Thursday evening

Another great weather day in the Valley of the Sun.

We left on a road trip at about 10 AM heading into the mountains.  We traveled up Hwy 88, which is known as the Old Apache Trail.  It leads into the Tonto National Forest.

 

Here are some sights along the way.

If you can enlarge this one you will see some cars that have gone over the cliff at some time in the past.

G'pa taking in the view

 

Our first stop was in Tortilla Flats.  Its claim to fame is that it is the last surviving Stagecoach stop on the trail.  We had lunch there and shopped a little bit in the Mercantile store.

The restaurant  is pretty unique because it is wallpapered in actual one dollar bills.  If you ate at the bar you were seated on saddles.

Then we set out for the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt river system of reservoirs.  The hardest part of the day was an hour and a half of old rock road.

below is the road we were on.

You could fall a long way if you got on the shoulder.

 

  To say this was a washboard trail would be giving it a compliment.  Twenty-seven miles over 1.5 hours.  Up and down the mountains and around 180 degree turns we went, vibrating all the way.  The saving grace for the rough road was that we saw some of the most beautiful sights that God has created. We saw mountains and canyons in the great splendor of Arizona.

Finally we reached the dam and paved roads.  What a treat!

We decided to head to Globe Arizona and return home without going back over the washboard.  it was a longer drive but much appreciated.

As we traveled along Hwy 188 we came across the Tonto National Monument, which is the ruin of cliff dwellings built  by the Salado Indians.

Our Golden Age Pass gets us into all National Parks for free.  The trail to the ruins ran back and forth across the face of the mountain rising about 400 feet from the start of the paved trail.  We were huffing and puffing as we reached the top.  It was a very steep climb for a couple of old timers.

Lela in the ruins

This is the view the Indians had from their perch on the canyon wall.

G'pa in the ruins.

When we left the ruins and headed for Globe to find a restaurant, we decided we were not hungry enough to eat, so we took the Hwy 60 exit and headed home.

It was a wonderful day just taking in the sights.  I am sorry the pictures cannot do justice to the scenes we saw today, but maybe you can get some idea of the scope of this creation.