Heading north on a dirt road off Route 66 to the spot where we will start our hike to Sleeping Beauty in the Cady Mountains.

Sooz and Joe, me at the place we picked to start the hike.

View of the peak near the start of the hike. I used topo and Google Earth to pick a route to the summit, but it's hard the see it from here.

Making our way to the ridge after following an old mining road up a small canyon.

Looking back at our trucks from the ridge.

Making our way up the ridge. Sleeping Beauty's summit is behind three peaks at the center of the photo.

We hiked around is bump on the ridge.

We were finding a lot of these crystals on one section of the ridge, think that it might be calcite.

Looking down a side canyon from the ridge. The mining road we started the hike on can be seen at the base of the slope on the left.

We left the ridge and beelined it to a saddle.

Looking back at the ridge we been following.

On the saddle, nice to be on ground that wasn't moving. We hiked on a lot of loose stuff to get here.

Next we are heading up this slope to the chute on the right. From there we will follow the ridge towards the left to the peak.

Looking down from about half way up the slope. From here we got a good view of the ridge we followed up.

I took this shot from the ridge as Sooz climbs up the last section of the cute.

After taking a short snack break in the saddle at the top of the chute (just behind Sooz), we continued on to the peak.

Sooz on a nice section of the ridge.

Looking back at the ridge as we approach the peak.

View to the west from the peak, we made it.

On Sleeping Beauty at 3979 feet, not very high, but it was an interesting hike getting here.

View to the east looking over a section of the Cady Mountains to Broadwell Lake bed and the Bristol Mountains beyond.

Zoomed in on Broadwell Lake bed and the Bristol Mountains.

View to the southeast towards Ludlow.

Zoomed in on Ludlow eight miles away.

Looking towards the west. Some of the hills looked like they had sand piled up against them.

Zoomed in on the sandy hills.

Lot of interesting looking peaks in the area, this one is to the north.

The peak register.

Last entree was five years ago, this peak doesn't get climbed very often.

Starting down off the peak.

Sooz climbing down the first peak on the ridge.

We hiked around the second one.

Back on the slope a short way down from the ridge. This was the steepest section of the hike with a lot of loose rocks.

Looking up the slope from near it's bottom. The steep section can be seen at the top.

Sooz came up with the idea of hiking down this canyon and climbing back up onto the ridge near the bottom to get to our trucks which are on the right side of it. Worked out great avoiding the loose jagged ridge line we followed up.

Big rocks in the canyon.

Back up on the ridge.

Almost back on the old mining road.

On the road as the sun starts getting low.

Looking back at the peak.

Back at the trucks. We ended up camping here.

Our camp spot the next morning. The dark area in the background is Pisgah Crater and it's lava flow just south of I-40.

We decided to check out a F-4D Phantom crash site that I visited a couple of years ago that was in the area.

Most of the wreckage has been removed, but there still was a lot of it remianing. The F-4D crashed on 7/13/68 after both of it's engines failed during a flight from Luke AFB, Arizona to George AFB, California. The pilot was able to eject before the Phantom impacted the desert floor.

Me with the Phantom's left wing tip.

Heading back down to Route 66, then on to Ludlow.

View of Sleeping Beauty from I-40, fun trip.

THE END