A vacation within a vacation

I'm not sure this is the right place to post about a non-boating vacation, but at least it does have some pics of boats in the thread....

GW and I have been at our place in the Phoenix area for a week or so and decided to take a mini-vacation while we were here. We booked at room at Loew's Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson. Our plan was to come home on Sunday to watch the Seahawks/Bucs game but that changed when we started looking at a map and decided to head to the small town of Globe, AZ. We stayed Sunday night in Globe then headed to Lake Roosevelt, Tortilla Flat, then back home. It ended up being about a 450 mile trip but we saw some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.

I've posted some pics so c'mon along...

Here's where we stayed in Tucson....

Here's a shot taken between Tucson and Globe...

We left Globe Monday morning and headed to Lake Roosevelt...

Roosevelt Dam....

And the bridge over the dam....

(CONT)
Here are some more scenery shots from the Apache Trail between Roosevelt and Tortilla Flat. This headwall at the end of a long canyon has to be about 1500' tall and at least 1/2 mile side to side.

This cave was in that same area. Check out the smoke on the cave ceiling. I wonder how many Indian fires were built in there...

From that same area...

I wonder who the old fart with GW is????

(Cont)

The road we were on was the Apache Trail; it was 22 miles of washboard dirt road but the views made it worth the drive. PH, it's a LOOOOOOONG way down some of those canyon drop-offs. Unfortunately for GW she was on the side of the truck where in many spots she could look almost straight down for a couple thousand feet. I took it real slow (about 10-15mph) and we stopped frequently to take photos. As I said earlier, the photos just do not do the scenery justice.

Here are some more shots from the trip on the Apache Trail. BTW, It gets its name because the road was carved out of the mountains by the Apache Indians, mostly by hand and using horses for some of the work.

Here's the only wild animal we saw on the trip...

More scenery...

Finally we got to the paved road again and then we were in Tortilla Flat. It has an interesting history and it's a privately owned town. Over the years it has been bought and sold several times, and now has a population of 6.

This is the original school house.

Here's where we had lunch. Every bit of vertical surface in this place has a dollar bill (and many foreign bills) tacked to it with someone's name and date on it. This was started many years ago and continued until the entire place (except for the ceiling) is covered.

It would be very hard to say what the highlight of this trip was. There were so many spectacular vistas to enjoy and they were so different from each other....and so big. It's one of those things that you'd have to see to believe.
We wish y'all could have been there with us.

GFC what a romp. Listening to the rain drops slapping onto our skylights makes me want to rush over/down there. Those pics of Tortilla Flats look just like Winthrop. Thanks for all the beautiful pictures.

For short periods I like the desert too. Here I am wandering around in the desert in southern Cal near Borrego Springs (Walts country). A result of Alaskan cabin fever.

Thanks for taking us along, Mike. Beautiful area. I know the area fairly well with family in Show Low and Globe who fishes Roosevelt Lake for bass. I also went to ASU in Tempe (a few years ago) to learn how to drink. I used to fly into a dirt strip at Roosevelt called Grapevine Airport. I see it's still there on Google Map. Nothing there but a clearing in desert, but great for camping.

The nearby Superstition Mtns are teeming with wildlife and spectacular vistas around every corner...but you have to hike in and out to see them. Rough country!

Lots of natural beauty in the U.S. Southwest.

manyboats said:

Here I am wandering around in the desert in southern Cal near Borrego Springs (Walts country). A result of Alaskan cabin fever.

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Interesting comment, Eric. My wife & I were in Borego Springs about a month ago. We were videoing Desert Bighorn Sheep in Palm Canyon, not far from the Springs.

FlyWright said:

I used to fly into a dirt strip at Roosevelt called Grapevine Airport. I see it's still there on Google Map. Nothing there but a clearing in desert, but great for camping.

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A thousand years ago, when I was compiling hours for my commercial rating, I used to land at Grapevine, chock the Aerobat 152 and fish for bass from the shore.

FlyWright said:

The nearby Superstition Mtns are teeming with wildlife and spectacular vistas around every corner...but you have to hike in and out to see them. Rough country!

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In 1965,when I first arrived in Arizona, I bought a Winchester model 94, a pair of cowboy boots, (ropers) a denim jacket, jeans and a Stetson (black) hat.

Jumped into my Jeep Renegade and headed for the Superstition Mountains. I parked on the west side of the range, by the Mining Camp Restaurant, and started my trek into the Superstitions, looking for the Lost Dutchman Mine. After about a two hour hike and Weaver's Needle in full view, I sat down on a rock for a drink out of my canteen to admire the wilderness I was in and to bask in its glory.

About that time, feeling "pumped up" by my pioneering sense of adventure, a young lady appeared from around the bend in the trail, dressed in a revealing halter top, sandles and walking a Beagle on a leash. I ask her where she entered the area from and she answered "just off highway 60, about 15 minutes from here."

Walt, that's a good story, but you left off the ending of that tale. Did you?

I've only been coming down here for a couple of years so there's lots of trips yet to be taken. We've been to Jerome and Sedona, Lake Pleasant a few times, Tucson twice, and then this trip.

Lots of beautiful things to see down here.

Funny, Walt. I think I parked at the same spot when I hiked up the west face and into the mtns in the late 70s. My folks built a house in Fountain Hills in the mid-70's. From their house, I could plainly see the Verde River valley, Four Peaks, Weaver's Needle and Gunsight Slot. I only had to go back to the ASU campus to see scantily clad beauties...they were a dime a dozen there.

Other great side trips are Flagstaff, Payson and the Mogollon Rim. Lots of beauty in Northern AZ!

GFC said:

Walt, that's a good story, but you left off the ending of that tale. Did you? .

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Did I what? Find the Lost Dutchman? No, I didn't.

No, did you "entertain" the scantily clad lady with the dog?

GFC said:

No, did you "entertain" the scantily clad lady with the dog?

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I knew that's what you were asking....=========>

Apparently some guys don't kiss and tell.