Crown King, AZ

Whew! The Monsoons are over for another year and cooler temps are on the way...finally.
One of my friends from the Casa Grande 4 Wheeler's Club, Dick Thomas, his nephew, and his wife decided a trip to Crown King was in order. So, Hilda and I joined them on the adventure, and what an adventure it turned out to be. All the Monsoonal rain has greened up the desert, but also washed out the upper trail to give us a more thrilling ride. We stopped at Fort Misery (a clearing at the 27 mile mark) for lunch and a brief rest in the shade. On this trip we stopped at the Oro Belle Townsite and Mine (ghost town) and I shot a panorama using a 35mm lens. I can only hope it captures the feeling of the presence I felt of the old miners who slaved for a few ounces of gold.
Another 9 miles later we pulled into Crown King, which boasts the state's oldest continuously operating saloon. Yep, I got a good panorama of that rascal. Crown King is known as a ghost town, although technically it was never completely abandoned, and now has a thriving little community.
This trip Hilda and I ran out of luck. When I got home and inspected the Jeep, I discovered that the tie rod had had an argument with a rock, and the rock won. We're scheduled to get a new one next Tuesday.