Arizona Grammy: August 2010

We need to do just a BIT of backtracking from yesterday.

Before the beautiful Sunset......

We went up to Thatcher, which is really only a few miles - maybe 4? - from Safford just to see the new Gila Valley LDS Temple.
(For those who aren't from around here, that is pronounced "Hee-la".)

It just opened this summer. We will go back and go inside when we have appropriate clothing - and not on a Saturday because they are pretty busy! But we wanted to see it. And maybe you would too....

On Highway 191 out after we left Safford
(taking the Scenic Highway cuz that's the BEST way to travel!)

You come to a town called Morenci.

Now, I know there are a lot of people who don't LIKE openpit mines.... and sometimes they are a bit ugly...

But sometimes, they unearth more of natures beauty....

Case in point?

See the three little dots on the road above the white marshmellow-looking thing on the left? Those are big, huge, MASSIVE trucks! The dump beds on them are so huge that a oneton truck could be put in them and have room to spare. HUGE!

I really wish you could totally capture the breathtaking

colors with a camera..... The colors were so much deeper and richer than they show here...

The small town itself tried to be pretty but it was pretty well dusted with a light reddish gray covering.... I'm sure that's one reason so many who live in those areas end up with lung issues.

And for that, I feel bad.

I apologize for the blurry shots - the car was moving -

but the colors are still wonderful, aren't they?

And now I must leave for work.....

Stay turned for Part 3!

This way you won't go nuts trying to read a really long blog!

You are welcome!

ROAD TRIP!

We decided we needed to take a weekend to ourselves so.....

We pulled out the map and decided where in this beautiful AZ

that we now call home would be our destination!

And true to form.....ahem......we had to stop about 1.5 hrs from home!

So this is a shot of just part of the beautiful rock formations around the rest stop!

There were these beautiful flowers along the side of the interstate.

Yep, we stopped! But I am a law-abiding citizen so we stopped on an off ramp!

Our first destination was to go up to the top of Mt Graham.

We are on the search for another place to camp.

We enjoy Mt Lemmon but the campsites are really steep and a LONNNG way up hills to the 'facilities'....

The picture on the left is the road up to the base of the mountain.

The one on the right is just partway up....the top of

Mt Graham is like 10,000 feet!

We used the Tom-Tom on this trip so we wouldn't get TOO lost...

not really a problem on THIS part of the trip because,

well, there was only one road and it ended up at the top!

But for giggles, we left Tom-ette on!

This is what she was showing us! This is just ONE of the major switchbacks on this road! Some corners were only 10 mph and I think that may have been a bit fast!

See that road down there? That's where we started....

I got more pictures going up but I didn't want to bore you!

Suffice it to say, it was ALL spectacular!

This was one of the campgrounds. We fell in love!

This is just a covered area - I guess to set up chairs to be out of storms or whatever.... This IS high up so they get lots of rain during the monsoon. The campground hosts said they got 8" from the storm the week before!

And this is what was behind one of the sites.....

Beautiful, right? And they said that the week before it was REALLY bubbling and rushing! But this is fine for me....

A lone quaking aspen at the camp site..... made my hubby a very happy man. He misses quakies.

Since we didn't bring camping gear, we forced ourselves to continue our journey UP!

Good thing we did! Look at what we found!

A whole GROVE of quakies! Be still my Idaho heart...... hubby was getting a bit homesick here at this point...

Can we all just take a moment to appreciate God's handywork?

Are these not beautiful? I don't know what any of them are but they were all over but this is the only place where I saw them all together in a beautiful group.

Who says you can't put pink, burgandy, orange, yellow and white all together? God does it!

Continuing on up, we came across this beautiful waterfall.

And we are still in AZ!

I got some video of it and it sounds beautiful but since I can't

get videos to load on here, you will just have to take my word for it!

This is where we ended up. It's not quite to the top but it was getting late and we didn't bring lunch (dumb, I know!) and the Cheeze-its we had been snacking on weren't cutting it anymore!

This lake is stocked with trout and while we were there visiting with the campground host, he got a bit and pulled in a nice pan-sized trout for dinner! He said the fishing there is pretty good most all year round - except from December until April when there is snow so they close the road up there.
Yes, it is green....since they had all the rain then warmer temps, the moss came to the top. But it was still pretty. Not big enough for boats, where is just as well because there is NO WAY you could get one up there, I'm thinking!

So we are going to have to go back with our tent, and etc...

along with fishing poles!

We are so danged excited to have found this place!

Only a bit over 3 hours to get there from our home! HEAVEN!

We headed back down the mountain and ate lunch then headed on north towards Showlow AZ...this is the beautiful sunset we drove in to! Sorry the picture isn't all the clear...we were driving trying to get to town so we could get a motel and settle in for the night.

I will post more later! The next day was very full!

Stay tuned for pictures of the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest....not to mention a spectacular open pit copper mine.

In vivid colors!

But for now....I'll leave you with the beauty of the setting sun....