Site Seeing Cures Sitting and Sulking

Our objective to "Get out of the Heat" for a few hours so we headed

north for about 200 miles towards Payson. FYI April 16 2020 we went to

Payson and took a different route home via Roosevelt Lake.  

If you missed it, see "Shades of Blue & Green".

This trip (on Friday July 24th) was an out and back with several

stops along the way. 

We travelled North via the Bush Highway, (highway 87) in order

to escape the lower elevation heat (and someone's sitting & sulking)!!

We crossed a couple of 45500-5,000 summits on this very scenic 

highway.  The high temperature for the day 78 degrees which

is way better than 102, or 105, or 110!!!

And Don, of course, stopped here and there for some very

interesting geocaches + 2 virtual caches.

As you may have heard there was a huge wildfire in AZ in

which started June 20, 2020 and burned 193,455 acres before

it was totally contained July 6,2020.  

And that is what you're looking at in this photo.

This map shows the fire's massive size 193,455 acres.

The fire started  near the SW corner when

a car ,close to Mesa AZ caught on fire which ignited this fire.

We had picked several "sites to see" on our outing, and 

just past the entrance to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, 

 

we stopped so Don could  find a geocache called "Stonehenge". 

He did, but I was fascinated by the sign in the distance...

just in the direction we were headed  - YIKES!!!

The "bridge" is thought to be the largest natural travertine 

bridge in the world.  It stands 183 feet high over a 400 ft long tunnel,

that measures 150 ft at its widest point.  There are great

trails to hike over, around and down to...

During our drive, many times today, I kept seeing these

colorful "stalks" and didn't know what they were.

Introducing the Goldenflower Century Plant (Agave Chrysantha).

Stunning to say the least.

Don located the sign to Gowan Trailhead for the virtual cache

which required that he pose with his GPS near the sign.

After a short drive north, the the town of Strawberry was

on our list and

we enjoyed learning more about the oldest standing

schoolhouse in AZ.

It was established in 1884.  We couldn't go inside, but

our trusty cameras did their job!!!

And, this plaque tells the rest of the story...

Next we headed south on the Bush Highway and turned east

on W Houston Mesa Rd to visit Shoofly Village Ruins.

OH NO... this gets the "Wild Goose Chase" award for the day...

oh well, I'm getting hungry.

Last stop before heading back, a picnic lunch spot with a view.

Green ValleyPark, in Payson offers "urban fishing",

walking trails,  covered picnic sites, free parking and

 no entry fee. YIPPEE...

Picket Post + Peaks and Points

Absolute boredom created a need to go for a ride...

Picket Post Mountain where some of our hiking club

have scaled to the top... (I always hiked the circumference, an

8 mile trek),  but not today it's 109. 

The mountain's unusual name stems from an early 

military camp established at the base of the mountain by 

General George Stoneman in 1870. The soldiers nicknamed

  the mountain “Picket Post” due to its usage as a s

entinel point to guard their camp from attacks.

Picket Post has an elevation of 4378'.

I couldn't resist this shot with the windmill

and when the wind started blowing my iPhone quickly

switched to video mode!!!

As we headed up over Gonzales Pass, towards Superior,

 another Pointed Peak came into view.  I believe this is part

of the Mineral Mountain area This pointed peak has

an elevation of 3241'.

We traveled up over the summit

and down the other side before we made a u-turn

to head back for home after stopping for a quick ice cream.

Don knew there was a geocache off to the North of the highway 

as we headed West. 

"Superior-Experience the Beauty" was the name of the cache.

I hate these tiny ones that have a log sheet that takes some

time to roll up and insert back into it's  minuscule container, 

so I turned around to take a picture of this tall cactus

which was going to seed... 

The clouds started to form over all the points, peaks

 (and valleys) of the Superstition Mountain Range,

which didn't cool us down one bit... We left that to the A/C.

Our last stop was to revisit  the Crested Saguaro at a nearby RV resort.

