Dragoon Mountains: Whitehouse Ruins, Council Rocks & Black Diamond Peak

Jan 17, 2017; Bob, Don, Joe & Suzanne; 3.4 mi RT on in-and-out hike to Black Diamond Peak from and to the Xterror parked along the old mining road.
Suzanne's picture numbers begin with P1000xxxxxx
Don's picture numbers begin with IMG_4xxxxxxx
Bob's picture numbers begin with DSC_3xxxxxxx

1 This is the remains of an old adobe ranch house that is referred to as Whitehouse ruins. Or maybe it's the remains of the real White House after Madonna blows it up ;-) .	2	3	4
5	6	7 We proceed over to the area known as "Council Rocks" where some believe that Cochise and a representative of the military signed a peace accord. There are centuries-old pictographs in this area.	8 Bob and Suzanne walk from the parking lot to Council Rocks, which are just out of the picture to the right.
9 Bob takes a shot of the rock formations just to the east of the Council Rocks	10 Looking up into the Council Rocks	11 More rocks to the east with Council Rocks in the foreground to the right.	12 Suzanne starts up into the Council Rocks
13 Someone is already there.	14	15 A grinding stone, where sticks were used to separate the beans from Mesquite bean pods	16 Some of the pictographs
17	18	19	20
21 No pictographs, but a person's face can be seen in this rock. Can you see it?	22 Looking out toward Knob hill west of the Dragoons	23	24
25	26 Suzanne spots more pictographs	27 Note the "stick figure" human just to the right of center for this picture	28
29	30	31 Looking north from the Council Rocks	32
33	34	35 Joe discovers steps carved into the rocks	36 More steps carved into the rocks.
37	38	39 We then drove south and a little east to the trail up Black Diamond Peak. This shows the GPS track that Bob made from the Xterror (where the red track begins in the lower left) to the Peak and back. A lot of zinc has been mined in the Dragoons and some forms of zinc ore resemble black diamonds--thus the name for this peak.	40 We park the Xterror along the old, rough and steep access road part way up the north side of Black Diamond Peak.
41 Looking back down the road.	42 Bob and I spot a power plant to the north and a little east of where we parked the Xterror. Bob zoomed in for this photo.	43 The steep grade of the old mining road (15 to 20%) brings Don to a halt often as we climb up.	44 We reach the ampitheatre-like side of the Peak. Suzanne snaps Joe who is way out ahead of everyone.
45 We are headed toward that ridge just to the left of the saddle in the center of this picture. The ridge will take Bob, Joe and Suzanne to the peak which is above us on the left. Don decides to wait here for the others to have all the fun	46 That's Joe and Suzanne way out in front.	47 Bob zooms in a little bit.	48 Don's camera didn't focus well for this 35X telephoto shot, so let's just call it Don's attempt to make great art. Quite abstract.
49 Suzanne shoots this picture off the ridge	50 Suzanne looks out to the horizon for this shot with Yucca in the foreground.	51 She also shoots this picture with a Century plant in the foreground	52
53 She still has some climbing to do, as she looks up toward the sunlit peak	54 Bob takes this shot south toward the horizon.	55	56
57 Bob photographs Joe as he reaches the top of Black Diamond Peak at about 7200 ft elevation.	58 Joe does likewise for Bob.	59 A rainbow becomes visible while on the peak	60 Another shot.
61 There are rain cells off in the distance to the west.	62	63 Driving out Middlemarch Road, Bob snaps this picture of isolated rain cells on the western horizon.