That April 8th day in 2014 was a sunny and warm one with a wonderful light breeze. With Cinnamon trailered, we made our way to the Juniper Ridge Trail where I parked in the Lewis Canyon campground. 

When the Juniper Ridge trail was built in 1987, the entire area was a thick forest of tall Ponderosa Pines. The Rodeo fire of 2002 burned most of the trees. A few undamaged patches of pine forest and many vistas remain. 

It was noon when Cinnamon and I set off down the trail at a brisk walk. She carefully crossed the river rock in the dry creek bed. The trail wanders through the trees for a quarter mile after climbing out of the creek. It then crosses a fence. Cinnamon did a good job of helping me with the gate.

Once past the gate, the trail crosses two small washes that are fairly steep. Very carefully Cinnamon walked down, then foxtrotted up. 

The main trail climbs up a hill, angles along a ridge where there are panoramic views, then descends into a canyon and crosses Juniper Ridge Lookout Road. We had been riding for a half hour when I let Cinnamon find the trail. While following the trail through a canyon, I first heard a hawk whistle overhead then saw two hawks soaring in the thermals. The Manzanita bushes were in bloom. 

Our journey continued on the trail that climbed out of that canyon, crossing a ridge, then following a trace of road into another canyon. I had forgotten how much of the trail follows the road so we accidentally made a detour onto an animal trail. When I realized what I had done, we bushwhacked the eighth of a mile back to the trail where it begins to climb up Juniper Ridge to the Fire Lookout Tower. This trail zig zags as it crosses a ridge and dips into a canyon. There is a gate on a slope just before the trail ascends to the tower. Cinnamon knew just how to navigate it and did all the hard work to make the climb. I took photos of the views to the north toward Holbrook and the Painted Desert, east to the White Mountains, and west and south along the Mogollon Rim. 

We arrived at the Lookout at 1:30 pm. Cinnamon chewed on sticks and grazed on the grass growing behind the outhouse below the Tower while I ate my lunch.

Without the blue diamond markers, it would have been more difficult to find trail back from the Lookout. We followed the markers at the gate blocking the road up to the tower and went around the gate following the markers along the road to the left. To the right the road went back the way we came and Cinnamon knew just what direction to take!

The trail was on the road along a ridge for at least a mile. Just before the road descended to the left, the trail angled off to the right to follow the ridgeline down into a canyon and back up another ridge. There are more views from this ridge.

Somewhere between markers J20 and J19 Cinnamon stopped to watch several deer pronging through the forest away from us. She resumed walking, then suddenly jumped into a rack for about 50 yards when I stopped her. The trail was washed out. She negotiated it carefully, then strolled while looking for deer. Cinnamon wanted to dash along at a rack, then gallop. I let her lope on the right lead, stopped her, and asked her to take the left lead where she galloped for a short distance. When the trail became steep and rocky, she slowed to a walk. I discovered when I looked at her hoof boots that she had lost one. We backtracked to search for it and found it only 50 yards back. 

It had been a long time since seeing any markers. We were still on the road, but somewhere between J17 and J16 we lost the trail. Lacking both time and energy to backtrack, Cinnamon and I just continued down the road.  

Another herd of deer spotted us and dashed off through the windfallen logs and brush. They caught Cinnamon’s attention and she watched them. The road continued down a canyon where, twelve years after a fire, most of the pine trees had been replaced by oaks and junipers. As the canyon narrowed, the road verged with the water course as we entered an area of undamaged Ponderosa Pines.

As a sign at a junction indicated, we were on road 9809L, Juniper Ridge Lookout Road, not very far above the trail crossing. Within a half mile we found the trail again. Wearily, Cinnamon climbed up, along and over the ridge to the trail junction with the shortcut trail. She climbed in and out of the two washes and, once again, helped me with the gate, carefully crossing the river rock in the creek bed. Cinnamon was tired by the time we made our way back to the truck. I offered her water and a short rest before making the trip home.