Scouting Campsites

[TonkaDriver]

Took off from home today for a 3 day trip to scout campsites for a trip in October to ride the eastern part of Arizona. We are going to ride the Coronado Trail one day and Salt River Canyon on another day. Haven't figured the third ride out yet. Grabbed a few photos from my GoPro videos of the ride between Payson and Showlow, AZ.

This is headed east out of Payson on US-260



One of the bridges spanning a creek.



This is the best stretch of the ride. In this section the highway climbs the face of the Mogollon Rim. There are spectacular views to the south all the way up.



Still climbing.



More Climbing.



Yep, Still climbing.



Top of the Rim.



Getting close to Showlow, AZ.



My home for the next two nights. The furniture is showing it's age but the place is clean. The a/c works the room comes with fridge, microwave and coffee maker. I like these older places because I am able to get a room where I can park by my door.



Tomorrow I will scout the area between here and Alpine to dry camp and enjoy the wilderness.

Kurt

 

[cScjhb]

A GREAT, but long, day circle ride...... Go south from Alpine on 191. One of the most spectacular motorcycle roads in the country. You'll eventually ride right through the Morenci Mine. Then just past Clifton, go left and over to 180 in New Mexico and head back north to Alpine. I think it's a ride you will enjoy. Looking forward to more pictures. You are riding in my part of the world and I do enjoy hearing from others about what they find..... Jim

 

[DK Custom Products]

Took off from home today for a 3 day trip to scout campsites for a trip in October to ride the eastern part of Arizona. We are going to ride the Coronado Trail one day and Salt River Canyon on another day. Haven't figured the third ride out yet. Grabbed a few photos from my GoPro videos of the ride between Payson and Showlow, AZ.

This is headed east out of Payson on US-260

View attachment 88659

One of the bridges spanning a creek.

View attachment 88660

This is the best stretch of the ride. In this section the highway climbs the face of the Mogollon Rim. There are spectacular views to the south all the way up.

View attachment 88661

Still climbing.

View attachment 88662

More Climbing.

View attachment 88663

Yep, Still climbing.

View attachment 88664

Top of the Rim.

View attachment 88665

Getting close to Showlow, AZ.

View attachment 88666

My home for the next two nights. The furniture is showing it's age but the place is clean. The a/c works the room comes with fridge, microwave and coffee maker. I like these older places because I am able to get a room where I can park by my door.

View attachment 88667

Tomorrow I will scout the area between here and Alpine to dry camp and enjoy the wilderness.

Kurt

Great photo's!

Man, looking at these makes me want to be out on a road trip!!! Enjoy!

Looking forward to exploring part of east AZ and some good times visiting.

Kevin

 

[TonkaDriver]

The Hunt Begins

Great photo's!

Man, looking at these makes me want to be out on a road trip!!! Enjoy!

Looking forward to exploring part of east AZ and some good times visiting.

Kevin

I can hardly wait. The first group of photos were nothing. These next 30 will sure do the trick.

This is a herd of horses on the White Mountain Apache Tribe lands



This is the kind of scenery you find all over the White Mountains.



It didn't take long to find a really good candidate for our camp. Just off Hwy 260 about 8-10 miles north of Greer, AZ







A few more landscapes.







Nelson reservoir, south of Springerville, AZ heading towards Alpine.



More in next post.

 

[TonkaDriver]

An old barn on the road to Alpine.



Misc shots on the way to Alpine









Not sure what these are but they sure are different.



Hwy-273 from Alpine to Hwy-260





This is what happens when you don't manage forest land. This is part of over 300K acres that burned after the Clinton Admin stopped all forest management on federal lands for 8 years.



This one is for Kevin.



More to come.

 

[TonkaDriver]

Some of the scenery along Hwy-273. Lots of trout lakes up in the high country.











Big Lake.





Construction delay.







A few more in the next post.

 

[TonkaDriver]

Hunting Day Completed

A couple of cloud photos for Mary.





