While I was stopped for a while in Globe, Az, I had a passer-by express some interest in joining the expedition. But when I told the applicant that I had no cat food on board, it quickly lost interest!After some fuel and dropping off some recycling, it was late and so I headed back north on 188 to Tonto National Forest.
I decided to try the first decent looking back road I came too, and was pleasantly rewarded with a great camp spot, with an excellent view of Lake Rooseelt and the surrounding mountains.
In the morning, there were a few bow hunters poking about, but I never saw any game in the area.
But I did locate a watering trough built for either wildlife or cattle. Since there were no fences in that area, I assumed it was intended for wildlife. Further up the mountain road I discovered a much more modern version of the same technique in use. It simply funnels all the (infrequent) rainfall into a storage tank on site.
I was going to head back down in the morning, but instead decided to go up the road further and see what was there. The road was narrow and steep, but was in great shape.
It led about 4 miles back from the highway.
There were a number of ecellent boondocking sites along the way - all with great views.
At the top I found a trailhead (Mills Ridge) that adjoins the Arizona Trail, which leads from Coronado National Memorial on the Mexican border all the way through Arizona and the Grand Canyon to the Utah border.

(Click on the photo, and you may be able to read the sign?)

There was nothing else to do but to put on my hikiing boots and see where the trail led.
Leaving the camper and solar panel to work on re-charging the batteries while I was gone.
The terrain got more rugged as elevation was gained.
You can still see Roosevelt Lake in the distance.


There's the camper way down below (centre-left) and the other white spot to the right is another wildlife watering station.
And at the end of the day, finding another scenic spot to camp for the night!