Apache Junction and The Superstition Mountains

November 9, 2014

Ted left at the crack of dawn to go back to Green Valley to get his prescription that had finally arrived. When he returned, we took routes 77 and then 79 to route 60 into Apache Junction. They were good roads and we avoided having to travel on I-10. Again, the mountains and cactus covered deserts were stunning. It was a beautiful drive and we arrived at the campground well before noon.

Superstition Mountain, I Think

The Desert is Much Greener Than One Would Think

Ted went to check in and the man who came out to lead us to our site asked if we were fake South Dakotans like he was. He said he had been in Montana all summer and when we said we had been there as well, he asked if we had been to St. Marys (near Glacier NP). When we said we had, he asked if we had stayed at Johnson's RV Park. It is the only campground we have stayed at more than once and he had been working there both times we were there this summer.

There is a citrus tree in each site on the street we are on in the park. I picked a grapefruit but am not sure how to tell when they are really ripe. I will try it for breakfast. Once set up, we went in search of a grocery store and found a Fry's about a mile away. That is always a good sign however the campground we are in doesn't have any openings for February so we probably won't be staying here.

When we got back from shopping, we walked over to the pool and meeting rooms to check them out. There was a nice big pool and big ballroom with stage as well as all the other small function rooms. People were really friendly and we chatted quite awhile with a woman from Oregon and also with a man who has been here twenty-three years.

November 10, 2014

The grapefruit didn't have much taste and had a funny texture so I suspect it wasn't really ripe and I didn't finish it. I had a pumpkin spice bagel instead. We went out looking at campgrounds in the morning but didn't find any that jumped out at us. We will probably not be staying in Apache Junction.

In the afternoon we drove up into the Superstition Mountains. There are a series of dams on the Salt River that form four lakes which we hope to paddle sometime this winter. Since the dams produce electricity, the beautiful scenery is marred by power lines and most of my photos have either poles or lines in them. Despite the power lines, the scenery was spectacular. We wound up and down and around the mountains so we never knew what direction we were heading. There was some kind of greenish yellow lichen on the sides of the cliffs that almost glowed in the afternoon sun. It always amazes me that as much as we have travelled, we always seem to find things in nature that we have never seen before

Lichen on Cliffs

Power Lines Everywhere

Rock Color Kept Changing

More Lines But Pretty View

Canyon Lake Overlook

We drove by the small settlement of Tortilla Flat. There used to be and maybe still are a series of Mexican restaurants in Maine that were the first to arrive that far north. We loved going there. The road we traveled on was built to get supplies and materials to the dam sites. Tortilla Flat was also a result of the building of the dams. Today it looks like a ghost town and has a general store, a restaurant and a gift shop where we got an ice cream on our way back through.

Tortilla Flat

The only lake we saw today was Canyon Lake, one of the smaller ones. We thought we would drive the loop that passed Apache and Theodore Roosevelt lakes as well but after twenty-two miles, the road turned to dirt and was another twenty-two miles of dirt. Ted had just cleaned the car including all the gaskets and wasn't willing to drive in the dirt so we turned around and returned the way we came. Most of the traveling was no more than thirty miles an hour and often much less than that. The hiking and paddling opportunities looked great but we won't be accessing them from Apache Junction.