Lucy during the delay.



Started with horses, may as well end with a couple. This is in McNary on tribal land.



I will post the trip home as soon as I get time. We are headed to the lake for a few days in the morning.

Kurt

 

[cScjhb]

Thanks Kurt. Enjoying the tour. I do Show Low-Salt River Canyon area a couple times a year. But, it's been a couple of years since I've been in the Springerville-Alpine area. You have me anxious to go back...... Jim

 

[DK Custom Products]

Fantastic Photo's Kurt! Mary still has camera envy.

No, we have not gotten a replacement camera yet. No trips so far this year, so we're continuing to wait as technology evolves.

When we were looking at the photo's of the spot you'd picked out, we thought it might we warmish...but then we looked the the elevation....8,000+ feet. That's great, we may even get some snow!

Mary said to tell you THANK YOU for the cloud pics.

Really looking forward to it!

Hope you have a great time down at the lake.

Kevin

 

[TonkaDriver]

Roosevelt Loop

This is what I will call the Roosevelt Loop. The route was US-60 West from ShowLow to Globe, AZ-188 from Globe to AZ-87 North to Payson, AZ-260 East from Payson to ShowLow. The first leg Takes you through the Salt River Canyon.

I agree with Kevin that signs like these mean there is fun ahead.



ShowLow is at a pretty high elevation of about 8000 Ft. and the Salt River is at about 2000 Ft. Needless to say you don't burn much fuel for about 50 miles.



This is where you start descending into the canyon.



The view from the first pull off area.











A view down to the Salt River.



Salt River from the bridge.



More ahead.

 

[cScjhb]

Just a bit of trivia. Most people, even locals, have no idea what the Salt River and Salt River Canyon names mean. The river is NOT salty. The acronym stands for Southwest Area Land Trust (S.A.L.T.) It is a series of 4 lakes and a river created to provide irrigation for agriculture in Arizona. A few years ago I asked one of the employees at the Roosevelt Lake Visitors Center if he knew what the name stood for. He didn't. The system terminates here in Mesa, AZ where the water is pumped from the diversion dam up to a canal system that flows through farms around here..... Jim

 

[TonkaDriver]

Roosevelt Loop Continued

Finishing the Salt River Canyon.

Another view of the river from the bridge.



A little riffle area.



The bridge.



20 miles from the river is Globe/Miami. The Company I work for owns the Miami smelter. The copper concentrate that we process in Bagdad is trucked here to be smelted into finished copper rod.



This is the AZ-188/87 leg of the loop approaching Roosevelt Lake which is fed by the Salt River in the south and Tonto Creek in the north.



The Roosevelt Lake Marina. This is where we will be staying for a few days. They have a small RV park right on shore.



Approaching the bridge that had to be built when they started raising the dam 26 feet. On the right are the homes that the dam and hydro-electric operators and mechanics live.



Rounding the curve to the junction with AZ-88 aka the Apache Trail which follows the river down to the Phoenix Metro area. There are three more lakes on the way down the trail.



Before this bridge was built we drove across the top of the dam. It was a one lane road so everyone had to cooperate.



Another view on the north end of the lake.



Finish it up in the next post.

 

[TonkaDriver]

Roosevelt Loop Finished

Someone likes the Dallas Cowboys.​

View attachment 88983

The trip across AZ-260 that was in the first post is the finishing leg of the loop. In total I did 879 miles on the trip. ​

View attachment 88984

When I took a few days away to come back up to the lake for some fishing I didn't know what was in store. As I was heading across to Bagdad a car was burning on AZ-87 almost straight west across the mountains from the marina which caused a brush fire. By the time we got setup at the lake and the boat launched this is what things looked like.​

Along with this going on I managed to lose my tackle box with about $1000 dollars in it and we ended up having to leave a day early to take our dog to the vet and have him put down. He was with us for 13 years and is a terrible loss.

The trip to the mountains was the best part of the week.

