Day 9 - A day of extremes

What a day!

From taxing ascents to exhilarating descents and breathtaking vistas to the ravages of man on the earth.

Dinner and Breakfast in the lodge

Extremely BIG dogs

Ready to leave onward to Morenci

Max elevation for the tour

Just a little way down the road after leaving the lodge, we were at the highest point of the tour and great views awaited us.....

And exhilarating descents...

If you look close, you can see the road down...

But the downs were interrupted with what seemed to be endless climbs...

8 mile climb at 6 mph - you do the math :(

But then more descents.... yes, that is the road at the bottom!  We got here via a road along the ridge.

The road to Morenci went directly through the 2nd largest open pit copper mine in the world.  Quite a surprise!

Quite an engineering feat, but at the same time, very sad.

Maybe the next visit will be via this mode of transportation :)

Our evening accommodations.  Every room had a shoe brush at the door, apparently for the mine workers to clean their boots.  It was dusty everywhere.