When I did the blog last evening I must have not been awake or on overload. On the 27th Walt went to the Nascar Race and yesterday we went up and thru Superstition Mountain. Our trip was very good but very tiring. We made a lot of miles in the 6 hours we were gone and some of the miles were very rugged.
We left after lunch to explore some of the mountains we see each day from the house. So we drove to Apache Junction which is east and south of were we are staying at the present time. From Apache Junction we took route 88 into and between the mountains in the area. My pictures do not show the beauty.
Route 88 leading to the mountains--this was only one group. There were mountains to the left and to the right as we drove down the road.
These are just a small sample of the rocks we saw on this road. I could have taken more mountain pictures but you just cannot get the 180 degree picture in one shot.
We entered Tonto National Park and drove up and down in the mountains for about 90 minutes and finally stopped at a little bend in the road to get out and walk. The area was covered with cars and people. I believe a lot of the people were from the Nascar races.
This area was called the Tortillo Flats and they had a gift shop, a restaurant, an outdoor eating area, and another gift shop. We went back to the first gift shop and got an ice cream cone filled with Prickly Pear Ice cream. It was good while we sat in the outdoor area and listened to some country singers.
When we left the Flats we saw signs of flash flood warnings and then we ran into water crossing the road in a few areas.
As we wound around the mountains we came upon a few one lane bridges.
As we were driving along I finally got a picture of the rocks which were in the sun. They had a plant growing on them that made them look gold in color.
When we got into the mountains again we hit the area of the road that was marked on the map as a dirt road. We had 22 miles on the dirt road and we did not know what we were getting into on this road. It was up and down on hairpin turns and very very deep drops on the outside of the curves. There were some long areas which were only one way. There was traffic coming toward us on almost every curve. They were all courteous and we took turns on finding a small area to move over to let the other person pass. There were no turn arounds so we were committed to keep driving the total 22 miles.
Apache Lake was a beautiful sight....
We were in the desert again and this is the best cactus picture I took all day.
When we finally came to the end of the 22 miles we had been shaken and rocked and rolled and we were very glad to see pavement and make some faster miles. It was about 5 pm when we reached the dam which was at the end of the dirt road. It was a spectacular sight and at the south side of the lake which was made by the dam there was a huge bridge which went from one side of the lake to the other side. We did not drive on the bridge but it was an awesome site.
After the dam we turned on route 188 and drove thru some mining towns which were still active and looked very poor. We then drove on route 66 back to Phoenix. The sun was going down and as we came around turns we would see some beautiful sunsets. I did not get any pictures because Walt was on a road were you can drive 70 mph so I have to just remember what they looked like.
7 pm...back in Phoenix
It was a great adventure which all of the narrative and pictures I can give you did not do justice to the beauty and experiences of the day.
By the time we got to the end of the one lane road we were at the end and finally came to the dam which had formed 5 different lakes in the mountains. Apache Lake was one of the first lakes.
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