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| | | Hiking around the Gila, AZ | | | |
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Hiking around the Gila, AZ
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| Hiking | 2.00 Miles |
75 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.00 Miles | | | |
| 75 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Last full day of my road trip and I spent it just messing around along the Gila River. I actually went up Bonita Creek first hoping for more color just before it dumps into the Gila, but the color was pretty sparse.
But I encountered a really nice surprise. A large group of wannabe monkeys were foraging for breakfast heading downstream while I was headed upstream. Because it was a group, I knew it would be all females and babies this time of year. In the initial encounter, they had no idea I was there. I literally had a young one walk up to within 10 feet of me and that was just about when the camera battery died. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") Somehow, I managed to change out the battery with that young one feeding right in front of me, but I missed the approach shots and when his head was raised. He and the others continued to wander downstream. Photographing them at this point was hard because they were all foraging in the brush and their heads were almost always down. So I decided to try to quietly follow them and hope they got more into the open so I could get some decent photos. I actually tried to get ahead of them since I didn't just want their backsides. Hard to stay quiet in the Fall with all those crunchy leaves, but I almost succeeded. One of the females began to catch on and I thought it was all over. Within a couple of minutes, she had figured out there might be a threat and they all disappeared into the heavy brush. Surprisingly, they didn't disappear for long. They ended up on the cliff face above me. I guess going up trees or cliff faces are their best escape moves. I managed to get some better photos from my vantage point, while they kept an eye on me from their vantage points. I didn't stick around long though, because it was apparent that they wanted to double back, come back down and resume their foraging and I didn't want to prevent that. I think that's only about my third encounter or so with these guys and probably only the second time I've been able to get photos. 
After that, I exited Bonita, hit the Wildlife Watching Platform just in case they were still around, and then spent the rest of the day hitting different spots on the Gila. Just a relaxing last day before heading back to the rat race. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Substantial
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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