I love the Arizona deserts: the rocks, the cacti, the mountains. There is a LOT of desert. That’s why it’s even more stunning to find blue blue water nestled among the mountains. After we hiked up to Praying Hands and back, the afternoon was still young, and I’d not had my fill of gorgeous scenery, fresh air and sunshine. We’d seen signs for Canyon Lake on our way to Lost Dutchman State Park and so we thought we’d head that direction. According to the maps, Rt 88 would lead us directly to Canyon Lake. Canyon Lake is one of 4 reservoirs created off the Salt River.
I was slightly better this trip than I’ve been in the past. I only pulled the car over once so that I could inhale scenery and take pictures. It is so beautiful. My photos never quite capture the magnitude of the views, but I keep trying. Rt 88 is an incredibly twisting curving winding 2-lane road. When we headed out of Lost Dutchman the posted sign said ’25 mph”. I mentioned to my son that I thought perhaps that was unduly cautious and wondered why. He said, being prescient, that maybe it was because the road was going to be twisting ahead. (I was driving, he was looking at maps.)
Rt 88 is definitely twisty. With beautiful views. There was a lot of traffic on the road. It was a Saturday, gorgeous weather, out in the country. A LOT of motorcycles. We came around a curve to a stupendous view but there was no place to stop. As soon as I saw a spot ahead I pulled over – as had several other cars. Unfortunately where I was did not have as great a view as the middle of the road just prior to my pulling over. I decided that it was probably NOT a good idea to walk back and stand in the middle of the road by a blind curve. 🙂 Just take my word for it.
I got back in the car and we continued on and reached the overlook for Canyon Lake. Breathtaking. As we made our way down Rt 88 to the lake I pulled over yet again to take photos from another angle. Between the rock faces and the water I wanted to stand there and stare forever.
We got down to the actual parking and boat launch area and got out of the car to walk around a bit. We shared the water’s edge with some ducks. I took a video of the gentle lapping of the water at the edge – poetry for my soul.
There is a little town, Tortilla Flat, right along the lake. It was jammed packed with people. It looked to be the most amazing “tourist trap” I might have ever seen. My son kept describing it as the epitome of kitsch. 🙂 Yes, we were probably being unduly harsh. There IS a US post office there – it’s a real town. And if you click through on the link you will see that there is an official population of 6. I really should have taken some photos but I had no idea I was going to want them. 🙂
According to the website: “Tortilla Flat is an authentic remnant of an old west town, nestled in the midst of the Tonto National Forest, in the Superstition Mountain Range. Tortilla Flat started out as a stagecoach stop in 1904 and neither fire nor flood has been able to take away this historic stop along the Historic Apache Trail.” We did see lots of folks enjoying ice cream and further down the road a motorcyclist told me that the “best fudge ever” can be had in Tortilla Flat.
We decided we were not in the mood to deal with all those folks so we continued east on Rt 88. According to the map we could reach Roosevelt Lake, another reservoir created off Salt Lake. More twists and curves and bends, but now there were very few cars.
The road climbed up and there was an overlook and a sign. The sign said that the road was closed ahead and that there was no pavement past the sign (that was true – we could see that). I pulled over and got out to take some photos. There were 2 motorcyclists there as well and I asked one of them if it was true about the road.
He said that it was, that the Woodbury Fire of 2019 that raged through Tonto National Forest had destroyed the road and the bridge. He said that the only way we could reach Roosevelt Lake was to go back to the highway (a good 30 minutes away) and head NORTH, and then approach Roosevelt Lake from the north. I did a little research once I was home and it was not actually the fire that destroyed the bridge. It was the horrendous rain storms in 2020 over the fire-scarred terrain which caused massive landslides and wiped out the bridge.
It was already late in the afternoon by that time, and it would have been getting dark by the time we reached the lake. We’ll have to do that another time and hope that the roads are open and we can get there. There is, of course, a lot of controversy over re-opening Rt 88. Arizona DOT has said they will NOT reopen the road until it is reforested (which will take years). We will have to get there from the north when we go.
We turned around and headed back the way we’d come, all the way back to Chandler. By that point I was exhausted. I’d gotten something in my eye at the last stop and my eye was hurting and tearing – I made my son do the drive back home. I got into the hotel pool & hot spa to recuperate before we headed out to dinner. I leave you with this video of gentle waves upon the shore. 🙂
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I do prefer lots of long days of sunshine, but there is pleasure to be had walking out of the office at sunset on a winter’s day. The sky is filled with color, and the windows capture the flames.
