The Beaver Dam Mountains rise in the Arizona Strip, the remote slice of Arizona that's cut off from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon and bordered by Utah and Nevada near the tri-state line. The Beaver Dam Mountains Wilderness protects about 17,600 acres of rugged high desert here, part of the National Wilderness Preservation System since 1984 — no motorized vehicles or mechanized travel, just quiet canyons and open sky.
The route climbs through layered red and cream-colored rock, some of it studded with what look like ancient marine fossils, up to overlooks where the trail below shrinks to a thin ribbon winding through the wash. Joshua trees and yucca cling to the slopes, a tarantula and a well-camouflaged snake turned up tucked into the rocks along the way, and a bank of storm clouds rolled in over the desert floor by the time we reached the higher viewpoints.
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