We reluctantly left Gilbert Ray yesterday and headed about 40 miles NW to this state park. It is pretty close to I-10 and a busy railroad track for Union Pacific. However, not too close.
Picacho Peak is a landmark that has been used for hundreds of years according to the park literature. They state that it was used in prehistoric times. Of course, I asked the question, how would they know since it was pre-history.
Anyway, we took the Sunset Vista trail today. It is 6.2 miles roundtrip. The first couple of miles are fairly easy. However, there is about 1800 feet of elevation gain and a good portion is in the last half mile. At several locations they have installed steel cables and a board here and there.
This first photo is the first real challenge. You climb maybe a 100 feet. Gayle managed to talk herself into climbing this after a 76 year old guy came down. She didn’t make it through the next cable set up so I finished the climb. I have to say it was the most challenging climb I have ever made and I would not have considered it without the aids they installed.
The last one is the section that stopped Gayle. You can’t see all of the cable because this comes around a bend.
Views at the top were great and 360 degrees.
If you look off in the distance in this photo you can make out our campground.
Finally, here is Gayle coming down. I was proud of her.
Finally, here is a sunset from last night.
I have uploaded all the photos I took here today to our Picasa web page. So if you want to see more click the link in the top left of this page.
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