Where do I want to be.

      Hello.

     I have a special place that I really want to be. This place is a wonderful place for me. The air is warm. The sky is usually bright blue. The sun shines very brightly. There are hills around.  There are all kinds of trees and bushes. The air smells of lots of different things. The smells go from a light dry dust scent to the smell of pine trees and grasses. There is usually a light breeze. The trees are pine, pinion pine and scrub brush. The hills are tall and rocky. The sides of the hills are covered with grass, trees and bushes. I am on a trail that is dusty and full of rocks. The trail can go from smooth and easy to navigate to very rocky, bumpy and slow going. The trail starts in the desert and ends in the mountains. The trail has about a 4600 ft rise in elevation and is about 30 miles long. At the beginning of the trail you have a beautiful view of lake Pleasant. As you go up the trail the view is a varying wonderful site. You get to experience rock out crops and gentle rolling hills. You see goat a cattle pens. The hills change from low desert rocky bluffs to high mountains covered with trees. This trail is an off road only trail. The original use of this trail was for miners to travel to and from the many mines in the area. There is still, to this day remains of theses mine camps. Some of the mine camps might have ben as large 10,000 to 15,000 people and as small as just a handful of workers. The remains of equipment and machinery can be seen in the distance. When you come to an old mine camp you still see the mine shafts, the tailing hills and sometimes an old building or two. Other times you come to the spot where a very large camp once stood and you see no evidence of any activity. The only way you know of the camps existence is because of a plaque dedicated to what used to be.
This place is the Crown King trail from lake pleasant just north of Phoenix Az. I love to visit and explore this place. For me, this is a great way to get out into the great outdoors and use my off road skill to traverse this trail, see nature and explore places that don't exist any more. I love this place and I always find something new every time I visit.

Thank you. Scott Hasemeier