Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Globe, Show Low, Payson and the Apache Trail

3-15-12 to 3-18-12

One of the reasons we came to Lost Dutchman was to take a drive to Globe, Show Low and Payson, AZ. Of course, we had to stop and get pictures of the flowers along the way.

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Part of US 60 in Arizona is called----

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The hill in the back ground is tailings from a copper mine in the Miami/Globe area.

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I saw this old gas station in Globe and just had to stop and look it over.

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This is an old bulk truck used for hauling gas and fuel oil.

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There were lots of old signs and junk, oops, I mean antiques laying around.

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This gas pump was in very good shape.

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I had never heard of a Jewett car before.

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These copper billets were loaded and ready to be shipped, probably to a rolling mill to make coil or wire. More copper is mined in Arizona than all the other states combined.

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When we drove to the other side of the tracks to get a closer look of the copper billets on the train we had to drive through some of the older housing areas.

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This was an old bank building in the historic area of Globe.

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When we drove from Globe to Show Low we went through the Salt River Canyon. It reminded me of a small version of the Grand Canyon.

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We had to do a lot of zigzagging to get down and then back up the canyon.

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We came across a lot of fire damage in the Show Low area as this is one of the areas hit by forest fires last summer.

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We followed an old Pony Express route from Show Low to Payson.

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It’s a lot easier driving today.

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West of Show Low there was still some snow hanging on to its last bit of life before turning to water. Just a note: 5 days after this picture they had a snow storm that dumped 35 inches of snow on the area.

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It looks like having Roosevelt Lake down about 20-25 feet gives the campers a lot more room to camp next to the water. This would be the kind of boondocking/dry camping I could get used to.

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Apache Trail is a road, Hwy 88, that runs from Apache Junction to Lake Roosevelt for about 50 miles. More than half of that is a dirt road that runs from two lanes to one lane with wide spots for getting by opposing traffic. It is easily traveled with a car and generally follows the Salt River.

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This is the upstream side of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam that creates Lake Roosevelt.

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The Lake Roosevelt Bridge is the longest two-lane, single-span, steel-arch bridge in North America. It was built from 1987-1990 at a cost of $23.3 million to relocate traffic off the top of the dam.

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This is the down stream side of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. Very little water was being released.

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Here we are heading down stream along the Salt River. The road was very dusty and had a fair amount of two-way traffic. Needless to say, we needed a car wash the next day.

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About half way on this road we came to Tortilla Flats which has 4 buildings, one of which is this outhouse. Tortilla Flats is a tourist and biker destination which has two bars and a convenience store. Make sure to time it right if you are looking for a cold one or a bite to eat, as they shut down at 5:00 PM on week days and 6:00 PM on the weekends. Not too many people drive this this winding road after dark.

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This is Canyon Lake where I have heard you can catch some large Crappie.

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We managed to get some good sunset pictures.

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Over night we had a cold front come through. It was a rainy 35 degrees this morning. When we woke up Sunday morning, the 18th, we had a new view of the snow capped Superstition Mountains.

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Until next time,

Dave and Sandy



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