Ft Bayard, Dragonfly Trail

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One of the great things about the Silver City area is that there are so many really great trails. One gold mine of trail networks is Fort Bayard. Just off of Arenas Valley road there is a parking area and trailhead that is barely off of the blacktop. This is where the pack of Labs and Tollers met for a great short hike on Dragonfly trail to Twin Sisters Creek. This is a relatively high traffic trail area, so be mindful of horse and bike riders as well as other hikers you may run into.  Petroglyphs along this loop make the hike attractive to many people, but access to water is what we like even more.

There are many trails within this area.  The Gila National Forest also has a nice trail information page, along with a downloadable PDF map of the area

We did meet some horseback riders at the trailhead, but they were loading up as we were getting ready to head out. Other than that no one else shared the trail with us.

Ceilidh had the best time on this hike.  At ten, she is still quite active, but doesn't run around as much as the young dogs.  This trail was easy enough that she was pulling at the leash as much as the younger dogs, and running around like a puppy at times.

This is a great place for late fall, winter, and spring hikes, but can be a little warm in the summer.  The hike starts out in dry open juniper country and then works its way down to the creekbed where cottonwoods and water are a welcome relief for thirsty dogs.  Another great thing about this area is that the trail itself doesn't seem to have that many stickers along it, though there are cockle burrs in areas where there is water.

Once the trail hits the creek bed if you turn left  there is a great swimming hole not too far up the bed where even after nine weeks of no moisture of any kind there was enough depth for the Labs to do more than just wade.  If you turn right, the trail will loop around past the petroglyph site, and eventually make it back to the trailhead.

Mater showed off his water entry skills by getting big air and jumping in over and over. Pete had a blast as well, moving rocks off the bottom, swimming and generally enjoying being wet, despite the harassment from Jed.

The Tollers enjoyed the water as well. Everyone took advantage of the chance to go for a swim. Even Sue, who normally doesn't like cold water, went for a swim around the hole.  All of the Tollers screamed for sticks to be thrown into the water for fetching.

Along the way we ran across lots of elk tracks but no elk.  The dogs did manage to flush a couple of cottontails, which made for a fun chase, though the retrievers weren't anywhere near fast enough to actually capture one.

Merry Christmas!