Today we explore a relatively new National Monument, the Agua Fria National Monument, created in 2000. There aren’t many official traild in the Monument so we try to only one that we aware off, the Badger Springs Trail. It is quite nicely marked and easily accessed from the interstate so after parking in the huge parking lot it is time to explore.
It is certainly well marked with multiple signs at the start including one of the few markers for the National Monument we have seen in the area. It is an overflow of signs really, it would be great if they would expand and create a few more trails instead of triplicating the signs here.
The trail is relatively short, less than one mile, and follows the Badger Springs Wash down to Agua Fria River. The river here is flowing through an interesting canyon that can be explored both upstream and downstream.
We do just that for a short while exploring the area and enjoying the beautiful and calm river. There is almost no one else on the trail and we have the area fully to ourselves.
As we explore we also find the petroglyph panels, there are quite a few and extensive. We decide to explore them closely as we always enjoy seeing petroglyphs that seem to represent aliens and any other weird ones we can find.
There aren’t any really weird ones here but we still enjoy the many deer, it seems they were hunted here quite often. And then drawn on the rocks?
We spend a bit more time exploring the beautiful area even finding a print someone marked as mountain lion. But then it is time to return to the car and back to Phoenix after a beautiful day outdoors.
