Hiking Yuma's Telegraph Pass

Today is going to be a chore day/reading day for me, since Jim has an Oregon Beavers' football game on his agenda. 

As for yesterday:  I'd picked up the official visitors' guide “Visiting in Yuma” at the Yuma Visitors Center for ideas of things to see/do.  The magazine listed “Telegraph Pass” as the best local hike and I read on-line it was a four-mile round trip.

The hike started with a slight incline, leveled out and then...well, if you’ve every been to our house and experienced our driveway, it's similar to the last part of this hike. Our steep driveway, complete with a bad concrete job, except it kept on going.  Jim guessed it was a 30 degree incline, although I can’t swear on the Bible about the last 3/4 of a mile. We'd done our expected two miles one way -- but had nearly another mile to the top  -- when I told Jim to go on without me.  He didn't seem to mind going back instead.

So the hike was steep, but pretty and a good work out.  Even the weather was good -- high 60s with a breeze. 

Near the beginning of the Telegraph Hill hike which goes to the top of one of the Gila Mountains near Yuma, AZ.

The Gila Mountains in the distance. The highest peak in the range is just over 3,000 feet.

Jim on his way up.  You can see cell phone and antennae towers at the top of the hike -- which we didn't quite complete.

After the first mile, the trail meets a rough cement road used by cellphone and telephone antennae techs to drive to the top of the mountain.  On the way up we met a Marine who ran half of the hike with his dog, ran back down to get his mom and sister, and then passed us again. He and his pit bull were obviously very fit, but they didn't make it to the top, either. Probably because mom and sister said "no."

Part of the cement road, plus the view beyond.  We'd spotted a truck coming down from the top of the mountain and it had just passed us when I took this photo.   There 
was no room on the road for both us and the truck, so we started looking for a wide spot. Jim found one on the down side of the mountain; I barely got there before the truck reached us. I'm guessing he would have stopped, but we didn't want to make him. He was really hugging the upside of the road.

Bev taking a break near where we ended our hike. That's a mild dust storm in the background caused by the wind.

Jim post hike and pre burger at Burger & Beer in Yuma.  
Per the Yuma visitors' guide this restaurant has the best 
burgers in town and they were good.  After our burgers we 
stopped at Martha's Gardens Medjool Date farm.  The area 
around Yuma is the world's largest producer of Medjool 
dates, which originated in Morocco.

Plus a photo of our front yard patio at home in Salt Lake 
City -- sent to us this morning by our house-sitting  
daughter and son-in-law.