Road Trip

Here's a rare mid-week post. We did this trip on Sunday, but I'm just now getting around to sharing. We've got lots of pictures because the scenery was the best part of the drive. If you hate sitting in cars, this trek isn't for you unless you want to do an out and back (and forget the loop). If you get car sick, you might take something for your stomach beforehand. The trip took us between 5 and 6 hours. It's not that it's all that far (about 180 miles), but it's very slow going. The Apache Trail portion is a dirt road for 22 miles, with lots of hairpin turns, and views you'll want to stop and take in.

We headed north up the Beeline Highway (87) to just before Payson and then turned onto Arizona 188. That took us to Roosevelt Lake and the dam that helped create it.

The dam was pretty neat. The first photo is from the front. The second photo from the back.

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam was built in 1911 and was the highest stone dam in the world. And that was before it was heightened another 77 feet in 1989. The bridge we crossed to get to the other side of the dam was beautiful in its own right.

The Roosevelt Lake Bridge was built in 1989 so work could be done on the dam. It's the longest two-lane, single-span, steel-arch bridge in North America. It wasn't long after this that we turned onto Arizona 88, the Apache Trail. The dirt trail.

The long, very curvy, cliff-side, dirt trail.

Can you see the road perched up there?

The narrow, long, very curvy, cliff-side, dirt trail.

Does this wood guardrail make you feel safe?

Seriously, I wouldn't have driven anything wider than our Mini Cooper down this thing. There are a number of little bridges, all different, most only able to take 1-way traffic so you had to take turns.

We saw some cool, isolated spots to camp. It's time to get a tent!

You also get to see Apache Lake,

and Canyon Lake on the drive. There was much more activity on this lake than the other two thanks to its proximity to civilization.

Here are a few more pictures of the route.

It is that beautiful or what? The Apache Trail has been in use since 900AD! I realize the barren, dusty west is not for everyone, but there's something about it that just speaks to both Michael and me.  I can appreciate the Adirondacks and the Smokey Mountains, but I love how primal the mountains of the west feel. It reminds me we're on a planet.

Once off the Apache trail, you go through this tiny town called Tortilla Flat.

Weird, right?

Dirty car.

We did this trip years ago and there was way too much traffic. We couldn't see around trailers, had idiots riding our bumper, crossed ourselves every time a huge RV or pickup towing a yacht came barreling our way,  etc. I'm not sure where everyone was last Sunday, but it was a very relaxing drive. If anyone came up behind us, we just pulled over and let them pass. The only irritating part was that we sort of had to go out of our way to get back to Fountain Hills. It wasn't so bad we wouldn't do it again though. If you have the time, I highly recommend this drive. Make sure you have water for your radiator, an inflated spare tire, plenty of gas, and some duct tape. Our muffler started rattling by the end of the trail.

“The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have, to me, it is most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful.” ~ 1911 Theodore Roosevelt