Arizona Road Trips:Apache Trail Scenic Drive

The Superstition Mountains from Apache Flats

Picacho Peak  neighbors Gail and Ed suggested the Apache Trail to us saying that it was a beautiful drive through the Superstition Mountains. It is a full day trip from the RV Park so we packed a lunch, extra water and the dog and headed out for an adventure.
The trail starts on Rte 88 in Apache Junction which is close to Phoenix, an hour north of where we are staying.

Rascal liked the ghost town but not the sound of gunfire.

We made our way through Apache Junction stopping at Goldfield Ghost Town, an old mining camp turned tourist attraction. The towns buildings have been refurbished into restaurants and gift shops. We enjoyed walking the dirt main street and wooden sidewalks up hill past the bordello to the back of town where the views of the Superstitions were fantastic. We found a fun little coffee shop and got swept up into the crowd watching a gun fight reenactment. Rascal took exception to the sound of gun fire so we headed back to the Jeep and made our way up the mountain.

Apache Trail runs through 40 miles of desert landscape.

The Apache Trail is well traveled on this portion. We encountered a variety of vehicles from motorcycles to RV's on the paved road. There are a number of formal pull offs and in several other places the road is wide enough to allow you to get off the road to take advantage of photo opportunities. The road is named after the people who created it, using the path to travel through the rugged landscape. It was later adopted by Stagecoach Drivers and in the 1930's it was widened and improved enough to bring in supplies and equipment to build the Theodore Roosevelt Dam of the Salt River.

Canyon Lake

We passed the Superstition Mountain Museum and Lost Dutchman State Park on our way to Canyon Lake. There were stands of tall Saguaro and Ocotillo were surrounded by cholla and prickly pear cactus around every turn. Four lakes are created by the dams on the Salt River. Canyon Lake is the first to come into view. We have seen many boats this Winter and no big water so it is great to finally figure out where they were all heading. Canyon Lake is home to the Dolly Steamboat which offers tours and dinner cruises in this beautiful setting between the mountains. Kayakers were paddling the quieter edges of the lake and fishermen had their poles in the water.
It has been an unusually dry year in Arizona and we could see evidence of that in the exposed high water line.

The small own of Tortilla Flat, which was once a Stagecoach stop is a few miles further up the road. It marks the halfway point of the drive and is the only remaining stagecoach stop on the Apache Trail.  The restaurant there was standing room only with a line waiting to get into the parking lot. It seems to be a destination for many travelers who stop here for a meal and then turn around and return to Apache Flats. There were a lot of desert dune buggies in the parking lot. I imagine it is a nice place to stop when you are hot and dusty from off roading. There is a gift shop, a Post Office and a couple of houses in addition to the restaurant. I read somewhere that the population of Tortilla Flat is less than 10 people.

Just after Tortilla Flat the road becomes a dirt trail.

The road turns to washboard dirt a couple of miles past Tortilla Flat. It is narrow and winding, full of steep drops and blind curves cut into the rock face of the mountain. It is just wide enough for two vehicles to pass except for on the one lane bridges where you wait your turn to cross. It's not a fast drive but well worth the effort because there is something unique and beautiful around each hairpin turn. It was a bit unnerving to meet another vehicle coming around one of those bends. i was glad to be on the side of the road that hugged the mountain because the guardrails don't look very sturdy.

We did fine in the Jeep and also saw several passenger cars on the unpaved portion of the road. 4WD is not necessary but I wouldn't want to drive it in a very low clearance vehicle. That portion of the road is not recommended for RV's, large vans, SUV's, or motorcycles. The desert dune buggies did great. We later learned that General Motors once used this road to test the suspension and maneuverability of their vehicles.

Theodore Roosevelt Dam

The 40 mile long Apache Trail ends at Roosevelt Dam. We drove home through the Tonto National Forest stopping at the Tonto National Monument along the way. The monument is part of the National Park system. It preserves cliff dwellings of the Salado culture. There are two sets of cliff homes. The lower house is easily accessed by a short steep 1 1/2 mile trail. To visit the upper dwelling you must attend a Ranger guided tour on the weekend.  We didn't do either since dogs are not allowed on the trails.

We had a great time exploring the Superstition mountains and are grateful that Ed and Gail told us about the drive. If you are near Phoenix I would put it high on your list of things to do.

Lower Cliff Dwelling at Tonto National Monument.

