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| | | Verrado Petroglyphs and Peak 1976, AZ | | | |
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Verrado Petroglyphs and Peak 1976, AZ
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| Hiking | 3.78 Miles |
607 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.78 Miles | 1 Hour 29 Mns | | 2.67 mph |
| 607 ft AEG | 4 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We decided to hike in the west valley today, though I was a little concerned the trails might be packed with tourists in town for the Super Bowl. We had a longer loop hike planned in the White Tanks but started the morning at Verrado Petroglyphs since parking sounded limited there. We arrived at sunrise, and though there were a few vehicles in the lot, there were still plenty of spaces available.
The sunrise had the eastern horizon on fire as we got on the trail, and darker clouds overhead provided a nice show in the sky. It had been 5+ years since I last hiked in the White Tanks, and it was nice to get back...everything was greener than I remembered. It was a peaceful hike, which I didn't expect with so many cars in the lot. The trail was flat and easy the whole way, but we had it to ourselves all the way to the petroglyphs.
I hadn't read the guide carefully and didn't realize the rocks are surrounded by chain link fence and barbed wire. That was a little disappointing...good that it's there, I guess, because there was graffiti mixed in with the rock art, but disappointing that it's necessary at all. There are a lot of nice panels inside the enclosure, and I tried to get some decent zoomed shots over the top of the fence as we circled around. The looking-through-the-fence experience reminded me of Turkey Pueblo in Flagstaff. This site had a lot of foot/footprint drawings on the panels, which was interesting.
I'd briefly glanced at the guide for Peak 1976 yesterday, and since it was so close, I took a quick trip up the north side of the hill to check out the top. It wasn't particularly noteworthy...some decent views from the top, and very windy up there today, but not much else. There are many higher, more intriguing peaks in the vicinity, and I think the peak a few hundred feet northeast along ridgeline that I crossed on the way to 1976 might be a little higher. Regardless, 1976 was a quick, easy add-on from the petroglyph site, so why not.
I headed back down, and we stared to see more hikers and bikers on the way out, but the lot still had plenty of space when we returned to the trailhead. This was a nice warmup for the main hike we had planned today, and we drove ~30 minutes to the regional park for the next one. |
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