Canelo Hills Trail

Yesterday we hiked the AZ Trail north from Patagonia; today we hiked the AZ Trail south. We left from different trailheads, today's was past the post office and then three miles south of town, just at the entrance to Coronado National Forest.

At the trailhead.

There were a lot of free-range cattle along the AZ Trail yesterday and today. Yesterday we saw quite a few head, maybe 30+ in different parts along the trail. Today we only saw evidence of cows, but we had several gates to navigate.

At the trailhead was a large passenger van with Conservation Corp on the side. About 2 1/2-miles into the hike we came upon one of the Corp Members, Corey. She and 7 other Members will be working the next two months on maintaining this section of the AZ Trail.

Our lunch spot was just a nice big rock alongside the trail with...

this pleasant view.

We also got a chance to examine the source of the chartreuse color on the rocks. This is on our lunch rock and, if you enlarge the picture, you can see that it is on the surface of the rock. Maybe lichen, as in - Angie algae and Freddy fungus took a "lichen" to each other. 

More on lichen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen

Returning to the trailhead in the late afternoon.

I love the shadows and how the mountains look this time of the day.

Today's hike:

Length - 5.16 miles

Duration - 3hours, 35 minutes (including lunch)

Elevation gain - 1,200 feet (121 floors on the Fitbit)