Arizona Road Trips: Mount Lemmon

We put a lot of miles on the Jeep this Winter. Arizona has some beautiful places to see and we did not want to miss anything.
Several people suggested to us that we had to go to Mount Lemmon so we headed to the Catalina foothills in Tucson and the Sky Island Scenic Byway.

Saguaro cactus love the steep slopes of the Catalina Mountains.

The scenic drive starts on Tanque Rd in a typical Sonoran Desert landscape of tall Saguaro cactus. It was amazing to see them clinging to the side of the mountain as we started to climb. They did not look secure in the steep rocky landscape but from the size of them had been thriving for decades on the rocky slopes.
The road began to climb very quickly and we were treated to expansive views of the city of Tucson as we wound around the mountain.

The cacti gave way to shrubs and low lying bushes.

The cacti disappeared and were replaced by shorter bushes and impossibly balanced rock formations that reminded us of those in Chiricahua National Park.
There were many parking areas that allowed us to pull off the road and really enjoy the views.
The signage at the pull outs was great describing the plants and geology that we were looking at.
Their were several intrepid riders on bicycles struggling up the mountain. We were astonished at their ability as they kept moving around the switchbacks and the long steep grade.

This rock formation at Windy Point reminds me of an Easter Island Moai.

Windy Point at mile marker 17 was one of our favorite stops. Hikers and rock climbers can be seen from the lookout platform, and we saw many people walking out onto the rock formations toward the trails. We are told that this is a popular spot for wedding ceremonies and I can see why. Windy Point is where we started to see bicycle riding daredevils flying back down the mountain road.

The road climbs around the sides of the mountain in a series of switch backs.

The road continued to climb and we began to feel the temperature cooling down. There are trees toward the top of Mount Lemmon that make you feel like you are way North of Arizona. Aspen, Maple and Ponderosa Pines dominate the landscape.

The upper regions of Mount Lemmon are often covered in snow.

We began to see patches of snow in shady crevices and then rounded a corner and found ourselves in a winter wonderland of several inches of the white stuff on a north facing slope.
We soon arrived in Summerhaven, a tiny town and as far as the road would take us. The appropriately named destination has a coffee shop, pizza parlor and a couple of gift shops. The Mount Lemmon Ski Area is located nearby.

The rocks have interesting shapes and are precariously balanced

Mount Lemmon's peak is at 9,171 feet and Tucson sits at 3000 feet, so our 27 mile drive gained 6000 feet in elevation. The temperature in Summerhaven was 30 degrees cooler than that on Tanque Rd where we started.
We learned that the road passes through 6 distinct ecosystems from Sonoran Desert to Subalpine Forest.  There is even a Mount Lemmon Science Tour app that you can download to learn as you drive.
It was a great experience and fantastic way to spend the day. We highly recommend the experience to anyone visiting Tucson.

Arizona Road Trips: Ironwood Trail

We have enjoyed road tripping in Arizona. Those adventures are even more enjoyable now that we are driving a Jeep Wrangler. The Silverado got us everywhere we wanted to go but was less maneuverable and we had fewer opportunities at parking, especially with the bike rack adding to its length. 

To be honest he Jeep is just more fun.
We have done a lot of driving here but 3 of the trips were spectacular. We recommend them to anyone spending time in Southern Arizona.
The Ironwood trail is a 33 mile long road through the Ironwood Forest National Monument with starting and ending points close to I-10. Part of the road is unpaved with little maintenance. A 4 wheel drive vehicle is recommended.
Ironwood trees are the king of the Sonoran Desert. They live for hundreds of years providing shelter for small animals and act as nurse trees for young Saguaro Cactus. Their dark grey back and silvery leaves make them stand out amongst the all green Paloverde trees. It is one of the densest known hardwoods, so strong that even when the tree dies the wood can take 100 years to decay.

Crested Saguaro near Sasco Ghost Town

We started the drive at Red Rock, on Sasco Rd  (exit 226 of I-10). The first 13 miles were washboard dirt road with some deep ruts and rocks. There was only one shallow water crossing. We saw a few ironwood trees among the Saguaro's and passed the old Sasco ghost town where there are rock foundations and a few standing stone walls of some buildings. 

