I again parked at Spring Valley’s Antelope Creek Road lot, and headed south, along the Drinking Snake segment of the Black Canyon, a distance of 4.2 miles one way.  Here’s the north trailhead of Drinking Snake.

The trail is a bit more rugged than the Big Bug, at the outset.  There is more volcanic debris in this area.

The views are  just as sweeping here, as they are further north.

The hearts were both mineral and vegetable.

I arrived at an abandoned corral, water tank and windmill, near Dripping Spring, after an hour’s walk.

The canyon called Dripping Spring is the north end of a longer system that runs along to Crown King Road, another 1.7 miles to the south.

The hike from here is an easy rim walk, past a cow or two.  The view, though, is exhilarating.

Next on this trail system is the Antelope Creek segment.

After making the hike back to Spring Valley, I stopped briefly at Cordes, the northernmost of four “ghost’ towns between Prescott and Black Canyon City.  It was Sunday evening, so the place was closed.

My life will be topsy-turvy, in a good way, for the next five weeks, so while hiking will take a backseat to some other activities, I’m a happy blogger.