Salt River Canyon

We recently took a sightseeing loop that carried us from Mesa to Globe, on to Show Low, next to Payson, and then back to Mesa (all in Arizona). This was close to 250 driving miles and carried us to elevations around 6,000 feet. That altitude took us into snow country. Where it snows there is more water than down in the desert and you have forests rather than just cactus. It is still arid country and the burn scars in the evergreen forests were prominent (much of it from fires two years ago).

Although it is scenic country, the most prominent natural wonder on this drive was the Salt River Canyon. Sometimes referred to as the mini-Grand Canyon (by the promotional writers for the Arizona Tourist Bureau), the canyon is over 2,000 feet deep.

The canyon is steep, rugged, and beautiful. Apparently it sits in Indian lands because there were several signs about entering or leaving one or another of the reservations of several tribes. Also, a dead giveaway was the Indian crafts and jewelry available at the rest stop at the bottom of the canyon.

More to come. "Quartzite", the desert home of 100’s of thousands of snowbirds.

For more info on Salt River Canyon link to this address: www.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/features/articles/archive/saltrivercanyon.html

Weather Alert

Yep, they can have cold weather in Phoenix too!!! Last Sunday there was snow on the ground in Mesa (a Phoenix suburb) and it landed on me. I think I heard the weather man say that the last time there was snow in the Phoenix metro area was 1997.

This can be a mind bending contrast. There was snow on the ground, but lemons in the trees. That has been a nice bonus on our walks. We can pick lemons, oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit as we walk around the park and surrounding area.

We took a drive to see the real snow. As we drove across an elevated stretch of US 60 East of Mesa I could look across the tops of palm trees and see snow on the foothills. It was a great picture, but the traffic was too intense to pull over and take it. Our trip along US 60 took us just North of Globe and barely into the mountains. The snow was about 4/5 inches at the stop where I took the picture.

On the way back from snow country we again passed through Globe and several other small communities. They are all supported by Phelps Dodge Mining. Copper seems to be the current leading mineral pulled out of the area.

Well, best to you all...

Replay of Last Dollar Road

I haven’t been doing much sightseeing, so I have been a little remiss in putting out a travel log. So to remedy that problem I’ve decided to preview what our plans are for the future.

We will be leaving Mesa, AZ, on the morning of March 7. We will head for the Tucson area. There we intend to side trip to the Kitt National Observatory and then to the Chiricahua National Monument. We will also visit friends. From Tucson we’ll head to Yuma (lots of truck farms there) and then move on for a two week visit in the San Diego area. SD should be a hotbed for great picture taking. Upon leaving SD we’ll head, via a round about way with stops in Vegas, Utah, and Colorado, to Indiana. Have to return to your old stompin’ grounds every so often, ya know. From Indiana we’ll head to Alaska, hopefully for a three month visit, returning to the lower 48 by Labor Day.

That’s the scoop, hope at least some of it sounds worthwhile. In the meantime, until I get some great new sightseeing pics, I leave you with this picture, one of my all time favorites.

Last Dollar Road heading for Telluride, Colorado (Fall 2006).