TONTO NATIONAL FOREST - AZ

It seems all streets in Mesa appear to end at the mountains, whether going north, south, east or west!! It is beautiful.

On our way out of Mesa to the APACHE HISTORIC TRAIL, I found this contrast of modern hotel and casino and the desert around it and mountains beyond very beautiful also! Some day we might stop in at the casino for fun, but our interest for this day was The Tonto National Forest, Tortilla Flats, and Theodore Roosevelt Lake east of Mesa AZ.

As you can see from the road signs

and the continued curves around the mountains, looking very rustic, that we did much winding and switching back and forth that day!

Here Gary seems to be taking a closer look to find the way! But, no, we are not lost. We are just looking closer at the sights!

At one of our stops we ran into another much younger couple who were much in awe of the sights also. They offered to take our picture and we also took theirs in return.

At the stop where our picture was taken, we were looking down into this valley where the electrical high tension wires ran.

When you enlarge this picture, you can see them. It give you some idea of our height.

We again continue to drive on. Oh-h-h, but where will we end up??

We stopped again to watch the young people climbing down the mountain sides. What is the interest??

The cars and pieces of cars that are rusting away in the valley!! We imagined that some did not make those curves as well as we did!!

We could have stopped at the local saloon at Tortilla Flats for a drink or lunch, but decided to keep on going. After all, we still had a way to go to get to Theodore Roosevelt Lake!

However, we are soon to find out that this low land was indicating that we are in

washout area!! After seeing the floods in Northwest Arizona this week where houses broke up and floated down the rivers, we could imagine what the torrents in this valley could be!!

We soon came upon a road closed sign indicating that we would never reach TR Lake this day! So we pulled into a parking area near the signs and walked around taking in all of the views from this mountain side.

We watched as some (younger) folks decided not to heed the road closed sign, but changed their mode of transportation to "feet", and continued on down the mountain where cars were not permitted. We did not stay around to hear what they experienced, but left going back the way we had come and stopped next at Canyon Lake.

BEAUTIFUL !!

We even saw an RV campground near the lake and also stopped at a lakeside restaurant for lunch. Looking out the restaurant window over the deck, we watched the paddle boat leave with a tour group.

Our next stop was at the Goldfield Mining Ghost town.

Much of it made you think that you were living back a century!!

All very interesting. Gary looked over the old mining equipment sitting around. Most of it was still in pretty good condition. However, we did not take the walking tour down into the mine.

We thought that since we did not reach our ultimate destination, we might try to reach it from another direction and road later. Our oldest son might be coming to stay for a week of vacation soon. Maybe we will keep that trip for something to do with him.

Check back with us. And a Very Merry Christmas to all !!