19 August - Sycamore Vista

A lovely sunny morning, we took I40 to the Circle Pines exit, and drove down to Garland Prairie where we turned onto Forest Road 141. FR141 is a good red dirt road through a lovely ponderosa pine forest.

The road took us across McDougall Flat a lovely open prairie covered in wildflowers.

At one point we crossed over the Overland Trail which is marked by a mixture of wooden posts with burros burnt onto them, cairns and brass plaques. The trail blazers built the road trying to avoid the worst gradients but it was still a steep road.

We turned right onto FR 56, as we were part way down the road, something grey whizzed across the road in front of us at about 90 miles an hour. As far as we know there are no wolves in this area so we think it was a coyote.

The road ended in a loop with pull offs for parking. Boots on we headed for the trail head and off down the trail. The trail to Sycamore Vista is only a 1 mile loop through the woods, but oh boy were the bugs out!

On one side of the trail there was a slight depression that may have been a dry pond, but whatever it was it was an absolute mass of sunflowers.

The trail led across the bed of a dry stream that tumbled into the canyon below, then up through a small glade to the viewpoint over the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness. Although there is a rim trail around the canyon, the canyon itself is pure wilderness hiking, no trails at all.

After admiring the view for a while we headed back to the bug free truck and drove home for lunch.

Have fun, we are!