The Apache Trail

Our latest Louis L'Amour novel is set in the mountains of Arizona surrounding the Salt River, in Apache country, and Jose thought it would be a good idea to take a drive through the mountains so we could see what it looks like. So, a week ago Saturday we set our course on the Apache Trail (most of it is unpaved but it's a "good dirt road;" that quote is another story for another day, but my family will get it.) and we had a blast! For more on the Apache Trail, click here.













Our first stop was at Tortilla Flat, Arizona. It's basically a two building town, complete with boardwalk. We bought some rock candy at the store and looked at the cowboy cookbooks and souvenirs, read the story of the Lost Dutchman, and took a few pictures.













The scenery along the trail was AMAZING. The cliffs are incredible and everything was green from our recent rains. I love this picture of Clark and Jose looking at each other. Jose was telling Clark to "Be nice and look at Mommy for the picture!" To which Clark responded, "Be nice Daddy! Be nice!" It was too cute.
















I have to admit, I wasn't excited about this next stop. Jose wanted to take Clark down to the water, and I didn't want either of them getting wet and getting back in the car! But they had a blast. The water was freezing and the wind was blowing pretty hard the whole day. Jose managed to bring Clark back to the car dry and only stepped in the water with one foot himself.

We had to get a saguaro cactus picture. They are gigantic and there were a million of them! At a growth rate of about an inch a year, this one is probably over 200 years old. We ended the four-hour trip at noon at Roosevelt Dam (as in Teddy, not Franklin), where we ate our picnic lunch and let Clark run around like a crazy man. Jose loved this quote from President Roosevelt, which is inscribed on one of the historical markers there:


"The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have, to me, it is most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful."