Day 17: Glad we picked the scenic route!!

Today we had an AWESOME day! We started off the morning early back at Hot Wheels Cyclery across from the ACE Hardware in Safford, AZ trying to beat the huge rain storm that was coming into town. As we rode out of town the sun began to shine but the temperatures stayed cool. We started to see the mountain coming up quick. It started up at a gentle pace and not too steep, but we were climbing for about 10 miles. Once we got to the top it was just amazing!! And the down hill on the other side was SO worth the pain of the climb!!
The mountains are so different than in North Carolina. The are almost all red rock and the small amount of greenery is rough bushes and cactus. It's really neat, but you feel like you are in a whole different country than our mountains in NC.
On the way up and down the mountain we stopped several times to hunt "wildlife"...today we found ALIVE animals!! We found and bottled a VERY aggressive centipede, a big tarantula, and LOTS of cool grasshoppers! The grasshoppers are not just green or brown like at home, they are multi-colored wild looking bugs! Also some of them are HUGE, like as big as an adult's thumb!
After we got over into the SMALL community of Three Way, we pulled off at a ranger station and ate lunch. The little boys found even more grasshoppers there.
This afternoon after we finished riding, we drove the bus up the road a few miles to a HUGE copper mine. Morenci Mine is supposed to be the biggest pit mine for copper in the USA. We went up to a lookout where you could see down into the mine and even though it was raining we could still see a lot! They had big dumptrucks that hold 50 tons and conveyor belts stretched over the roads that were longer than football fields! It was amazing!
We are looking forward to a few break days and getting to see friends in Tucson starting tomorrow!!