From The Needles we
took the Hart’s Draw cut off over the Abajo Mountains and through the Manti La
Sal National Forest. At 8827’ the fall colors were beautiful.
We headed to the Sand
Island BLM campground on the San Juan River and had a nice
afternoon and evening
there. Another huge petroglyph wall is located within the campground boundary.
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| Do you see Jim in the lower left corner of the picture? The petroglyph wall is behind him and covers the whole area behind the fence. |
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| This is just a small section of the wall. |
The next morning we drove down Hwy 95 to Bears Ears National Monument and then Natural Bridges National Monument on Hwy 275.
From there we went
south on Hwy 261 and down the Moki
Dugway (10% grade, gravel, hairpin turns for three miles). Magnificent views.
The Valley of the
Gods entrance was right at the end of the Moki Dugway and we gave it a shot,
but it was just too bumpy and narrow and rain was threatening (apparently the
roads turn to glue when it rains) so we headed for Gooseneck State Park on Hwy
316. Not much in the way of facilities, but the view of the Gooseneck was
great!
It started raining in
the middle of the night. We got up early and headed toward Monument Valley. We
couldn’t see much, but the rain and clouds made it seem even more mysterious.
Hard rain was
predicted into the next day so we decided to get a motel in Flagstaff for the
night. We slept in and then drove toward Payson AZ, found a good campsite at a
higher elevation at Houston Mesa Campground, and stayed put for a couple of nights.
Our next stop was
Roosevelt Lake (Cholla Campground) which had great facilities – covered picnic
tables and nice solar heated showers. Just down the road is Tonto National
Monument with a fairly easy hike up to some cliff dwellings.
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| Roosevelt Dam |
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If you look carefully you can see our van parked in the parking lot.
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That night there were very strong winds, rain, thunder and lightening. Pretty exciting!
We got up early, drove to Globe for lunch and then camped overnight
in a dispersed camping area up Peralta Road near Gold Canyon.
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| This longhorn greeted us on our way up Peralta Road |
The following night we stayed at Lost Dutchman State Park -
a very large and well maintained park.
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| Sunset at Lost Dutchman State Park |
We weren’t far from
Drew’s house so he joined us for dinner and the next day we arrived at Drew’s
where we stayed for about a week.
The Heyers also came
to Drew’s for a long weekend so we were all
together for a very
fun little reunion:
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| Drew's new car is lacking in the back seat department |
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| Shopping for the perfect fly swatter |
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| With the Heyers at Goldfield Mine |
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| The mystery house |
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| Playing "light sabers" while waiting for the mine tour. |
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| View of the Superstitions from Drew's rooftop deck |
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| We had some rain! |
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| Playing with Lily and Simon |
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| Winney is always ready to play fetch |
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| Fiona loved Kelsey and Lily |
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| Four of Drew's five dogs |
From Apache Junction it is a one day drive to San Carlos
where we leave Loomba-Loomba.
We are now here in San Carlos and will be for about another week.
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