I said we were going to try and find Table Mesa trail again before leaving Lake Pleasant, and I am happy to say we were successful on our second attempt. A lot of the trail was along an old road, but once we started gaining elevation, the views of Lake Pleasant were awesome.
At the top of this mesa were the ruins of some Indian dwellings. You can see what’s left of one of the walls in this picture. Unfortunately for me, the last 10 feet were a killer, so this is as close as I got. I’m not up for rock scrambling yet. We didn’t see anyone else on the 6.5 mile trail- I don’t think many people hike this one. It was nice to have the solitude especially since our next hike was on one of the most crowded trails we’ve been on!
We hiked with Elaine and Robert (and about 200 other people) on the Wind Cave trail. It was a 6 mile hike with a fair amount of elevation gain. Elaine had hurt her ankle, so we decided we would both have a good excuse if we didn’t make it all the way up, but we had no problems and enjoyed our lunch once we made it to the top.
I often debate with myself how much information to put in the blog about the trails we hike. Sometimes I want to put information/data in so I will be reminded later how difficult or long a trail was and how much elevation gain it had. I don’t track the information anywhere else, but the other day Paul was buying new hiking boots and we were saying that we had no idea how many miles I have hiked in my boots, so we’ve decided to keep a spreadsheet of our hikes with all the pertinent details. Don’t worry, I won’t post the spreadsheet here!
Between Elaine and Robert and Paul and I, we have spent time in quite a few different Phoenix area RV parks in the last week or so. The other day they finally caught up to us at Lost Dutchman State Park. There are a lot of programs and activities here, and the other night we all attended the Moonlight and Music program.
Yesterday was adventure day- we set out early and followed the Apache Trail. The trail follows an ancient Indian migration route through the Superstition Mountains, and most of it is a twisty, windy, very narrow dirt road. It’s an all day adventure because there are so many things to stop and see along the way.
Our first stop was at the bar in Tortilla Flats, (population: 6). Since it was our first stop of the day, we opted for coffee instead of an “adult beverage”. The seats at the bar are saddles, and the walls are papered with one dollar bills, most of which contain a message written by the donator.
There were numerous places to pull off the road to enjoy the views, and more campgrounds along the way than we expected to see. There are also 3 lakes- this one is Apache Lake.
Roosevelt Lake is the largest lake along the trail, and the road we were on was originally built to bring in supplies to build the Roosevelt Dam.
After passing the dam, we soon came upon the Tonto National Monument, which consists of the remains of some ancient cliff dwellings. They were inhabited by the Salado Indians from about 1050 to 1450 A.D. It’s always amazing to me that these ruins still exist today, and even more surprising that we are allowed to walk through them.
Our final stop of the day was at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. None of us felt like going home to cook, so we enjoyed this particular stop a lot. Plus the food and company were great! Elaine and Robert have left today for their next stop, which is Picacho Peak, one of my favorite hikes. We plan on meeting up with them again in a few weeks as we all make our way towards California.