I walked out of the airport to wait for my ride and the air was the proverbial wall of heat. The first errand, before we even reached the hotel, was to buy gallons of water and a water bottle. The very next errand involved buying protection for the car: cloth seat covers and a leather steering wheel cover. We tried for Rx sunglasses for my son but we didn’t have the Rx so we ended up buying clip-on shades for his driving glasses. We became skilled at searching parking lots for nearly denuded trees that cast even a sliver of shade. We noted the position of the sun, east and west, rising and setting. The sunroof was closed and covered (my sunroof at home is open unless it’s raining). The car a/c was on full blast all the time. 
Even the birds in Tempe have the brains to shelter from the sun. We came out of one store the other day and started laughing. There was a flock of pigeons gathered UNDER the car next to us. No fool THEY!
We spent a good part of both Thursday and Friday parked in the Chandler Sunset public library – free wifi, a/c, water and bathrooms. 🙂 What a fantastic library! It is everything a modern library could be. I was so envious, because I live in a town with a much older library, which is also much more constrained in square feet. I’d be thrilled to have a library at home like the spacious, well-equipped Sunset library. We could spread out our maps and check room and apartment ads against the areas we’d been told to avoid and told to seek. 
Even so we would have to go out to the car and drive to view apartments, get lunch, meet prospective landlords and achieve other objectives (found a congregation so he’ll have some place to go for the upcoming holidays – even met someone from that congregation). Once we found living quarters, we were hunting for furnishings. We have also learned which phone gives the best directions. I regret to say that while my phone would get us to the right place, she’d often have us in the back of the building with no access. 🙂 We did quite well, however, figuring out how to circle about to get where we needed to be. 
Everyone assures me that Tempe during the “season” is idyllic – I’ll love it. I was quite willing to believe that until we spoke to Luisa (a native Arizonan) yesterday. SHE told me that in February, when I hope to return, the temperatures can range from 50 to 70. Fahrenheit. I’m sorry – that is NOT idyllic – that is COLD. *unhappy expression* I do hope she was exaggerating the low end of that, although 70 is not warm enough for me either. I guess I’ll find out for sure come February. There are also wonderful mountains on the horizon, and in some cases, right at the end of the street. 🙂 The one at the end of the street is at the other end of the street from ASU.
That one day should have about 5 separate posts to cover all that happened. We got on the road around 8am as I mentioned. We made it all the way to Merritt (about 3 -4 hours) where we stopped at the Walmart. My sister, an avid RVer has assured me that the first stop on ANY cross-country trip is at the Walmart for whatever you forgot. We decided we wanted to get shades/filters for the rear windows of the SUV for better protection for the cats (the windows are tinted but it was feeling warm to us and we were concerned for them). We picked up some lunch for Honour and some rice crackers for me (I had breakfast, she didn’t) and gas for the car and a piddle break for the dog. 
I’ve been joking about the haze and not seeing the mountains, but in Merritt it abruptly ceased to be amusing. We stepped out of the car and could not breathe. There was so much smoky particulate matter in the air. We were coughing, our throats scratchy and dry. Haze so thick you couldn’t see the mountains. It smelled. It was akin to sticking your head into the smoke from a campfire. We looked at all the people walking about without masks, having their windows open, dogs hanging out of car windows panting. I have never experienced anything like that – not even the time we went to help a friend collect what was left when his apartment burned. I don’t understand how these people are getting by day to day with this air. 
The car was coated in light soot. I shudder to think what is happening to everyone’s lungs. We were very happy to get back in the car, shut the windows and keep driving. 
On the other hand, I DO have photos!! I will at some point even crop them and insert them into this blog. The road to Revelstoke runs along Shuswap Lake – a HUGE beautiful lake with many resorts and lodges for water and mountain sports. Everything was quite beautiful with mountains and lake and, of course, the ubiquitous haze. 
After Revelstoke we began the real climb up into the Rockies. We were already up high in mountains and I asked Honour – is THIS the Rockies and she said no. And I said – how will I know? And she said – They’re going to get bigger. So leaving Revelstoke they did inded begin to get bigger. And I would have been half-way to purchasing my private jet. We realized at one point that we could actually see shadows on the road and that there was sun – and MUCH less haze. We could see many mountains, not just the one in front of us. 
It was gorgeous. Breathtaking. I can look at mountains all day long. We made it up to Rogers Pass, which my map informs me has an elevation of 1327 meters (4364 feet). The time changed at Rogers Pass – we lost an hour. Probably tossed it in the garbage back in Revelstoke when we cleaned the car. 
