The Apache Trail Circle Route
There’s gold out here all right …
but maybe it’s not in the ground.
After Rose and I escaped Yuma, we bolted across the Sonoran Desert to Phoenix – stopping briefly to gas up our steed and grab a quick milkshake at Dateland oasis.
Come morning Rose had a hankering to go exploring and found a old map of a thing called The Apache Trail Circle Route. I figured (wrongly again ) that this would be just a nice drive amongst some touristy venues in the area …
Imagine my surprise to find that it turned out to be thousands of miles of driving through sweltering desert over razor sharp boulders in rattlesnake, scorpion, and Indian infested wilderness … to nowhere.
OK, OK … I’m exaggerating …
Things started well …
Superstition Mountain
Seems that Apache Trail starts near Superstition Mountain – a nice happen-stance as I always wanted to see that. And as you can tell by the map (above) there is a lot of tourist venues in the area – including Superstition Museum, Lost Dutchman State Park … etc. Many other attractions are not even on our map.
Jutting up out of the desert landscape Superstition Mountain is indeed an impressive and imposing sight. I can imagine many tales and legends surrounding it – even if the famous Dutchman and his legendary gold mine never existed.
The Mining Camp Restaurant
Rose and I were getting lost … we didn’t have a map. So we turned into the first likely looking place to get one. It was called
The Mining Camp Restaurant.
Inside we found a nice gift shop and a large Western style restaurant.
We picked up our map and took a few pics outside.
The Prospector’s Mill … has seen a better day.
Some of the old mining equipment was interesting …
Coming up … Goldfield Ghost Town and Apache Trail
Share this:
I have a lot of pretty much the same pictures from the same angles. Maybe that’s what there is to shoot in Arizona? I did love it, though. I would have been nice if it hadn’t been 124 degrees, but it was gorgeous, if sweaty 🙂 Did you get to the old Pueblo ruins?
Unfortunately, we had very limited time – only about 1 day, because my dental took longer than we hoped (as usual). There was a lot of things to see around there, but no time. Luckily it was October – so not 124 !!!
Couldn’t handle that. Would loved to have seen those Pueblo ruins though.
Next time. They are amazing.