The road behind me was visible far below. This picture was taken about an hour after the previous one, and there was still a long way to go.

I walked across the road to take this picture looking uphill. Beyond the next few curves, the road headed upward to the left. The gap in the trees on the left was for utility poles.

Finally! More than two hours past Jerome, I crossed the top of Mingus Mountain at 7,023 feet. I started the day at 3,500 feet in Cottonwood three and a half hours earlier.

There were times when I thought I'd never see this sign, but I  made it at last. The steep grade sign in the background said 12 miles, but that was just the distance to Jerome. The entire climb from Cottonwood was 16 miles.

I stopped in the middle of my rapid descent when this cattleguard appeared without warning. I probably would have been fine crossing it at speed, but I lacked the confidence (I have heard that the best way to cross them on a bike is really slow or really fast, and  I opted for slow).

While I was stopped, I took a picture looking back up the mountain.

Forty-five minutes after beginning the descent, I took one last look back at Mingus Mountain  in the distance. The morning's challenge of climbing had been replaced by the afternoon's challenge of headwinds.