Kirk's Ranch

This weekend, my friend Kirk and I hiked his ranch looking for arrowheads, pottery chards and wildlife. Kirk found three arrowheads, but we were uable to find the pottery chards he had previously spotted. We saw plenty of wildlife, including a garter snake, hawks, ravens, elk, antelopes, one mountain lion, coyotes, jack rabbits, gophers and white cranes.

We took I-17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff, then I-40 to Williams and AZ-64 to the dirt road turnoff to the Four Hills Ranch subdivision at Howard Mesa. The turnoff is about 34 miles south of the Grand Canyon. Soon after leaving AZ-64, we pulled up to a stop sign to allow the Grand Canyon Railway train to pass. The train may be boarded in Williams, AZ. Alex and I rode the train on one occasion.

Kirk temporarily parked a small trailer on his ranch. He anticipates building a house on his property near where the trailer is parked. As you look west from the trailer, his property extends across the canyon to the west side where he has about one acre. More residents have their homes on the west side of the canyon, but Kirks says that it is too much like a city. He wants to move away from the city life.

Because of the monsoon season providing so much rain this summer, the canyon is plush green. The canyon is a tributary of the Colorado River that carves its way through the Grand Canyon.

The first business on Kirk's agenda was to visit Art's ranch house. Art is hired by one of the rancher's to watch the property by mending fences and protecting the cattle.