BUT we still do have a really good shot of the fire fighting in action. Again – this may not have been the experience most think of for crossing the Rockies and seeing mountains, but it was quite awe-inspiring. Seeing those many many fires burning away really brought home, along with the air, what “wildfires” means.
We decided we’d drive to Banff and get a room there. So we got back on Rt 1 and headed out of town. Heading out of town on Rt 1 entails a descent down a mountain. A very curvy steep descent. Where our lane is on the outside. Did I mention Honour doesn’t like heights much either? It was an interesting ride. I did mention (gently, I hope, although perhaps I am mistaken) that it would be a tad easier on me without the soundtrack of gasps, pants and “the speed limit is 5km (that’s a lie – the km, not her saying it). I suggested that she close her eyes and not watch but she was the proverbial deer in the headlights. 
Oh my that is absolutely gorgeous!!! You might not know this but that’s a national park too. And there are only 6 hotels in the Lake Louise vicinity. This was not the information we’d hoped for. We sat down to eat some dinner and got out our phones and began searching for hotels. Not just any hotel, you understand, but one that would take pets. Oh – did you FORGET about Jamie and the boys? I found A room in Canmore (about 30 minutes further down the road) but alas, they didn’t want Jamie. We found their attitude offensive and decide the heck with Canmore if that’s how they were going to behave. Looking past Canmore there’s not really much until Calgary. Calgary has an airport. Airports have hotels. We were pretty sure we could find a room for all 3 of us (the boys said they preferred to room in the car) at SOME hotel there. 
Indeed we called ahead and book a room in Calgary, another 2 ½ hours eastward.
Neither Fergus nor Duff are really enjoying this adventure. Fergus has made that clear periodically. I do hope my cats don’t know those words. Duff, however, has passed beyond speech and sat frozen in the back of the crate, eyes larger than any eyes have a right to be, growling whenever Honour attempted to go near him. We were both getting a bit concerned about Duff. We decided that maybe we needed to find a doctor in Calgary and let Duff spend some time on the analytic couch. We are also supposed to be meeting up with our friend Calli, who lives somewhere in the prairies of Canada. East of Calgary but we really weren’t sure were exactly. She’d emailed us to ask when we thought we’d be there. As YOU all know, the answer could be tomorrow, next week, never. I sent Calli an email saying “not sure when, need a vet, please call if you can”. We reached Calli as we were approaching Calgary. She had some brilliant ideas on what we might be able to do for Duff. Her suggestions were very helpful but even more importantly – they helped calm us down a bit with regard to worrying. 
We are cruising on Highway 1, the cats quiet in the way back, Jamie quiet in the back seat, and Honour and I singing along with Adele. We did set out at 7 am but only to go to the store for ice, Starbucks for coffee and bagel. We sat in the parking lot and set up the GPS, the multi-charger and the trip odometers. We did discover that one of the outlets in the car does NOT work. But since the multi-charger has a zillion USB ports, we plugged the GPS in that. We have also learned that duct tape does not stick to the dashboard of Honour’s car. WHY would we have learned this? Since we have to use the USB port for the GPS, the GPS can’t be mounted on the window. I thought I could duct tape it to the dash (what? You DON’T travel with a roll of duct tape????) but to my great dismay and astonishment – duct tape wouldn’t stick. 
I must say this crushing on a personal level as I have ALWAYS put my faith in the power of duct tape. 
We had to wait for the next red light so I could show Honour the picture because I thought it looked like an arm rest but could not see the buttons on her arm rest. She looked at the picture and said – that’s the console! So I moved the GPS and indeed, there was the seat warmer button. It was on Hi so we can confirm that not only does it work but Hi does warm up very very quickly. I turned it off. 
I have also learned that Honour has an even bigger bridge phobia than I do. This from a woman who has spent the last few decades in a place named Delta, surrounded by water and bridges. This means that right from the get-go, we deviated from the Trip-Tik and all of the well meaning advice I have been given over the last 3 days. Rather than taking the recommended routes to Highway 1, which ALL involved bridges, we headed east on the local rural back roads. I resorted to the GPS and my phone since I could not find the roads on the map. But credit where credit is due. Honour was correct and we met up with Highway 1 far east of where the Trip-Tik would have met it. So we are, as I type, computer plugged into the wonderful multi-charger, just about to reach Hope, BC.
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