...the purple to magenta flowers and usually four well-armed central spines help to identify this common desert cactus. A single specimen may consist of up to 60 spiny cylindrical stems in a clump up to 3 ft (1 m) wide. This group was found roadside coming from Seven Mile wash up to the Salt at gleason Flat. This route passes the Griffin Ranch, the Adobe Ranch and the Haystack Ranch before the road drops off into gleason Flat. Twenty plus miles of Arizona beauty.

Fairly common in lower elevations of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. They seem to prefer sandy terraces near washes or the loose soil. They depend on good winter rains. This bunch was found on the reservation between the Salt River Canyon and Cherry Creek Crossing. If you are going north on Route 60 into the Salt River Canyon, take a left turn after the bridge and before the old store. This road will take you all the way to the Cherry Creek Crossing and on to Roosevelt Lake. Most of the road is on the reservation so you need a permit to use the road. But it is well worth the time and effort.

From Wikipedia: For centuries, datura has been used as a herbal medicine to relieve asthma symptoms and as an analgesic during surgery or bonesetting. It is also a powerful hallucinogen and deliriant, which is used spiritually for the intense visions it produces. However, the tropane alkaloids which are responsible for both the medicinal and hallucinogenic properties are fatally toxic in only slightly higher amounts than the medicinal dosage, and careless use often results in hospitalizations and deaths.
This plant is found all along the way from Salt River Canyon to gleason Flat, so watch it!

The valley that the Salt River has made over some millions of years has presented a challenge to the early settlers and military alike. Not so much for the Apache, they were not in any real hurry to get anywhere in that area. After all they lived there, it was home for several months of the year. Colonel A. W. Evans wrote a report about his sorte out from Fort Apache to the Battle of Big Dry Wash and he talks considerable about trying to find a trail that goes along the Salt... but as he found the side walls are too steep to allow good travel parallel to the river so they had to back off and come to the river in places where there were natural flats as in gleason Flats. And his battallion and that of Captain Drew from Fort Thomas met and camped in these flats on July 12, 1882. They were both in pursuit of Nan-tio-tish and his band that came off the San Carlos reservation.

Canyon Creek Butte is a landmark that is awsome coming from the south down to the Salt River, or coming from the east over Canyon Creek itself! The road from the east comes into gleason Flat by way of the Medicine Butte Ranch turnoff and then splits Canyon Creek Butte and Medicine Butte as you get close to the flats. Beautiful country, full of ridges and buttes and color changes with each passing hour...

On Route 260 as you gain the Mogollon Rim and pass the Young Road exit you soon come upon a sign along side the road that says "Canyon Creek" on the rim. The creek flows from there down to the fish hatchery then past the OW Ranch, then on to the White Mountain Apache reservation and past Chediski Peak, heading south in a meandering way until it passes Mustang Ridge, then heads for the Salt River past Canyon Creek Butte. Most of the times I have been to that crossing I was in a hurry to get to the other side, not that I was late or we had some schedule malfunction... its more like the hardest passage on the trip and once, after the Rodeo/Chediski fire I had to turn back because the creek was lined with ash from the fire and it was like sticky mud out about 8 feet from each side and seemed to be several feet deep... my truck wouldn't go there and be safe. So we backtracked and still had a great time.