Sasco Ghost Town foundation

The town was active in the early 1900's when the smelter for the Silverbell mine was located here. Once the mine stopped producing the smelter shut down and the town dwindled away. Sasco's Post Office closed in 1919. We enjoyed walking around the old ruins and trying to guess what type of business or home each foundation represented. If you go walking around wear closed shoes and watch out for broken glass.
There is a beautiful Crested Saguaro visible from  this part of the road. These crowned cacti are quite rare, occurring in approximately 1 out of 10,000. We have been lucky enough to spot 5 of them in the wild and it has been a thrill each time...kind of like that feeling you get when you find a 4 leaf clover.
Continuing on Sasco Rd we started to climb in elevation and get closer to the Silverbell Mountains and a very distinctive formation called Ragged Top. 

Ragged Top

The jagged points on the peak are made of Rhyolite which was left when molten lava formed a plug. We also saw the west side of Picacho Peak for the first time.
Once we reached Silverbell Rd the rest of the journey was on paved roads. The Ironwood Forest is BLM land and we saw several rigs set up in the desert enjoying the peaceful environment. The night sky must be spectacular out there. 
There are many more Ironwood trees on this part of the road as well as Ocotillo, Saguaro Cactus and Prickly Pear Cactus. Silverbell Road runs for 13.9 miles intersecting Marana Rd which leads back to I-10 at exit 236.
The Ironwood Trail is a great short day trip if you are staying near Tucson for any length of time. The views of the Silverbell Mountains, Ragged Top and Picacho Peak are pretty spectacular and the off roading is fun. Our only disappointment was that we didn't see any rock climbers scaling Ragged Top.

Birthday Gift - ATV Tour Ride

Fred geared up for the ride.

On Friday, January 19, 2018 Bonnie and I went to enjoy a half-day guided ATV Tour ride in a Box Canyon in the desert northwest of us. The trip was Bonnie's Birthday gift to me. We drove to the starting point of the ATV Tour in Florence, AZ about 45 minutes from our campground.

We followed an old mining trail

The tour was a 37 mile loop following a old abandoned mining trail with a gain in elevation of 1500 vertical feet. We had stops at a old Gold Mine camp, we saw ancient indian rock art called Petroglyphs, and we also discovered an old adobe ruin at the bottom of the Canyon. The building was once a waystation for the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Company and a stop on the Butterfield Route of the Pony Express.

The Butterfield Stagecoach stop.

Box Canyon itself was about six miles long and at the center it is called a slot canyon.  The trail was only 15 feet wide with cliff face walls reaching 1500 feet high at that point.

Entering the Box Canyon

We could feel the temperature drop about 10 degrees when the walls were so close and no sunshine could reach us.

Petroglyphs

This was our first time riding ATV'S as part of a tour out in the desert. We had a Vehicle & Tour Safety briefing. They had all safety items for the ride including helmets, goggles, gloves, & bandanas. You needed the bandanas to cover your nose and mouth because of the dirt/dust from the ride. Plus cold bottle water and assorted candy bars too!

You are riding within the Sonoran Desert with Saguaro & Ocotillo cactus. We had a "Yamaha Grizzly" 350cc ATV code named "Gibbs".
We had a great time and we would do it again.
If you are in this area this is something you should plan to do and enjoy too! Good ride, lots of history items, and great views within the desert.

Web Site: azatvfun.com
Phone # : 800-242-6335
Cost: Two Rides on One ATV - $160 for about 4 hrs of fun!!!

Arizona Festivals

Arizona is a busy place this time of year. The weather is perfect, there are lots of visitors and everyone wants to be outside.
We enjoyed 2 outdoor festivals this weekend and had a wonderful time.
Saturday we drove a short distance West to the Pinal County Fairgrounds where Wertz Farms was holding its annual Gourd Festival. Gourds are a cash crop here in Arizona. The long hot growing season is perfect environment for them. 

Bins of gourds for sale.

Gourds are planted in April and grow through early Fall when farmers stop irrigating them. Once the water source is shut off they are left to dry in the fields and are harvested in February-March in time to plant the next crop.

chicken gourds

The folks at Wertz Farms put a lot of work into the festival. There are Gourd decorations throughout the Fairgrounds accompanied by funny signs and gourd related displays.

Gourd-geous decorations.

The festival includes a fair type competition for ribbons as well as a barn full of vendors showcasing their wares.
We walked the grounds admiring the seasonal displays while checking out the food offerings and then headed over to the Vendor Area.

