This hike starts at the hard-to-reach inner trailhead on Forest Road 152, rather than in Oak Creek Canyon, and goes to the top of the pass overlooking the Canyon, then back.
1 VULTEE ARCH STERLING PASS
2 This is the 'easy' end of Forest Road 152, which is now mostly impassable
3 The Vultee-Sterling trailhead.
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5 Heading slowly upward toward the top of Sterling Canyon
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8 Rain has produced lush overgrowth this year.
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10 Some parts of this canyon were hit by the Brins Mesa Burn
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14 Vultee Arch
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16 Below the Vultee Arch. This is the memorial plaque to Jerry Vultee, who died in a 1938 crash on the Rim.
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19 We call a break while some of us climb to the Arch
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28 Onward to the top of the pass
29 A mullein plant
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42 The burned trees are starting o fall
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49 The final, steep climb to the top of Sterling Pass
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56 There are several huge outcroppings on the trail up
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61 Top of the Pass, and lunch
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64 Now the weather is closing in, and rain threatens
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66 We cut lunch short and start down
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73 Fleabane
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79 It's raining!
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85 The first touches of fall color
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90 Fortunately, it's only drizzling
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97 Do the crosshatches on this stump mark an intersection?
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100 The rain stops as we near teh end of the trail
