Mount Ord from Slate Creek TH Photoset • gummo • 2015-10-19 • HikeArizona.COM

Mount Ord from Slate Creek TH, AZ

	2015-10-19
	15 by gummo

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Mount Ord from Slate Creek TH

Payson, AZ

Mount Ord from Slate Creek TH

Payson, AZ

Hiking	15.50 Miles	4,108 AEG

Hiking	15.50 Miles
	4,108 ft AEG

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I decided to hike Mt. Ord and do an average, mundane hiking that most everyone does in these parts. Twas okay, but I wasn't expecting much. After a hour of not finding a snake, I got bored tho. Then I got used to the ennui. Then I started noticing a lot of birds. Later, I realized that this was a known bird watching area.

There were a lot of cars on the road. It's probably better to do this on a weekend when there's no work crew.

I hiked up for about 2 hours and then headed back. I'm not sure how close I was to the top. I figured that there was a lot of workers up there. It was a good idea for me to turn around because my calves started to cramp up and my lower back was sore. I'm a lowlander by trade, and my body reminded me of that.

I returned to the car around 3pm and decided that I had enough time and energy to look for snakes in the flats. I hit some trail across the street from Usery Mtn Regional Park. I saw two pinacate beetles with their butts upward together in unison. I've seen thousands of those critters and have never seen that behavior before. I read up on them and nothing explained that behavior to me. :-k

As I was about to turn back, I saw a small dback that looked like it ate recently.

All-in-all, Mt. Ord was decent and I want to return to look for birds and maybe mountain lions. I figured that they'd be there because of the high deer population. I saw about 4 deer but saw a plethora of their tracks and scat. It's probably best to do this hike on a weekend and with someone who doesn't talk too much.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Juniper

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Dark-eyed Junco Plateau Fence Lizard Western Bluebird White Tailed Deer White-Crowned Sparrow Yellow-rumped Warbler

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