25 Feb 2018
Gila Bend, Air Force Aux Field, AZ
We have been longing for some adventure, and we found it today. The four of us took off at 0800 (kinda early) for a 12 hour, 395 mile round trip.
The Apache Trail, AZ 88, itself is just less than 50 miles. The northern 22 miles of that road, are unpaved. Named after the Apache Indians who once used the route, this narrow winding road is unpaved from just east of the town of Tortilla Flat to Roosevelt Dam; there are steep cliff drops and little in the way of safety barriers. The road reminded us of our many trips on some side roads in Alaska, but certainly not anything close to the our drive up to Pikes Peak!!! But it was an exciting and very bumpy drive!
The Trail is one of the most scenic drives near the Phoenix area. What an incredible view of canyons, geologic formations, desert plants and trees, desert and lake views. We drove through the Superstition Mountain wilderness area, home of the Lost Dutchman State Park, and a part of Arizona that is known historically for mining.
The Apache Trail was constructed in the 1930s to support the development of dams along the Salt River. If you enjoy driving, Apache Trail is a fun trip. If you don’t like to drive, don’t do it. Most of the roads have a maximum speed limit of 15 mph. Little known tidbit: test drivers from General Motors Proving Grounds used to use the Apache Trail to test tires and vehicle maneuverability.
As we exited Apache Junction we stop at a road side museum that had alot of western displays, gold mining equipment, and a neat model railroad. The sun was shining bright and we had nice day to explore.
As we drove on towards the trail, we passed the Lost Dutchman State Park. Lost Dutchman is named after a legendary gold mine, supposedly started by a local family in 1840, and then developed by a Dutch immigrant (Jacob Waltz), who left no records of its location. Many people have tried but failed to find the mine and nearby caches of gold, all of which are believed to be somewhere around Weaver’s Needle, in the Superstition Mountains a few miles east of the state park. We decide to forgo the dream of gold, and continue on our journey.
A few miles further, the trail begins to bend sharply as the land becomes steeper, and passes along the shores of Canyon Lake, one of four formed by damming the Salt River, in the Tonto National Forrest area. Tonto, uh,,, all we thought about was the Lone Ranger and his trusty side-kick Tonto..
The saguaros along this trail, are some of the largest and best looking we have seen. Granted, we are not the “seasoned” westerners, but they were dam impressive!.
Speaking of dams, there are four of them along the Salt River. As we continue east, the old-west style settlement of Tortilla Flat (population 6!) is reached , we opted not to stop, while they had some mining equipment, a restaurant, and a junk shop, we just kept going,
Three miles east, the road passes above a short slot canyon with pools and dryfalls then soon after, the paved section ends and a narrow gravel track continues for a further 28 miles above the larger Apache Lake, to which access is more limited, and eventually to the Theodore Roosevelt Dam – this was built of bricks in 1911 and remains the world’s largest masonry dam at almost 300 feet tall.