Road Runners, Move Over

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Road Runner’s Move Over
After visiting with family and the final drive through the valley, it is once again time to pack up and move out. This park was small, so we needed to off load the car and then disconnect the trailer so we now needed to reverse this process before we could pull out. Everything done we pull onto the Venture free way heading towards Pasadena and pick up the 10 freeway. This drive will take us through Pasadena, Irwindale, Azuza, Pomona and down the line heading towards the Arizona border. You pass through Eagle Rock and until now never knew why it got this name. There is a large rock formation to the left of the freeway and it bears a remarkable resemblance of an eagles profile. Ya learn something every day.
The freeway landscape now starts to change rather dramatically, up til now it has been shrubs, ivy and trees. Now however it is gravel and weeds, dried from the hot wind blowing through this area. We are now coming into the Beaumont/Banning area which is mostly flat, hot and dry. It closely resembles Barstow or Baker on the Las Vegas loop. The 10 shows all the way through on the map but it is not complete and we find our selves navigating the city streets seeking the other connection to the 10. As we sit at a stop light, I notice the sign reads, Route 66 so for a time we were following the route we would have taken when children. We find the connection and are once again on our way, the wind is horrific, Larry has a hard time keeping the motor home from swerving into the other lanes. Gusts push us around like paper and this goes on for miles.
There is not much scenery this leg of the trip, just dry arid foot hills, void of any type of lush green anything. We are coming to Palm Springs and spot the wind mills I had mentioned earlier. There are more here than in the Livermore area, I would guess 5 times more. They stand tall like tin soldiers all aligned in a perfect row and silently performing their duties. We pass the exit we would have taken if Fran (our mother) still lived in the area and soon the Palm Springs area vanishes and we wait for Indio. Once the California date capitol it had thousands of date palms, what we saw were dried out, dead palms, a ghost of a city and not much else. So either the town dried up or the freeway diverts you so far around this city that you see only the remains of those shops that were along the original Route 66.
After we pass through Coachella there is not much else to see. There is desert, dry, windy and sparce shrubs. Now on the map this particular part of the road shows only as a single, long red line indicating nothing along the path. Yes, there is not much, but there are small towns, those that managed to survive once the highway was diverted. Parts of the old road run closely along side the freeway affording you the chance to see where they lead. They go past closed up gas stations, diners with bus stop welcome signs. Small towns once earned their very existence from this road and are now silent no longer remembered. We are now starting to see some foothills and are passing to our right the Chocolate Mountain Naval Reservation and Gunnery Range. We are coming to a long slow up hill grade, but can see no markers indicating what it is called, Back home we have the Malad Pass, since the city sits around the top, this has a gas station about 3/4 of the way up and not much else. No marker indicated what the altitude is. We stop at a rest stop about 30 miles from the summit and stretch our legs. The wind is slightly cool helping to keep the intense heat at bay.
We are heading towards the town of Blythe where you cross over the Colorado River and enter Arizona. Once this was a small farming town, hay mostly and you crossed over the river on a large black colored bridge. There was an old café just before that let you stop and refresh your self before crossing. The old road took you across and about 80 miles northeast you came to the town of Wickenberg and from there it was a southeast drive down to Phoenix. The present day town spreads out and does not resemble the old crossing at all. There is a new modern concrete bridge that crosses over and before you realize it you have crossed over and see the Arizona sign. You no longer drive towards Wickenberg, you drive mostly east and straight towards Phoenix going through some pretty rock covered hills with some of the nicest Saguaro cactus you ever saw. Soon these hills pass and you start into the flat lands. The mountains in the distance stand like withered wind shorn monuments of ages long ago.
Now in the past you took Litchfield road as an exit if you did not want to end up in downtown Phoenix. You now drive on a major freeway and as far as we could tell no off ramp for Litchfield was present. We saw signs that announced Goodyear (named for the tire factory there) Avondale, (that’s where the dairy was) and Tolleson and decide to exit at the first Avondale sign. Once this was empty land, the dairy and a few farms were here. The towns if you could call them towns, were whistle stops. A gas station, maybe a café, perhaps a feed and grain not much else. There were no street lights, you knew by instinct where you were and where to turn. Well much has changed. Gone are the fields and the dairy in their place are miles of homes, and about every two miles a small shopping mall, with a grocery store and most of the normal fast food chains, gas stations a bank, a pharmacy and such.
The towns are now hustling thriving small cities and bear no resemblance to the towns we once knew. But one thing remains unchanged. No street lights, out of the towns you come to the four way stop signs and must know where you want to go in order to get there. During the day the temperatures reach about 103 at night it cools down to about 78 or so making the nights comfortable. We have several days here in Phoenix for two reasons, one was to visit my niece and her baby who is now two years old. The other was to pick up my brothers wife who is flying in from Anchorage. The trouble started when the weather here turned so hot, that they wanted to divert all animal passage up to SLC.
That would mean we would need to drive up to Utah with a day or two notice, so this was the perfect staging area. Then an alternate plan was put in place for the last remaining dog and Phoenix was the pick up city. The two dogs we have had with us, Digger who belongs to Janis and Cody the Pom, I think you remember him from the Alaskan Highway when he locked us out. They both seem to know something is up, for the last several days they have been acting up and seem to sense that Janis is coming. Or perhaps they are just stir crazy from being in the motor home for close to a month. So we are taking the car for a little side trip.