The National Gourd was on duty

Their does not seem to be a limit to the number of things that can be created from gourds.
We saw birdhouses and bowls, Thunder drums and lamps, jewelry and vases.
They were painted and wood burned and dremeled.
Some were adorned by beads and fossils, some had edges woven from pine needles and we even saw one man that edged his gourd basket with horse hair leaving a long trailing edge on one side that resembled a mane.

Gourd Jackrabbit and cactus.

We worked up an appetite with all the walking and stopped for lunch from the fair type offerings. There was a great truck brewing coffee so we treated ourselves to iced Americanos. Fred enjoyed a sausage and pepper sandwich while I couldn't resist the smell of the smoked brisket and a homemade barbecue sauce that used cherries as its base.
Before leaving the fairgrounds we picked through the raw gourd bins and brought home 3 specimens that will be turned into Summer projects.
It was a great way to spend the morning.

Music by the Steven P. Project

Sunday we had made arrangements to see Fred's cousin Heidi who is in the Air Force and stationed in Phoenix. We planned to meet at 8 Acre Park in Surprise as they were hosting a Food Truck Festival as part of their Second Sundays in the Park series. The park was a lovely grassy space...probably the greenest we have seen in Arizona outside of a golf course. It was filled with picnic areas, games for children and a bandstand where musicians were warming up. The Steven P. Project were performing.  The entire outer edge of the park was lined with food trucks. There were the typical burgers and fries, cupcakes and ice cream mixed in with more diverse choices like Greek Gyros and Spanakopita, Mustache Pretzels, and the Maine Lobster Lady (I will get my lobstah closer to the Atlantic thank you). Southwestern foods were well represented offering, tacos, burritos, queso and fry bread. 
Fred and Heidi went for the burgers while I browsed for a while before deciding on ZPotes who specialized in Salvadoran cuisine, specifically Pupusa's a tasty flour tortilla with the stuffing cooked inside. I settled on the Pupusa de ayote, a tortilla filled with zucchini blossoms and cheese. We were all delighted with our choices. 

Our only disappointments of the day were that there was no coffee vendor and that we were eating lunch too early to enjoy the libations at the State 48 Brewery truck. 
It was great to see Heidi and to catch up with her. We are going to try meeting up at a Spring Training Game before leaving Arizona in early March.

Casa Grande Ruins

The Casa Grande Ruins are located 30 miles west of our RV Park at Picacho Peak. We discovered them by accident when we noticed a National Park sign on I-10 as we were driving to the grocery store. A 20 minute detour to Coolidge took us to the Visitor Center and to the ruins beyond it.

We arrived just in time for the last volunteer led tour of the day and were glad to participate in it to hear the stories and personal details that bring a place to life. 

Our Minnesota born docent was happy to point out that ribs of the Saguaro tree form a natural hockey stick.

A Saguaro Hockey Stick

The ruins of Casa Grande (the Great House) have stood since approximately 1350. It is the largest known structure of the Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert. There is archeological evidence that a vibrant culture lived here farming and irrigating nearby fields with a large system of interconnected canals. Casa Grande was a trading center too, sitting along a natural route between California and the great plains with relatively easy access to the Colorado plateau region and what is now northern Mexico. Remains of copper bells and jewelry have been found here as well as shells from the Gulf of California and flint from the great plains region.

Adobe covered caliche was used as building material.

Squash, beans and corn were grown near Casa Grande as food crops. Cotton and Agave for garments. 

Agave needles like this were used as threaded needles to fasten hides together.

Tobacco was grown and probably traded. The desert provided fruit from the Saguaro and Prickly Pear. Other plants and cacti were collected as a food source and for their medicinal properties. The nearby Salt and Gila Rivers were full then and provided fish, waterfowl and turtles.

The great house was 4 stories high.

The Great House itself is an impressive structure measuring 60 feet long and 4 stories high. They appear shorter in our photos as several feet of fill has been added at the base to stabilize the foundations. The building material is caliche covered by adobe. Caliche is a concrete like mix of desert sand, clay and limestone that lies under the desert surface. It was up and cut into brick shapes, set into place and mudded over. The base of the Great House is 4 feet thick and gradually tapers to about 12 inches at the top. Wall anchors made of whole trees gave the building stability and the roof was supported by ribs of the Saguaro cactus.

There are several smaller structures as well as a game court on the grounds that are maintained by the National Park Service. Portions of a boundary wall are recognizable.

Walls of an outbuilding.

