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Published: March 12th 2019
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As much as we like Bisbee, the weather report showed some cold air headed our way, maybe even snow! As far south as it is (nearly on the Mexican border) Bisbee is pretty high, about 5300’. Its good to remember out west that altitude is more important than latitude. So we looked around for someplace lower, farther north, into the Sonoran Desert.
We decided to try one of the US Forest Service campgrounds on Roosevelt Lake. About 60 miles east of Phoenix (as the proverbial crow flies) it is at a more comfortable 2200’ above sea level.
We had a nice drive up there, all low-traffic back roads, except for about 20 miles on I10. After a couple of hours we descended down into the Salt River Valley, and the Sonoran Desert - land of the saguaro cactus. There are several federal campgrounds available there, but we chose “Windy Hill” because of good reviews, and the fact that they offered showers, very unusual for a Forest Service CG.
We picked a spot that was nice, and provided an ideal southern exposure for our solar panel. There were no power sites there at all, so the sun would be
powering our lights and charging our phones for a few days.
We were both ready for nice warm showers that evening, but were a bit disappointed to find that the water on both sides of the bath unit was, at best, only tepid. Worse, the building itself was well ventilated for the hot summer weather they have here, but not in any way heated. At that time of night it was about 50F — my teeth were chattering by the time I finished up — bracing! Cathy, always the resourceful one, told me she was spared to some extent by using her hair dryer to “blow dry” herself when she got out. Needless to say, after that showers were scheduled for the warm afternoons. I’m not going to whine though, for ten bucks a night (with our “America the Beautiful” pass) it was a bargain.
The next day we headed just a mile or so down the road to the “Tonto National Monument” a preserved native cliff dwelling. It was a perfect morning to climb the trails up to the two separate adobe structures built into large caves high on the cliffs above the valley. The buildings were
remarkably well preserved, with even a good bit of wood still sound and strong.
With the recent rains they had here, it was surprisingly green along the trail, and the ground was covered with wildflowers — beautiful! To see both separate structures required two up and down trips, but it was well worth it. We had a nice chat with a National Parks Ranger/Archeologist, a very interesting fellow to talk with.
It must have been a tremendous effort to carry all the materials nessary for construction up that slope, and no one knows for sure why they did it. Standing up there and looking out at that amazing view though, you have to believe that those long-gone people must have valued the vista as much or more than we do now.
After that we drove over to check out Apache Lake, the next impoundment down the Salt River. It was not more than 5 miles (that crow again) from our campsite, but Google Maps said it would take 35 minutes to drive there — curious?
We turned off AZ 188 on to AZ 88 (The Apache Trail) right by the Roosevelt Dam. For about a mile
the road was narrow and twisty, but then the pavement ended, and it got “interesting”. The gravel roadway was blasted and dug into the side of a steep canyon over what had been the Salt River, and now is Apache Lake. A road grader had pushed up a dirt pile on the outside that was about a foot high, other than that nothing was stopping you from a drop of, in some places, hundreds of feet into the water.
There were places where the roadway was plenty enough wide for two cars to pass. Unfortunately, there were many more where there was hardly enough room for one car. We, of course were in our VERY WIDE Dodge Dually— I was in full alert, I even pulled my drivers-side mirror in — there was that little room to get by. It would be nice if I could say that there at least there was no traffic, but in fact this was Saturday, and I could not believe how many cars and trucks we saw. I felt like a fool for attempting this drive with our truck, surely no local would do something so stupid.
Imagine our surprise then when we finally reached the Apache Lake Campground. There were dozens of camping trailers and motor homes there — one fifth wheel trailer we saw must have been 35’ long! It was then that I noticed a full sized dumpster — somebody must drive a garbage truck in there — carumba!
Now feeling like an Eastern weeny, I drove back out to the main road. Except for the terrible, teeth rattling washboard surface, it didn’t seem so bad to us now. So we decided that yes, we would come back tomorrow and launch the Sportboat on Apache Lake to do a little exploring.
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