F2K Road Trip

300 geocaches on 30 miles of road from Florence to Kelvin AZ. We did this trail in 2012. Since then the F2K was archived by the AZ government, but through proactive work of some geocachers, State Trust Land in AZ is once again open and available for geocaching. Earlier this summer a group of local cachers replaced the 300 caches creating the F2K trail.

The 30 mile 'highway' is one of my favorite drives. I use the term highway loosely as the first 15 or so miles are paved. The last half is maintained often by the state, but it is a gravel road. It starts out on flat desert terrain with many, MANY saguaros and ends in copper mined mountains. It was on this road I learned about Pearl Hart, a woman stagecoach robber imprisoned at Yuma. It was on this road I started my collection of photographing crested saguaros.

To add some interest to Friday's adventure, AZ has had rain. I'm not certain of the amount, but there was some on Thursday afternoon, overnight and on Friday morning. The sky to the north of us was very blue with almost clear skies to the south. No rain while we geocached.

A first for me...a real live tarantula. I went after a geocache along the road and noticed this guy crawling along. I grabbed the camera and got a few shots. He was about the size of my hand with splayed fingers.

A double crested saguaro is even more rare. This one is between MM7 and 9 on the paved road.

No other arms on it either, which is also unusual. Comparison with 2012 photo.

A dying prickly pear cactus revealed its core.

It looks like membrane or honeycomb. Prickly Pear pads can be purchased in some grocery stores. I have had prickly pear products made from the flowers and the fruit, but not the pads.

"Both the pads and the fruit of the prickly pear cactus are edible. The pads, called nopales or nopalitos, can be found canned in hispanic markets and in well-stocked grocery stores, or fresh at a good farmer's market. They're crunchy and slightly sticky (similar to okra), and taste fresh and green - like green beans, asparagus, and green pepper. They're great on pizza."

Evidence of flooding. The yellow sign says, "do not enter when flooded." Often on the local news we hear of people and vehicles that had to be rescued from driving or rather trying to drive through flooded low spots.

There were 6 inch ridges of sand on that concrete section of road. The sand was wet, so the road most likely was flooded earlier Friday morning. This was only one of many washed, flooded areas on the F2K road.

 The wash from the south...

flowing over the road to the wash on the north.

We don't see cattle all that often in the desert. Although there were fences on both sides of the highway, there were also posted signs saying open range. This guy was on the correct side of the fence.

 We stopped for a lunch break and I noticed this skeleton near where we were parked.

A spiny-backed desert lizard of some kind, about 12 inches long.

Interesting name for a ranch.

 Some left-over clouds hanging over the mountains.

A usable corral. We are out of the flatland.

I was watching for this saguaro. It isn't really a crested saguaro as it does not look like a fan. For whatever reason, these joined arms are growing as individual arms.

 Compare this photo with some I have taken of the same cactus in the past. It is around MM27.

I had noticed hoof prints and other fresh evidence of cows when I was doing my turn at running for the caches, but I did not see any cows on the trip east.

Three ladies were walking along the road as we headed back west at the end of our day. Hubby did his "moo" call and they did stop and look at us long enough for their photos.

This one looks like she may have a thyroid problem. I think they are Red Angus cows. They were on the wrong side of the fence.

We completed over 200 of the 300 geocaches on Friday's trip. No five trips this time around!