My friend Todd was in Arizona and we took a little outing to this semi-arid place.  We didn’t walk too far - only a couple of miles - but it was a good scouting mission for a longer hike. We timed it perfectly and returned to the car just as the last rays of daylight disappeared.

Deer Creek is near the town of Payson, midway between the saguaro forests of the low hot desert and the dense pine forest heights of cold Flagstaff.  When we took this hike it was raining and there was a good amount of water flowing in Deer creek’s south fork.  Come summer, it will bake at 120 degrees and there won’t be any water or shade.  The rainy cool winter weather is the time to go hiking in the desert!

In the next image you can see the magnificent snow-capped desert ridges meeting the bruised and threatening sky.

You can see that the surface of this creek bed is not for the faint of heart!

The color and variety of the minerals here are astonishing. They look duller when dry.