Roosevelt Lake Camping and Queen Creek Canyon

Sunday, November 26th

Today the plan is to go to the Tonto National Monument, which are cliff dwellings located quite close to our campsite. Two years ago we drove into the parking lot but I was having such difficulty with my plantar fasciitis at the time, was unable to hike up to the cliff dwelling so we passed on visiting it.

Picture from Google

Unfortunately Ray woke up with very sore knees and back. We've been walking up and down quite a bit in the last week and his knees are starting to hurt more and more. Ray's had previous surgery on both knees so hopefully this does not mean more trouble to come for him. We will give our car to Dianne and Steve to use to view the ruins and we will keep it on our list for another time. Ray and I love to stay in this area anyways. Steve and Dianne managed to get a spot on the long hike up to the second dwelling as there was a cancellation. You can only see this dwelling via a tour. That hike would be too far for Ray and I to go anyways. We only plan to see the lower dwelling when we get a chance to go.

Note: As it turned out the escorted hike was really long and hard about 3 miles total with about 12 switchbacks up the mountain. After Dianne and Steve did that one and had a bit of a rest they hiked up to the other cliff dwelling from the Visitor's Centre. They said that although the path is paved, it was steeper so we are glad we did not go with them. Ray and I thought that they would be gone for about 3 hours but it turned out closer to 5 hours. A long day for them in the hot sun. So I think we will just give ourselves a pass on this one. lol

It is nice for us to have a "down day" after being quite busy and Ray had a "toes up" day. Freya had a couple of swims, as well. It was a pretty quiet in the campsite after most people had left, other than the trailer behind us who started their generator at 7am and did not shut if off all day until 10pm. They did not run it the day before that long, so they must be having fridge trouble. Annoying anyways though.

Ray and I did see a couple of coyotes walk right across the road a couple campsites up from us twice yesterday. They sure are big. This is the back end of Steve and Dianne's rig.

The coyote is almost as big as Freya.

A short happy hour with Dianne and Steve and then we all called it a night early, about 5:30. No one was interested in sitting outside with a fire with all of the generator noise and Steve and Dianne were bushed from their hiking.

Monday, November 27th

We all had a relaxing morning, as our scheduled departure for our next adventure was not until 11:30 am. Our noisy neighbours finally left. Yeah! Anyways, we made our journey down Highway 60 to Superior for lunch at Porters Cafe. First we stopped at the Visitor Centre but they were closed. We had a quick look around at some of their old mining equipment.

View of Superior

The cafe have new ownership over the past year ... the owner does help out, the burgers are still fabulous and they do try with the service to get your food in a timely manner. Today, unfortunately one of their servers called in sick ... the owner stepped in to fill the gap and within a half an hour they had another staff member show up. Good thing as the place became packed on a Monday afternoon. So, our experience was pretty good. I can see where the other negative comments came from on google reviews, but from working in a restaurant many years ago, I understand their struggles. Everyone, once they got "into their groove", was very friendly and competent in getting us taken care of.

Very ecletic decorations.

Good size portions.

After we left with full tummy's, I drove us back to Lake Roosevelt, making many stops for Ray and Steve to photograph the canyon and rock formations along Queen Creek.

One of the mountains that Ray wanted to photograph was Apache Leap or also known as Apache Tears.

The Legend of the Apache Tears is a story of 75 brave Apache warriors who were camped on a mountain, and who were attacked by soldiers of the U.S. Cavalry. In the sneak attack, 50 of the Apaches were killed within minutes, while those that remained retreated to the edge of a cliff. Realizing that they had nowhere to go, the remaining warriors chose to leap to their death, rather than to die at the hands of the white man.

When the women and children discovered their beloved husbands, fathers, and sons dead at the bottom of the cliff, they began to weep. And as their tears fell, black stones were formed on the white, sandy earth for every tear that hit the ground. These are Apache Tears. Legend has it that anyone who has any of the stones, the Apache Tears, should never need to cry again...because the Apache women cried enough tears for all who mourn. Some believe that the stones themselves carry spiritual and healing powers.

Obsidian

Panoramic view of Apache Leap 

Queen Creek Bridge

Queen Creek Tunnel

There is no water in the creek this time.

Once back home it was time for happy hour and we had a lovely fire. We managed to snag a few extra pieces along the road into the campsite where they were brushing out earlier today. There was only 1 other unit in our loop left, so very quiet. While enjoying our beverages we even saw a red cardinal.

Our last sunset over Roosevelt Lake

Ray, me, Dianne and Steve all called it a night at 6:30 pm. Tomorrow we all go our separate ways for two weeks and then will meet up again at the Lost Dutchman State Park for a week, mid-December.

The end of spending one month together touring around and we still enjoy each other's company! Cheers to that!

Besh-Ba-Gowah Ruins, Globe AZ

Saturday, November 25th

Today is our "Turkey Day" and I'm cooking on the barbecue. As there's lots of prep to do, the rest of the crew headed out at 8:30 into Globe to see the Besh-Ba-Gowah museum. (I've seen it 2 years ago anyways.) They toured the exhibit for an hour, and were back at camp well before lunch as Dianne wanted the afternoon to bake. I'd just enough time to get my prep done and have a shower in the parks facilities. They were hot and free. Great for conserving water and grey water space! :)

Besh-Ba-Gowah is a 200 room prehistoric Salado masonry pueblo located atop a broad ridge overlooking Pinal Creek. One mile southwest of the City of Globe, Arizona, stand the ruins of the ancient Salado people who occupied the site nearly 800 years ago.This ancient village is known today as Besh Ba Gowah. The term was originally given by the Apaches to the early settlement of Globe. Roughly translated, the term means “place of metal.” The partially restored ruins, along with the adjacent museum provide a fascinating glimpse at the lifestyle of the people who occupied this region over two centuries before Columbus discovered the “New World.”Besh Ba Gowah offers visitors a chance to explore the ruins, a museum which houses a large collection of Salado pottery and artifacts, botanical gardens, and a gift shop.

And Ray will take the narration from here:

My favorite picture of the day.

Above is the view of the ruins from the parking lot leading to the museum. There's a wonderful desert garden surrounding the ruins, pic below.

First stop is the museum displaying artifacts found during the restoration project.

The layout of the village.

Foods consumed by the Salado, grown at the museum garden.

Cotton woven material

Lovely pottery

Woven containers

Then off to see the site.

In the layout above you see the trail from the bottom right (museum) and then the wide line leading to the main courtyard.  This was the only entrance to the facility in the day. The two pics below show this passage, which would've been covered and dark back then.

We first walked the area to the left of the passage.

And then into the main building.

Roof structure

Typical family "apartment"

View of the second floor ceiling

Then out the other side to the remainder of the site.

This displays the four foundation types used in construction

Picture by Dianne

The sign says it all!

Monarchs

After they got back, everyone was "holed up" in their respective coaches working on their pictures and blogs for a good part of the afternoon. I put the turkey on the barbeque about 3:30 pm and everyone came outside and joined me.

Cheers!

About 4:30 Steve started the fire. I monitored our turkey in the barbecue.



We sat down around 5:45 for our Thanksgiving turkey dinner  with mashed spuds, dressing, roasted asparagus and homemade "turkey jam". Dianne made a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

I took me a week to find a small enough turkey to cook. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package to find that both the wings and legs had been chopped off and it was only the breast! Fortunately it turned out nice and moist.

We served up inside to keep the food warm and then went back outside to eat.

Very warm out and a beautiful evening, although a little noisy with all of the surrounding generators. At 7 pm we all called it a night. Another fabulous day.