Looking for the Lost Dutchman
We have decided to go to the Superstition Mountains, which are about an hours drive from where we are staying. Again we need to hop on the 10 and head east, we programmed the GPS and thankfully it did it’s duty and took us there with no trouble. On the way you pass through Glendale,Phoenix,Scottsdale, Mesa and exit at Apache Junction. You immediately notice that this area has not yet been developed, but I am sure it won’t be long before it’s natural beauty is covered by industry. We are heading towards Apache Junction and the cut off for the Superstition Wildernes. It is to our right and is a small two lane road that takes you past the Superstition Museum and Gift Shop. Almost across from this is the Ghost Town from an actual mining operation at the turn of the century. It is now your classic tourist trap complete with a restaurant and bar to help ease your parched lips from being in the sun.

We continue on until we reach the ranger station and campsites. There is a fee for day use and camping. Since we are only driving around and taking pictures, there is no charge. If however we had opted to eat lunch at the camping area, it would have been $5.00. There is a quiet here, the mountains loom up and stand a reddish color against the parched landscape below. Here the story goes that a miner named Jacob Waltz a prospector, stumbled into Phoenix with his partner around 1870 with gold nuggets. They claimed to have struck the mother load and for the next two decades spent their gold freely. Many believe that the gold had been stolen from a mining operation that Jacob worked at earlier. He had been stealing the gold and been fired for the theft.
To this day no one really knows if they had found the mother load or if they actually spent the stolen nuggets taken much earlier. Many have gone up to the mountains to look for the mine and many have not returned. Bodies have been found with bullet holes, many bodies have been found with the heads missing. All have meet with some sort of foul play while seeking the Dutchman’s mine. The parks department cannot stop you from searching the mountains, but do advise that you go in armed, take along a partner and establish a base camp. With odds like that I don’t think I will be seeking the Dutchman’s mine any time soon.
The mountains are the remains from an ancient caldera formed thousands of years ago when this area was volcanically active. There is a saddle to the left and a spire called Weavers Needle, incidentally this is the point where many of the bodies have been found. The hills are a reddish rock and save but a few spots are barren of any trees. This is harsh land, dry and unforgiving, water is scarce except during violent thunder storms when this arid land becomes a raging torrent of water taking all in it’s path. Then as quickly as it came, it vanishes leaving only the dry stream beds as a reminder of this deadly force.
There are walking paths allowing you to stroll through the area and take your pictures, but be advised you must watch your step. This area is home to rattle snakes, usually they hide during the heat of the day, but can be easily disturbed if you happen to wander off the paths. Many types of cactus are in the area and although some might seem void of any barbs, beware. Some are so tiny they seem invisible but are actually hair like and can become imbedded in your skin. There are some small scrub type bushes and a sprinkling of stunted trees. The ground is also a reddish color and quickly stains your shoes or clothes.
If you continue up the road you would come to the Roosevelt Dam and lake. These are man made and were created to dam up the water from Salt River. Locals around here refer to this as the Salt River project, designed to make the desert green. This project started back in the 50's and as a child I actually water skied on this lake. Of course great care was needed to avoid the trees sticking out of the water and any other material floating by. As you start up towards the dam you climb out of the superstition wilderness and enter the Tonto national monument area. You also pass by Apache Lake and to your left is the Four Peaks wilderness area. The hills are also quite rocky and have a lime green glow to them. It is lichen growing all over the hillside. A living organism( a fungus with a photo sensitive partner, a bacteria) I am not sure just what animal if any munch on this stuff, but up north in Alaska the Caribou’s diet is comprised of this tiny growth.
We head back towards Apache Junction and decide not to take the freeway back but to follow the Apache Highway back towards Phoenix. It was one of the original ways to traverse back and forth long before freeways. It takes you through the main part of the towns, and allows you to see what you would otherwise miss by taking the freeway route. Downtown Mesa has side walk cafes, and bistros to entice you in. Boutique shops and art galleries abound. The area is done is the pueblo look with metal sculptures on the corners depicting native American’s. Scotsdale and Phoenix are also on this route. You pass by the college and the road changes from the Apache Highway to Van Buren at the outskirts of Phoenix there are many older motels,hotels from an era gone by that are now closed or near closing. The airport is to your left and the freeway passes to your right. Soon the street passes Glendale and then Avondale, we are about back to our RV park.

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