Seeking the riches of the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola, Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's 1540 route ran close to this scenic byway. Today's riches along this byway are of a different nature -- vistas stretching for miles on end, friendly communities, and an abundance of varied recreational opportunities and wildlife.  (I didn't write this but David and I did take a Saturday and travel Coroado's route....483 years later.)

I wonder if Coronado saw Mt. Baldy from this direction.  This is looking NE from the back side of Mt. Baldy.  The trees in the foreground are part of the Willow fire.  It was interesting to see how big that fire really was.

When our children were little we took this trail.  This tree really caught there attention.  Look close it is shot full of arrows.  We are looking south from the top of the trail.  There are probably a million arrows down below.

 Trips like this with young kids require one of these.  If we were making day trips with our children we always bought them a Sugar Daddy.  (They lasted a really long time!)

Way down the road we take a different type of winding road.  Again, you have to look close to see the winding road.  And my camera never quite captures what I see.

We were amazed at the size of this open pit mine.

Those giant monster trucks looked like ants on an

ant hill.  There were tons of them and they were all

working.

These trucks are so huge.  You can see a regular truck

on the right by the crane to get the idea.