Kurt

 

[TonkaDriver]

Just a bit of trivia. Most people, even locals, have no idea what the Salt River and Salt River Canyon names mean. The river is NOT salty. The acronym stands for Southwest Area Land Trust (S.A.L.T.) It is a series of 4 lakes and a river created to provide irrigation for agriculture in Arizona. A few years ago I asked one of the employees at the Roosevelt Lake Visitors Center if he knew what the name stood for. He didn't. The system terminates here in Mesa, AZ where the water is pumped from the diversion dam up to a canal system that flows through farms around here..... Jim

Here is text from an article on AZCentral.com on the origin of the name.

"The Salt River is a major source of water for the Valley. But unless we’ve had a lot of rain, the riverbed is dry through Phoenix, so it’s hard to get a feel for this vital watercourse. And where did it get that name?The Salt begins in eastern Arizona where the Black and White rivers meet. The entire watershed, which comes out of the White Mountains, is 13,000 square miles, fed by snowmelt, rain and mountain streams. The river itself is about 200 miles long.Just below the Black-White confluence are salt banks, which raise the salinity of the water, said Ileen Snoddy, coordinator of heritage for Salt River Project. King Woolsey, a rancher, prospector and guide who lived in Arizona during pioneer times, thought the banks might prove useful as a salt mine.“He had seen the salt banks, and he tried to mine them for table salts,” Snoddy said.At the turn of the 20th century, salt was important. In addition to being used at the table, it was used to cure meat.Woolsey was never able to turn a profit from the mine, though, because the salt was mixed in with a lot of other elements and was difficult to extract.Woolsey, who was “always looking for things to do, always looking to make a buck,” moved on to other ventures.The salt banks are now part of the Fort Apache Reservation and are off-limits to non-tribal members. The only way to see them is by boat during the spring, when rafting companies make runs down the river."

​Kurt

​

 

[paws]

Kurt.. i am sorry for the loss of your little fella... they are so close and special to us.

 

[TonkaDriver]

Attachments

I reloaded all the photos that weren't showing.

Kurt

 

[DK Custom Products]

Kurt & Sally,

Kevin and I are so sorry for your loss. We enjoyed meeting Lizard and the video was definitely a slice of his attitude. One of a kind, that boy.

Lots of hugs.

Mary4Kevin2

 

[evermill]

A GREAT, but long, day circle ride...... Go south from Alpine on 191. One of the most spectacular motorcycle roads in the country. You'll eventually ride right through the Morenci Mine. Then just past Clifton, go left and over to 180 in New Mexico and head back north to Alpine. I think it's a ride you will enjoy. Looking forward to more pictures. You are riding in my part of the world and I do enjoy hearing from others about what they find..... Jim

Agree with riding the Devil's Highway (US 191), lots of twisties, and wildlife. Since I live south of the highway I mostly go up it the then head over to Pinetop via 260. Maybe we will see each other on the road.

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Sorry for your loss Kurt ... I know it well.

 

[BILLIJAK]

Someone likes the Dallas Cowboys.​

View attachment 89005View attachment 88983

View attachment 89006

The trip across AZ-260 that was in the first post is the finishing leg of the loop. In total I did 879 miles on the trip. ​

View attachment 88984

When I took a few days away to come back up to the lake for some fishing I didn't know what was in store. As I was heading across to Bagdad a car was burning on AZ-87 almost straight west across the mountains from the marina which caused a brush fire. By the time we got setup at the lake and the boat launched this is what things looked like.​

View attachment 89008Along with this going on I managed to lose my tackle box with about $1000 dollars in it and we ended up having to leave a day early to take our dog to the vet and have him put down. He was with us for 13 years and is a terrible loss.

The trip to the mountains was the best part of the week.

Kurt

That Dallas Cowboys bike must be from the Apache Junction area....I've seen it several times, over the winter, there and south towards Queen Creek. Also, been seen at Superstition HD in Apache. You just know...and I mean know...there is only one of those around!

Bill