Thursday, December 15, 2011

AJ, AZ - Apache Trail

Long trip today. Well, not so much long in miles, only 130 or so but we’ll be on a dirt road, winding around mountains and it will be slow. In fact, we started at 9:00 and didn’t get back home until 6:00. But, we had a great time. We chose today to venture out since it’s been raining for the last two days and rain is forecast for the next 3 days. 
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Today, however, is perfect weather for our trip: sunny, clear and, though cold enough to wear my down jacket, not so cold that we will be uncomfortable. Above Gary is scraping the ice off our car windshield. ICE?! Sure enough, we can’t escape the ice. It’s been raining for 2 days and the temps got down to the high 20’s. What did we expect?

We began our circle by heading up towards Tortilla Flats on what is called the Apache Trail which is paved to and 8 miles beyond Tortilla Flats.

APACHE TRAIL

At the end of the ‘town’ is a low section of the road where the Salt River flows over the road. The river is what brought people to the area but also caused the flooding in 1942 which drove people out. Today, it was not so deep that we could not see the yellow lines of the highway through the crystal clear mountain run-off so we knew we could drive through it. And, on we went. 8 miles past the town is where the pavement ends and the dirt road begins. This is the original ‘Apache Trail’ and it is the roadway that the mainly Apache crew dug out of the mountains so that supplies and people could get between Phoenix and Roosevelt, where the dam was being built. (Now, the whole roadway from Apache Junction to Roosevelt is called the Apache Trail.)

Here’s a view of one part of the road from a scenic viewpoint across the canyon. What a marvel of engineering and workmanship. But look at that rugged county and the rock from which the road was carved.
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Designated a ‘Scenic Byway’ in 1998, it winds through, around, and past some to the most scenic country in Arizona. The information we had says it is ‘safe for all but the reckless driver.’
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The most exciting part of the trail is the Fish Creek Canyon section. Here it took 150 men, mostly Apaches, to build this road up the steep sheer cliff face. At times it is so steep that fills 75’ high were needed to build a usable road bed. In other places, rock had to be cut down 70’ to get to a flat surface for the road bed. Is it any wonder that the road bed is wide enough for only one car? But, wait a minute, this is a two-way road, both to and from Roosevelt to Tortilla Flats. How does that work? Well, Gary and I are about to find out. Luckily we’ve started out early so that we don’t expect much traffic.
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The trick is to drive the Apache Trail in a clockwise direction - so that you are on the INSIDE of the road. Especially on the Fish Creek part of the road where the road drops 800’ in 1 mile along a sheer cliff and where the road narrows almost to a one-way road with a sheer cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other. Be sure to check ahead of you to see if anyone is coming. Oops, the road winds so much that you can see ahead only to the next curve 20’ away. But, truth to tell, at one point I was able to look down at the bottom of the cliff and see another car turning to come up the hill. We were able to pull off to the right a bit and he barreled on by - he must drive this every day. I’ve heard that wide pick-ups sometimes have to pull in their mirrors to get down the road. By the way, are we thinking that the 2’ tall guard rail is going to hold us? Nope, that’s why we’re on the inside.

Look at the second picture here where you can see the hood of our car. That’s a narrow road.
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Here’s the view on our GPS in our iPhone. We are where the blue arrow is, making a sharp turn on the road. We are going to wind our way up to the final curve, curve right 180 degrees and then plummet down the cliff face to the bottom where we will make another 180 degree curve to the left, cross over a bridge and head out. The picture above shows the bridge and the gorge it spans and you can see our car on the right at one of the widest spots on the road. Remember, go clockwise.
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Did I say precipitous? Did I say thrilling? Did I say a marvelous feat of construction? It is all of those and beautiful at that. Well, maybe I didn’t notice the beauty - I was too busy holding onto my seat and staring straight ahead. No, actually, it was a thrilling ride and we could only appreciate the sheer audacity of it. Interestingly enough, motor trips to Roosevelt Lake along this road became most popular in the early part of the 20th century. There were also races along the Fish Creek section to see who could go the fastest ascending or descending. However, the US Forest Service quickly banned these when one driver died.

