of the rolling desert hills before the nighttime glow of Phoenix. As you can imagine, short hikes and lazy evenings ensued for the week. Only two or three other vehicles passed by all week. Moose was allowed to run free again, but chose to stay nearby. It seems, after two weeks of running, he was finally out of energy. Even the BBQ made another appearance for some burgers (and a photo shoot).