The Mogollon Rim

Travel mugs brimming with coffee and having buckled Jackson into his seat-belt we departed the hot and muggy valley for cooler temps and greener scenery.  Our trip this past Sunday would make our second and slightly more successful attempt to reach the Mogollon rim.  Our previous attempt, several months back, resulted in a snow driven whiteout preventing us from driving more than a few feet off road and giving Jackson an unexpected first taste of snow.

 Like a few other areas in Arizona, the pronunciation of "Mogollon" requires a little clarification.  Although Mogollon looks like a distant cousin of the word Mogul, as in the bumpy ski course, its actually pronounced with more of a "mow" sound,  "Mowg-eee-on".  Sure Websters might disagree with my display of pronunciation, but I'm assuming it gets the general point across point.

The thickening pine forest and overcast sky kept the temperature in decline as we approached the off road entrance to the rim. Just after we passed the gates we were a bit surprised to see a large steer grazing in a nearby meadow.  No fence, no cattle grate, just a lone, horned cow enjoying a snack.  Moving right along we bobble-headed up the rough road before making a quick stop at what looked like a nice vantage point.  Unfortunately the dodgy campers who had settled there manged to block nearly the entire area with their trailer.  We snapped a few pictures and continued on, and as luck would have it, not more than 100 feet down the road we came across an even better spot.







After parking we let Jackson run about, sniffing his little heart out while we enjoyed a simple tail gate picnic. We eventually trekked down to a little vista for an even better view and some quick pictures before Jackson lead us back up the hill, looking back as if to wonder why we were moving so darn slow.

 

Back in the truck we headed further up the road eventually coming across lingering devastation from the 1990 "Dude" fire.  Very few remaining burn marks could be seen thanks to robust new growth, however the landscape of felled trees and obvious signs of logging keep the Dude fire's lasting impact quite evident.  

 After a little more driving we stopped at one final, fantastic vista to enjoy views that can rarely, if ever, be captured behind the lens of a camera.  As we sat and enjoyed our surroundings I realized how I continue to be impressed by Arizona's unexpected ecological and geographical diversity.  Looking out at such a lush valley its hard to imagine that just 80 miles south is an unforgiving, 100+ degree desert awaiting our return.  Jackson enjoyed some quality dad time as well as some much expected, nose to the ground wandering before we started our trip back home. 

 
  Having reversed course back down the road we drove up, we witnessed quite a unique tree.  This tree looked like any from the opposite direction but on our current approach it looked more like a dragon, or a moose, or perhaps even a giraffe.  Oh perspective, you fickle beast.

 As we climbed out of the Verde Valley and crested the final peak before our decent toward Phoenix we witnessed the ominous rain cloud in the foreground. The storms in the valley can be fascinating, some will flood an area in a matter of minutes yet leave entire sections of nearby areas bone dry.  The closer we got to the cloud, the better you could see the bands of rain pouring down, yet once we hit the rain it was quite a bit lighter and less sever than expected.  Traffic did slow and visibility decreased for a short time, but it wasn't long before we were driving under clear skies with the sun drying up every trace of rain on Tim. 

By the time we arrived home Jonathan and I had both soaked up a little more sun than expected but its fair to say Mr. Jackson was clearly the most exhausted from our adventure.