One of the reasons we wanted to come back to this area was so we could do some off-road Jeeping. We packed a lunch and headed to Blair Valley which was a very easy drive on sand and between mountains. One stop on our route allowed us to hike two miles to see some Indian petroglyphs. It was fun walking among boulders and around cacti!
Once we exited Blair Valley we drove to Oriflamme Canyon. It is purported to be a moderately difficult drive and we found that to be the case. Mostly it was very bumpy but there were a couple of areas where boulders had fallen on the road and John had a very tight squeeze between them and the edge of the cliff! We thought John was going to play the Good Samaritan again today. The SUV in front of us had pulled off the trail and the driver thought he was having engine trouble or transmission problems. So we pulled up and as John was getting out of the Jeep, the other guy tried starting his car and it started and he got it into gear with no problems. It had us scratching our heads!
This road had us traversing the side of the mountain with lots of switchbacks and very narrow ledges on which to drive but it was a ruggedly handsome region with steep sided mountains, rocks, boulders, cacti, ocotillo, and creosote bushes until we would drop down into the valley and find green trees and brush along a reed enmeshed creek.
Hot, bright sun with little wind during the day but the full moon and clear skies have cooled us off for the night.
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