Arizona, Mesa - Wednesday, April 5, 2017 - Bulldog Canyon

This is our last play day in Mesa until we are back again in November.  We have signed our commitment letter to work here in Val Vista Villages again next year.  We will be leaving the resort next Tuesday.  We need to stop at the Cummins facility here in town before we head back across the country.  They have to figure out what is causing our check engine light to come on, as soon as they can accomplish that and fix it we will be starting our trek back to Indiana, arrival date sometime mid-May.  Looking forward to seeing former high school classmates at our 50 year reunion.  Hope they have name tags with big letters for all of us, I’m sure we have changed just a little (and our eyesight isn’t what it used to be).

Off Highway Trail 1356 in Bulldog Canyon is our destination for today.  We are on our own today, our friend Bill had to work.  This cute little blooming cactus was the first thing I saw as we came through the gate – looks promising to see a more colorful desert this time out.

This trail is super rocky.  We had our GoPro camera affixed to the front bumper recording a video and when we replayed that video it didn’t look like the front bumper ride was nearly as difficult as it was inside the Jeep.  My seatbelt seized up a few times (as if in accident mode) because I was bumping around so much.

This view made me a little hesitant since we haven’t been on this trail before, wondered what was over the hill that we couldn’t see, hoping there was still trail there.  Greg didn’t hesitate, just floored it up the hill and hoped for the best.

Mountain views along this trail are spectacular.

I still don’t know the names of all the different cacti.  I know I like the flowers on this one.

I know that this fuzzy looking one is a chainfruit cholla.

The desert is indeed “in bloom”.  “In bloom” in the desert is a bit different from “in bloom” back in the Midwest where tulips and daffodils will be “in bloom”.  The colors here are provided by grasses of various colors, pink, green, beige, brown, yellow and lots of very small blooms of orange, blue, yellow and purple combined with the larger blooms of some of the cacti.  The tall plant with red blooms that look like little birds is an ocotillo.

While Greg is closing and locking the trail gate I jumped out to get a picture of the Jeep.

From Bulldog Canyon we pulled out onto State Route 88 which is part of the Apache Trail.  The first place of interest that we passed was Canyon Lake.

Steamboat tour rides are offered on this lake, which is on the list for next year.  You can see the Dolly Steamboat off to the right in this picture.

The Lakeside Restaurant is also on Canyon Lake.

These are the views from our lakeside patio table when we stopped for lunch.

Tortilla Flats, AZ (population 6) is just past Canyon Lake.  This is the view of the whole town.  We didn’t stop because we couldn’t find a place to park.  This is the last surviving stagecoach stop on the historic Apache Trail.  A stop at the restaurant here is also on the list for next year.

Don’t know the name of this interesting rock formation.  This area we are going to be going through next is considered Arizona’s “Jr. Grand Canyon”.  It was created by a violent volcanic past.

More of the desert in bloom.

I got out of the Jeep to take this picture.  Kept my eyes and ears open for rattlesnakes, this is the season and I have no desire to see one.

This is what we were looking for, not all of Route 88 is paved.  We’ll have about 30 miles of unpaved road before we get to our final destination of Roosevelt Lake.

This road looks smooth, but the picture is so deceiving, this road is a teeth-rattling washboard most of the way.  I’m glad we ventured on in spite of the washboard, the scenery was magnificent.  Most of the views were on the driver’s side and there were too few places to pull over to take pictures so the most spectacular views are probably just in our memories.

A new plant has started showing up on this leg of our trip.

Just beyond the bright green bush is a drop off into a beautiful deep canyon.  These were taken at one nice rest stop area.

This area is called Fish Creek Hill.

Some of this road is one lane only and curves like this are common where you have no idea what is coming at you.

Several one lane bridges also.

We are near the bottom of the canyon now.

As we were coming out of the canyon the views were still breathtaking.

Apache Lake is just outside of the canyon.

Last look at desert blooms

Our final stop of the day is a short drive around part of Roosevelt Lake checking out some of the RV sites available here.

Arizona, Mesa - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - Off Highway in Bulldog Canyon

Last week we got our permit to go off highway in the desert at Bulldog Canyon.  Even though target practice is prohibited, looks like some people can’t read.

We headed in behind our friend, Bill.  He works at the grill also and does a lot of off roading with his Jeep.

The pictures I took on this excursion were taken through dusty windows while bouncing up and down (the road was a lot rougher and narrower than I anticipated).  We spent most of the day out here and had a good time.

A lot of the pictures I took through the front window had my reflection in them when the sun was hitting just right.

The horses didn’t really want to share the road.  We got lucky and only met two vehicles coming toward us, luckily there was room to pull off the road so both vehicles could be accommodated.

This is Bill getting a little more adventuresome than we are (or at least me).

The scenery out here is beautiful but the desert isn’t in full bloom yet – maybe next week.  Since we have had so much rain it is anticipated by everyone around here that the desert blooms will be great.

We did pass this one spot where the desert poppies were beautiful.

We stopped for a photo op at a place where the road was wide enough that other vehicles could pass us.  Our Jeep is the one in back.

We left home at 10:00 and rode on the trails until we took a lunch break at the Saguaro Lake Marina restaurant.

This is where I got my only wildlife shot of the day.

We took a tour of this lake last year, it is huge and the scenery is amazing.  After lunch we headed back to the desert.