The Verde River - An ATV Ride

Earlier this month Robert and I and our friends took another quad ride back in the mountains behind Payson, Arizona.

This is one of our favorite places to go because there are so many roads and places to explore. The Verde River winds all over the place out here and that's why you always hear me talk of it. Down below is part of the Verde River and that's where we are headed today.

At the top of the hill we stop to take a break and find out that one of the quads is making some noises it shouldn't be making. Part of our crew has to head back to Payson to put the bike in the shop.

The rest of us head on down to the Verde River.

Well, you know me and how much I like to take shots of water, so here you go:

The reflections were awesome today.

Although it's a little hard to tell from the picture, there was quite a bit of frost on the ground.

Up on the mountain in the distance is a place that has been dubbed "Dos Metates" because there is a geocache up there by that name. I don't know about you but I could imagine ancient people up there grinding their meal for the day, overlooking the canyon and river below.

When we came out of the canyon we decided to go ahead and go up to Dos Metates to have a look around. When I did the geocache before I never got to see the actual metates so this time I made sure that I did. This is one "set" of the metates. There is one more set, hence the name "Dos Metates". It's really incredible what you will find in Arizona if you know where to look. Very cool stuff.

Here is a hawk that I caught sitting in a tree. Too bad he wouldn't turn around for me.

All photos taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8.