The rest of the trail is not so thrilling but the views of the snow-capped mountains, the azure blues of the reservoirs along the trail and the Sonoran Desert are truly amazing. I’d recommend this road for anyone to enjoy. We turned off the road to take the short paved road down (and down is the operative word here) to the Apache Lake marina and resort. Today, there were very few people around but the other 3 seasons are wild since every one is trying to escape the heat in Phoenix. We spoke with one employee who seemed to be holding the fort herself and she told us that she wanted to live no where else. And, look at these views? Wouldn’t you want to wake up to these sights every day?
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We then returned to the Apache Trail and wound our way along it to the Roosevelt Dam which is the end of the actual dirt road Apache Trail and the intersection of rte 88 to the east and 188 to the northwest.

ROOSEVELT DAM

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That’s the world famous Roosevelt Dam above. When it was built between 1903 - 1911, it was the world’s largest masonry dam at a height of 280’ and a length of 723’. Roosevelt Lake behind it is 23 miles long. It was constructed by Italian stone masons using stone quarried from the cliffs surrounding it. The first block was laid in 1903 and, when the last block was laid in 2011, 350,000 cubic feet of block had been cut and lifted into place by block and tackle.
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Given the 10-ton weight of these huge stones, it was not uncommon for the hoists to buckle and break and the stone dropped into the construction site below or slammed into the canyon wall. Twice during construction, the area was flooded and construction had to begin anew.
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Those hired as common laborers earned $2.50 while the more skilled workers like the stone masons, powdermen and blacksmiths earned $4.00 - $5.00 per hour. They lived in a town named Roosevelt which at its height had over 2000 residents. Their homes were often tents and/or tent houses and many had their families with them. These tent homes must have been very cold in the winter and warm in the hot desert sun in the summer. The original homes lacked running water and electricity, but when the town was rebuilt these were available. There was a school, ice cream parlor, theater, dance halls, restaurants, a baseball team, bowling alley and other types of recreation.

Between 1989 and 1996, the dam underwent extensive renovation, was raised 77’ to allow for more water storage and the original masonry structure was encased in concrete. Because of these renovations, the dam lost its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It just wasn’t the same dam and today you can’t see the original 10-ton blocks now.

TONTO NATIONAL MONUMENT

After we toured the dam Visitor Center, we headed on down the road to the Tonto National Memorial. We don’t miss a National Memorial. Because the Salt River ran through this area, a people called the Salado began building their homes in caves around 1250 A.D. Protected from the elements, these homes survived until today - except for the vandals and relic hunters . They stole things like pottery and tools and even stones from the walls.
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To say that they are up a steep cliff is an understatement. The cliff below this home is covered with small, slippery rocks. Climbing would be tricky. And, then, they used a ladder to get to a V in the wall which they used as their original entrance. Gary is standing on rock which is even with the floor of the first story in the home and pointing to the original entrance.
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What I found incredible is that you can actually see fingerprints and hand prints in the mortar they used to make their walls. Here, if you look carefully, is a hand print of someone patting the mortar around and between the rocks to make their home solid.
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We had a great day. The weather was wonderful and our timing was superb. We saw everything we wanted to see, and, as we were leaving to come home, the sun was setting on the hills beyond. The snow capping the mountains in the distance was frosting on the cake.

As we crested a hill, we came upon an RV at the side of the road with a flat tire. It was about 5:00, close to dusk, the RV had one kid we could see, a dog we could hear, two women and one man. He had taken off the hub cap and the lug nuts and one of the women was calling a tire company to see if they had the right size. We asked if we could do anything but they said they had it well in hand. But it was close to dusk, they hadn't found a tire nor a mechanic and they had to be in El Paso by 7:30 in the morning.

Gary and I, who have found ourselves at the side of an interstate with a broken brake line, again remembered why we have a service which will do all this for us.

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