Apache Junction

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We are hikin' FOOLS people! I am SO proud of Bob - he is pushing himself pretty hard and although we anticipated him being pretty sore, he is doing quite well. Of course it helps considerably that there is a hot tub here at the park. Tuesday we went up to Goldfield Ghost Town, an old mining town with a little train that went around the area, mine tours, a reptile zoo that cost way too much to entice me, and a lot of buildings that I'm not sure were really there before 1970. We didn't do a lot of investigating here. It was quite the tourist destination and we had a lot to do. We left there and went up to Lost Dutchman State Park and went hiking up to the top of Jacobs Crosscut trail. It was a great hike but not too many flowers or interesting sights on the way. Just a fun hike up, nice lunch at the end and head back. It was a nice hike but nothing spectacular as far as view or anything. The best part of the trip was taking the Apache trail loop (21 miles of it dirt road - Allie was not happy). It was incredible scenery, changing constantly. There are, of course, pictures here.
We were supposed to get rain yesterday but didn't get more than a 1 minutes worth of a spit-shower. We got a lot done yesterday including creating some saddlebags for Allie out of a couple of small backpacks we picked up at Wal-Mart. We can't wait to try them tomorrow!
We saw a bunch of different cactus blooms in various places - in the wild. It's way different than seeing them in a cultivated garden. I'm not sure exactly why, but it was great.

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Photos

Water tower in Goldfield mine
I know that the WHOLE town wasn't authentic, but some of it was really interesting.

Town of Goldfield
Cute, lots of shops, but too much of a convenient tourist trap... sorry. Not impresssed.

Goldfield
Pretty rugged looking digs you ask me...

Click on picture for larger view
I put a start to show where we hiked to with Allie. Wanna talk about a view???

Prick;ly Pear blooms
These were almost alien looking. Instead of Prickly Pear, Bob calls these "Platypus Cactus". Don't laugh. He's got me doin it!

Cactus blooms
I tired to look up this type of cactus but haven't b een able to find it yet. I'll let you know...

Cactus flowers
There are the first wild cactus we saw flowering. There were loads of them along this hilside on the Apache Trail

Superstition Canyon
This whole drive was just inspiring. The changes in scenery were phenominal

Superstion Canyon
Hey, our Jack ball has a MUCH better view than me!

Roosevelt Dam
There were 3 lakes on this drive. This Dam led to Roosevelt. We came around a sharp corner to this view. Impressive!

Apache Lake
Look at the way the landscape steps on the right. That is a natural formation.