Mount Ballard

Hiked up to Mount Ballard yesterday, leaving at 11 am when the temp was a deceptively mild 60-degrees, seeming much cooler when the thin clouds moved in about half way up.

Ballard is one of the twin peaks (Ballard and Fissure) that make up the Escabrosa Ridge of the Mule Mountains. The hike begins at Mule Pass, a quick two-mile walk from home. On the way up, there's a view looking down on the Bisbee "B" one usually views from Bisbee proper.

An obelisk commemorating the fact that prison labor constructed the road over Mule Pass in 1934-14. This practice of using prison labor still passes as ethical in Arizona in 2015. Note also the erroneous marker for the Continental Divide, which actually lies 120 miles to the east of Mule Pass, in New Mexico.

Bisbee.

My new friend Ira, whom I met four days earlier on my first Mule Team hike, up to Mural Hill.

Cerro San José in Sonora, Mexico.

Juniper Flats, with its radio towers barely visible.

The twin peaks of Ballard (left) and Fissure (right).

Bisbee "B" with Mural Hill in the background.