Scientists once estimated that for every 200,000 normal cacti

there is only one abnormal crest. Originally there were thought to be 

less than 200 of these abnormalities in existence. Contrary to this 

theory, more than 2050 have been discovered.  It is caused by an  

unusual mutation which results in the growth of a large fan-shaped crest 

at the growing tip of a saguaro’s main stem or arms.

And while driving thru the Arizonian RV Resort we couldn't

believe how many home owners had posted this sign on their home.

 Guess they were trying to make a POINT!!!

Our spur of the moment enjoyable outing took  about 4 hours 

of boredom out of this hot day!!!

Looking Back...

When I walk or hike I often stop & turn around and look back.

  That’s because my Dad always told me, “Stop every once in a while to

look back and  become aware of your surroundings, 

so you'll know where you are and how to get back”.

This 12 mile round trip hike started near Soda Springs CA

and we hiked the ridge line all the way out to that "Knob". 

Along the way, I stopped and looked  back to make sure 

Margie and Peggy B were still coming.

  Made it.   Elevation 8948' on top. We stopped at the base for lunch!!!

I use to take photos with a either a multi lens Cannon SLR still camera 

or my 7  lb digital tape video camera.  

In recent years I switched to a small Panasonic high definition

 video camera which has a 46 power  zoom lens.  Yippee

I've  done lots of hiking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, during the

summer months, with my friends the Alta Hikers ... always on Tuesday!!!

My friend Pal - don't step back.   We're on Hawks Peak which gives

you a 360 degree never ending stunning view.  

It's near Tahoe Donner (Truckee CA) 

On the way down, I looked back because I thought I heard something.

And we were in bear country at over 8500'. 

No one there, just a great view of 2 other peaks where we've 

enjoyed lunch breaks...   Castle Peak on the left, El 9202’  and Frog Lake

 overlook on right 8653’.   We finally  had to quit hiking to Frog Lake Overlook 

because it has an elevation gain of 1600’,  most of it in the last 1/2 mile.  UGH

I've seen more black bears in our yard in Colfax CA (not AZ),

than I ever did hiking in the high country for over 20 years!!!

 (iPhone up close & personal.)

Glad to be inside and able to zoom in on this guy with my

 Panasonic video camera.

This was one of our many stops in 2008 when we took 

 a 6 month/18,000 mile RV trip from CA to AZ via Nova Scotia…

When I looked back, this is what I saw - beautiful

Cloud Lake, Ontonagon,  MI.  

In Nova Scotia, we camped near Peggy's Cove and spent 

days acting like tourists... 

Another phenomenon we stopped to see was the area  of  

Hopewell rocks  to experience one of the highest average tides in the 

world at the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick Canada. 

You can wander and view the formations from ground level

at low tide...   That's Don in case you didn't recognize him.

However, you want to watch your step, and 

when you see the tide starting to come back in, you might

want to head back up the staircase,

as the high tide can be 52 feet higher than the  low tide.  

Someone was wise enough to provide a wall so you wouldn't 

step back too far at Gooseneck State Park, Mexican Hat UT.  

 It’s 1,000 feet straight down to the  San Juan River 

where you see the results of 300 million years of erosion. 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, (Gunnison CO),  drops 2722’  

Dec 22 2009 while we took a walk across frozen Nancy Lake AK,   to reach

son Eric's remote cabin... he kept looking at his watch.  

  Finally he said turn around and look back, you'll only see the sun

 from here for 19 seconds today.   Got it!!!

While in AK  another time, onEric’s boat, he looked

 back to tell me it was time to look forward…

I did and was rewarded as a moose went swimming by!!!

My Panasonic video camera is my camera of choice when we go 

 for a ride… because I don’t have to yell “Stop”. I can just shoot video or stills 

out the window on the fly… going 60.  Watch for more rides to come.

 If they don't materialize, I'll look back farther...