12 March ‘08
Joelle arrived right on time yesterday and we all stayed close to the coach to do a little catching up on “family happenings”…but today is going to be something else. Louise and I had such a great time up at Tortilla Flats kayaking the other day, that we thought Joelle would enjoy it just as much. All of us were out of bed early, enjoyed breakfast, and headed out for a long day. Our first stop was at Goldfield, an old mining town.
Joelle arrived right on time yesterday and we all stayed close to the coach to do a little catching up on “family happenings”…but today is going to be something else. Louise and I had such a great time up at Tortilla Flats kayaking the other day, that we thought Joelle would enjoy it just as much. All of us were out of bed early, enjoyed breakfast, and headed out for a long day. Our first stop was at Goldfield, an old mining town.
Goldfield looks across a grass valley that climbs steeply up Superstition Mountain.
Superstition Mountain is where the many legends come regarding the “Lost Dutchman Gold Mine”. If this is where the mine was, it was never re-discovered, although many a man and woman had tried. An hour later we were winding our way through the spring flowers that have sprung forth covering the southern sides of just about every mountain and hill in southern Arizona.
A little later in the spring we will see the cactus bloom but for right now we’re looking for lunch. The last time we were at Tortilla Flats, we saw this great looking, but funky restaurant, so that was our goal for lunch. Twenty minutes later, after traveling this most beautiful winding and twisting road, we pull up in front of our destination…unfortunately, so did half of Arizona. The waiting line was no less than 2 hours before enough room would be made for us. Well that just wasn’t going to work. The ladies were really getting hungry so I went looking for an alternative, another restaurant… The “other” restaurant was 10 miles further down the road, but the “road” was DIRT !!! With two hungry ladies riding in the car, it meant only one thing…go for the dirt. This not only changed our lunch plans it changed our kayaking plans as well. On the other side, it meant that we had another choice of restaurants and hopefully we would have another location to explore by kayak. Fortunately all went well…we found that “other” restaurant (which was good, but I’d rather have had lunch at the first one), had lunch, and then continued for another 10 “dirt” miles to Lake Roosevelt. Just before the dam, we found a small campsite that gave us access to the river. Within 15 minutes, Joelle joined me in the kayak and we headed up-stream.
Just like it was further downstream at Tortilla Flats, the scenery and the water were perfect for kayaking…