I solely hiked up to Santiago Peak.  What a gorgeous Sunday I had.  The flowers were in full bloom.  I took the Cadillac/ Joplin trail.  I was so mesmerized by the blooming flowers at the Cadillac trail that I missed the junction down to the creek.  Instead I took this fire road that took me to the ridges to the main divide line of Santiago.  I was literally climbing the mountains.  This was actually a trail.  There were ropes aiding hikers to get up that hill.  I kept climbing until I was at the fire road that took me up to the antennas.  Today, there were alot of people who drove their Jeeps and off-road vehicles up to Santiago Peak.  I took my summit photo and came down the fire road.  This time I made sure I took the Joplin trail down to my car.  The Joplin trail was very beautiful.  It was lush with ferns and moss.  What I missed about it was there weren't any tadpoles in the creek.

Although hiking up to Santiago Peak by the Cadillac/ Joplin trails were long, I enjoyed the views.  This was a 21 lije round trip hike.