Salome, Az

   Once again we visited this area because there are so many new trails and interesting thing to see.  Salome was established in 1904 and named after Grace Salome, Charles Pratt's wife.
"Salome, Where She Danced " signs in Salome refer to a 1945 American romance film.
   On March 11th, some of us went exploring north of the highway 60 for 40 miles. We saw a desert big horn sheep,  the Queen Mine and other areas of mine tailings. Tom walked into the vertical shaft of the Queen mine with a flash light. He came upon a vertical shaft.

Queen Mine shaft

March 12, 2015, We took a short 20 miles ride to the petroglyphs, which are on the shoulder of Highway 60. Maybe they were carved by the Mojave or Pima Indians.  ( N 33*44'56 W 113*40'19) We enjoyed the Loopdy loop trail to the Zoo Tree and Bra Tree. N33*42'37 W 113*43'33@ and found an unusual 4 ft high pyramid built of stones.@  It was a hot day 85* but there was a nice breeze once we got away from the mountains. We enjoyed a good meal at the Cactus Cafe with great friends.

March 13th 33mi we went north of the Hwy 60.  I told the group to watch out for the Bee Cactus, in 2014 it was dripping wet and full of bees. This year all that was left was the skeleton.@ We went to the big rock pile on the desert floor, where there were more petroglyphs @.N33*48'13  W 113*40'57 

	2015/2014

Off we went to Prison Rock/Cave.  Where the prisoners were housed while they were mining granite stones for building the Yuma Courthouse in 1909@  .33*50'46N 113*42'10W The area is full of huge boulders. This year we went around the mountain to the left, to see the cave. GPS # 33*50'43N 113*42'08W It is actually a tumbled area of boulders, large  enough for people to walk into the mountain. The interior was 10-30ft tall and 100ft long. Cool temperatures and a maze of rocks!@

March 13th 40 miles we rode south thru a cool wash to a Hope Lookout and Picnic point. This is a great spot to cook over a fire and have a panoramic view of the valley below. We went cross country, enjoying the trails and views. We came to a large hill, Hot dog hill- one of our men called it. Some found the courage to climb it and some went around! We regrouped at the flat hill top with the valley and Hope in a distance. We drove thru the canyon over to the Harquahala Mine to have lunch. This mine was one of the richest mines gold mines in Arizona. Back in 1888 there were 4,000 men working at the mine. They mined gold, silver and ore. They used cyanide to remove the gold from the ore. You can't miss the pink rhyolite tailing piles and cyanide leach pits  and outbuildings  Operations stopped in 1907 Stopped in at the the Chinese cemetery 33*40'29N 113*35'30W There 500 residents during the peak years of production. The cemetery graves are of 40 males, 7 children. One large cement grave for someone of importance, but there is no identification who this is.