Salt River Canyon... Who Knew?

Wednesday, Oct 18…

Last night I heard Greg cursing Magellan (GPS)  because technology favors efficiency and he wanted the scenic route (which, in my mind, was very obvious on the map -- why use GPS?). Anyway, I had no idea how fabulously scenic this route would actually be. (Unfortunately, even though we ooh'd and aah'd most of the way we only made one short stop and I only have a couple so-so photos. I may be forced to add 1 or 2 extras.) 

“The (red) Salt River Canyon Bridge spans one of the most dramatic canyons in Arizona. It was funded by the Public Works Administration... and completed in June 1934... Its Art Deco superstructure... is still one of Arizona’s most visibly striking, engineered structures. Today the bridge carries only pedestrian traffic; a newer, wider version (in front) handles automobile and truck traffic on Highway 60.” [abridged from livingnewdeal.org; It's their pic. We did go over the bridge!]

(Serious canyon walls in the back.)

Almost the entire stretch was switchbacks - so much fun in an RV. (Not!)

This shot is borrowed from another traveler. It may be in the wilderness area.

Again and again, as we maneuvered the switchbacks and marveled at the topography, I found myself thinking "...and they built roads through this." No matter how primitive that first auto road was, the construction must have required both herculean effort and enduring patience.

The canyon took us through two Apache reservations and part of the Tonto Nat'l Forest before finally returning us to civilization in Globe. Globe is a small mining town that started as just a camp when silver was discovered and grew as the silver lode faded and folks discovered serious copper, which is still mined.  Greg commented that it reminded him of a mining town we had visited with his brother back in February, but Monty lives in Tucson and we were parallel to Phoenix at this point. Later, though, as I was researching Globe, some of the history also sounded familiar. I checked my Feb blog entry and - sure enough - this was our second visit. But we missed the biker bar this time. Darn! (It would have been far better than McDonald's.)

Current Mining Complex

Tailings from previous years.

Our destination is the Sun City Elks Club, but we skirt the edges of Phoenix and find ourselves in the kind of traffic we haven't seen since Chicago. Yuk. We're also back in hard core desert (though the city has planted lots of greenery - some of it even in bloom - which helps considerably). Eventually we find the Elks (which is flanked by Paradise Valley, an enormous RV/trailer/tiny home park, on one side and a large RV storage lot on another. We're here to visit friends from Greg's racing days (who actually live in Seattle half the year, yet we haven't managed to connect in the last half dozen years - ridiculous, huh.)

Sunset over Paradise Valley 

RandomConnection… A couple days ago I found a note card w/ jottings I'd made the day we passed through Taos. One phrase, velvet tapestry mountains, is just as appropriate for some of today's views as it was for whatever mountains we saw then. 😃

And today's balloons are...