Our Last Day in Arizona

♫ Music ♫

Spending the week in Arizona was truly wonderful for Grayden and I.  Yes, Arizona is a completely different place from where both of us are from.  We are used to living in the beautiful green state of  Virginia!  We love to travel and see places that are not like home.  I remember one time we were touring Italy and one of our traveling companions mentioned to our guide that something was not up to their standards like they were used to at home.  I will never forget what our guide said! "If you want everything to be just like home, then that is where you will be most comfortable!"  For us it would be a shame not to visit places that may be out of our comfort zone.  

The desert is a harsh, but beautiful place that makes one wonder how anything survives.  As we looked closely, we discovered many gorgeous sights.  The flora and fauna does quite well in the desert environment.  We learned so much about the ancient peoples that walked this land way before the white man.  Even though we had been to Arizona years ago, I found we looked with mature eyes at the beauty of so many places.

On our way to visit the Lost Dutchman State Park we passed Camelback Mountain.  Can you see the camel?

We traveled along the highway past Mesa and then to the Lost Dutchman State Park.  I learned about this park from my friend.  She has a beautiful blog that you might want to visit  Dawn  She writes about gardening and paper crafting and  stamping with watercolors and many beautiful things.

In the little town before going into the Lost Dutchman Park there is a monument to the Lost Dutchman.

The Lost Dutchman State Park is about 30 miles east of Scottsdale,  The park leads into the Superstition Wilderness and the Tonto National Forest.  There is an interesting story about the Legend of the Lost Dutchman that you can find  Here

The mountains seem to rise up out of the desert standing alone in all of their majesty!

This gorgeous park has many trail heads that lead all over the Superstition Mountains that is in the Tonto National Forest.  There are also camping facilities.

Grayden was interested in going along the Apache Trail to the town of Tortilla Flat.  We talked to the ranger and she pointed the way.  She reminded us that the road beyond Tortilla Flat was gravel in some spots and quite curvy.

The Apache Trail is a 120 mile circle route that runs through the Superstition Mountains to the Roosevelt Lake and into the Tonto National Forest.  It is named after the Native American Indians that used this route for over 1,000 years!  Today we are traveling just a part of that route.

We come to an overlook and see the beautiful Canyon Lake.

It's always a surprise to see water in the desert!   Canyon Lake is one of four reservoirs that were formed by the damming of the Salt River.  The Mormon Flat Dam was completed in 1925 to form this lake.

As you can probably tell we are riding along the crest of the mountain on a very narrow, beautiful road!  The GPS is showing we only have a half mile to go
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It takes a while to go very slowly along this mountainous narrow road.  We see Tortilla Flat in the distance.

Tortilla Flat is the last surviving stagecoach stop on the Apache Trail.  I had never heard of it, but Grayden said he remembers hearing about it as a child.  The population of this town is only SIX!

Tortilla Flat has a restaurant, a country store , a museum and a U.S. Post Office!

It's definitely a quirky little old west town.  After looking around the gift shop we decide to buy the grandsons some little gifts.  Miles loves rocks and so we bought him a geode to open and then a small brain game for Alex and a railroad nail for Samuel the railroad lover.

We decide that for lunch today we would try "The Superstition Saloon".  This is another interesting spot in this town!  The first thing is it's lined with thousands of dollar bills!

The dollars are taped to everything in sight!  We learned that years ago a waitress received a tip from a foreign visitor in their currency.  She figured it wouldn't work for her in the USA so she taped it to the wall.  It seems other folks wanted to join in and started leaving dollar bills to join the rest.  And as they say it's now history.  We understand there is over $100,000 worth of bills on the walls.  There are also signs warning one not to take them off the walls!

Driving back down the Apache Trail we are treated to more beautiful scenery on Canyon Lake.

We then planned to visit Picacho Peak State Park.  We have quite a distance to travel and see the flat desert land before us. The weather is changing quite rapidly and we see lightning in the distance.   We are traveling through miles and miles of cotton fields.

Arizona is known for its Pima Cotton.  It is a long fiber variety that is named for the Pima Indians that first cultivated it here in Arizona.  You are probably familiar with their famous Supima cotton linens.

As we reach Picacho Peak State Park the storm is really starting in earnest. The Picacho peak is 1,500 feet high. There are trails that wind up to the peak.  We decide to look around the visitor center and then drive back to Scottsdale.  The park ranger helpfully encouraged us if we were in a sand storm to pull off of the road and turn our lights off.  Cars tend to follow cars with their lights on.

Driving back to Scottsdale we see a sand storm in the distance.  I'm not taking photos at this point.  We are both focusing on our safety.  Thankfully we just go through wind and rain with no problems!
Arizona was such a lovely surprise to both of us!  I encourage you to see  America the Beautiful!  ♥