The story of Casa Grande Ruins is pretty amazing. They are the countries first archeological preserve, achieving that status in 1892. Spanish missionaries documented Casa Grande in 1694. By that time it was already a ruin having been abandoned at some point in the 1400's.

There were few european visitors to the region before the railroad reached the nearby town in 1879. At that point the ruins became a tourist destination where visitors carved their names in the side of the great hall and carried away chunks of the building as souvenirs. Enterprising merchants with shops at the site even rented out picks and shovels to make it easier for them to do so.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that a pair of Great Horned Owls roost in the rafters of Casa Grande's protective cover. 

They had a perfect vantage point for hunting the pigeons, lizards and small creatures that roam the desert at night. 

Casa Grande National Monument

1100 W. Ruins Dr

Coolidge, AZ

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park

The Sonoran desert of Arizona is home to the most iconic cactus of all, the Saguaro. They are the shape that Americans think of when picturing a desert cactus. We were pleased to start seeing them as we left the low lying sage, prickly pear and chollas of the Chihuahuan desert and started spotting these giants of the Sonoran desert.

They are so much bigger than I had remembered from childhood.

The Saguaro's are taller than any desert tree

Tall and straight they rise up from the desert sand like trees.

Some have so many arms they are difficult to count and some don't have any at all.
I prefer those with just 2 arms since they often look like they are frozen in humanlike postures, embracing a nearby cactus or preparing to dance. We even saw one with its two arms curved down in front of it in a weight lifters pose!

A many armed Saguaro

And one with no arms at all.

We were fortunate to spot a couple of the rare crested Saguaro with ruffled top's appearing like a crown.

Only 1 in 10,000 Saguaros has a crested top.

Tucson is home to  Saguaro National Park whose mission is to protect and preserve these giant specimens in their natural environment. We are happy to have been able to spend time in the West portion of the park learning about the Saguaro.

We stopped at the Visitor Center to stamp our National Park Passport and to pick up a hiking trail map. Saguaro West’s Visitor Center has exhibits that introduce you to harsh environment of the Sonoran desert and the life forms that thrive here. We enjoyed a short film that spoke of the Spiritual nature of the desert and of how the Saguaro were regarded by the ancient native american people who lived here. I was happy to learn that i was not alone in imagining human characteristics in the postures of these desert giants.

This tiny Saguaro still sheltered by its nurse tree is probably 10-15 years old.

We learned that like many other plants Saguaro seeds are planted by birds. The tiny black seeds grow best under a nurse tree that shelters it for the first several years of its slow growing life.

It takes a Saguaro 5-10 years to reach an inch tall and 20-45 years to reach a height of 2 feet. The cacti do most of their growing during the Summer rainy season. They don’t begin to grow arms for 50-100 years and can live to be 200 years old.

A full grown Saguaro can weigh 16,000 pounds.

Rainfall, temperature and soil conditions all play a part in the growth process.

Saguaro Skeleton

It is not uncommon to see damage to the stately cacti. Saguaro are susceptible to lightning strikes and to freezing. Gila woodpeckers and Gilded Flicker’s make holes in them for single season nesting cavities. Some are sickened by fungal and bacterial infections and others become so heavy with water in the Summer monsoon's that their shallow netted root systems can no longer hold them. In unprotected areas people have used them for target practice. When you walk in the desert it is common to come upon skeletons of fallen Saguaro's.

These cacti flower in late Spring and produce their fruit in the extreme heat of Summer. The Saguaro fruits in the National Park are harvested by the Tohono O'odham using the traditional methods of their ancestors.

Evening hike

We have done some hiking at Saguaro NP. The Valley View and Signal Hill trails rewarded us with expansive views from their ridgetops.

Petroglyphs at Signal Hill

Signal Hill had Petroglyphs to ponder over as well.
Our favorite so far has been the Sandero Esperanza. We were lucky enough to go on a Ranger led evening hike on the night before January’s full moon.

Moonrise

The path leads across the desert on an old sandy mining trail before climbing steeply on switchbacks to the top of the ridge. The moon rose on our walk in and we reached the top in time to enjoy an amazing desert sunset walking back out by the light of an almost full moon. The tall posing Saguaro looked even more lifelike in the moonlight.

Sunset

Saguaro National Park West

Red Hills Visitor Center

2700 N Kinney Rd

Tucson, AZ

Saguaro National Park East

Rincon Visitor Center

3693 S Old Spanish Trail

Tucson, Arizona