The Apache Trail is a road trip where the journey is the fun and not the destination. Here are a few pictures that I took along the way. You can find the Apache Trail by taking U.S. 60 east to Apache Junction to the cutoff for AZ88/Idaho Road. Follow AZ88 through Apache Junction and you are on the trail. After you pass Tortilla Flat, the road is unpaved. Be prepared for 20+ miles of dirt road.

A few sights along the way include Canyon Lake, Tortilla Flat, Apache Lake, Roosevelt Dam, and Lake Roosevelt.

After living in Phoenix for 5 years, I finally decided to visit the Phoenix Zoo. The weather was beautiful with warm air and blue skies. The monkey exhibit was a lot of fun. The monkeys would run all over the place and were very fun to watch.

This Hummingbird just loved my water fountain. He would visit my fountain every day and splash around and drink the water.

The Aboretum was filled with color today. The birds were singing such sweet music and the trees were putting on a delightful color show. I hope you enjoy these photos from the day.

More info on Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Today was a beautiful cool day in Prescott with a wonderful cool breeze. These pictures are from Granite Dells. I joined some friends and went kayaking here. This is really a nice park with lots of water to explore.

This 4th of July I went to Prescott, AZ to escape the hot weather in Phoenix. Here’s some photos from the fireworks show. There was a really nice cool breeze blowing that helped keep it very pleasant for the show.

Lulu’s Bordello is looking very quiet tonight. I wonder where the floosy’s are? Visit during the day to learn some history of the women of the 1800′s.

The Coffee Cantina is also closed tonight. I don’t think they were expecting us. You will find Cappuccino, Espresso, Brunch, Lunch & Pastries here during the open hours.

The Blue Nugget pictured here with a golden sunset on the horizon. This shop features beautiful Sterling Silver jewelry and geological rocks. Also Native American Turquoise Jewelry, Rocks and Fossils.

At the bottom of the hill or near the entrance to the town is the Goldfield Station. Behind the station is where you board the train. A mile and a half of track circles the town, and the narrated journey lasts 20 minutes. The engineer tells of the history of Goldfield, the Superstition Mountains, and the desert southwest in general. The train departs every 35 minutes on a 20 minute journey. The ghosts may have taken the train out tonight.

Finally, the moon rises. The moon took its time reaching the top of the mountain — it was nearly 10pm when it peeks out.

On Saturday, we (My friend Russell and I) drove up to Payson and took Hwy 260 East to Ponderosa Campground. We checked out the campground and found a nice campsite that was open. The campsite was located towards the back of the park and had lots of good flat areas, a picnic table, firepit, bbq grill, and lots of pine trees that provided nice shade. We quickly setup camp and headed for the Mogollon Rim for exploring. 

The Mogollon Rim is about 10 miles east of the campground and about 1,800 feet higher in elevation. We stopped at several vista points along the rim road to scan the horizon and take pictures. The rim had recieved a lot of snow over the winter and has a thick base in some places. There is still snow on the ground from the winter and some pools of water from the recent snow that melted quickly. See the picture of the watery meadow. We drove about 13 miles out on the rim road, then returned to the vista point for sunset. Then it was back down the rim to the campground for dinner.

After dinner at the campground, we setup the camera on a tripod and got out the flashlights to paint some neat pictures. See the light paintings below.

The next day, we got up early, cooked some breakfast, then broke camp and headed for the rim again. On this day we drove the entire rim from east to west stopping many times for photos and views. We found a nice lake which had recently been stocked. See photo of the catch.

After exiting the rim road, we headed down to Strawberry and then through Pine and eventually down to Payson. Then it was back to Phoenix. We were sad to see the burning RV along the road from Pine down to Payson — Everyone made it out safely.

This was a really fun weekend with great weather. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The view of Four Peaks was kindly pointed out to me by a nice young girl who was enjoying a picnic near the river.