We are off to an early start today, leaving the house at 5:30am. Sunrise is at 6:15am and we want to be up in Miami, AZ at dawn. Our friend Randy who grew up in those mountains told us where we might find some bighorn sheep – just recently he sent us some amazing shots.

We are turning north on AZ 188 into AZ 288 towards Young – we drive out to every plateau and search the cliffs with the binoculars, when suddenly we see a female bighorn sheep just ahead of us. She is not too shy and lets us get fairly close.

A little earlier we also saw a red tail hawk hovering over the canyon and then flying with a bunch of crows.

The view from up there is breathtaking and the temperature is very pleasant. We continue driving towards Young, past the cliffs into mountainous pine forest. At mile marker 294 we turn around, hoping to find more bighorns on the way back – well, it is not meant to be today.

Back on AZ 188 we turn right and then in Rosevelt left into Apache Trail. After the rains we had this monsoon season we expect to see some water in the creeks but we are disappointed, all the creeks are bone dry, not a single puddle of water.

All in all it was a beautiful day, with gorgeous scenery, but fewer animals and less water then we had hoped to find.