Wednesday afternoon, I got the notion to hike from the base of Mingus Mountain, 20 miles east of Prescott, to its summit, via a fairly rugged canyon called Yeager.  Upon reaching the east rim of the canyon, I walked on to the actual summit, a gradual and easy 1 1/2 mile walk along the campground road.

Here are some scenes of the upward route:       

Mingus is one of the three peaks in Yavapai County that I had left to climb, so this route was somewhat special.  I was surprised that no one else was on the trail, but even more surprised to run into an old Army buddy, whom I had not seen in 41 years.  He is here in Prescott, looking for work.  Goes to show how small the world can be.

After talking with him for a while, i headed back down, using two trails- Little Yeager Canyon and Yeager Cabin Trail, which I partly hiked on New Year’s Day.  Here we go, back towards my trusty KIA Optima:

The above photos are of the summit area.  It’s not the most spectacular of vistas, but the trees are pretty.

  It was right about here that I ran into five head of cattle- two bulls, two cows and a heifer calf.  Needless to say, they kept on nibbling at the creosote bushes, while I made a slight deviation in my route.

7.3 miles later, I hopped back into my trusty vehicle and headed into the sunset.   Two high peaks remain for me in Yavapai County:  Mt. Union and Mt. Davis, the Twin Peaks of the Bradshaws, on tap for the latter part of March.