20.5/18 Moving up in Arizona; Location and Elevation-wise

While at Boyce Thompson Southwest Arboretum the days were hot and sultry; temperatures near 100° wiped Jean out by 1 or 2 o’clock. Each afternoon we sought comfort with Dairy Queen cones in Superior on the short 7 mile drive past Magma Mine to primitive Oak Flat campground at 4,000 ft. which had day temperatures around a more comfortable 85°. We had been assured the overcast sky would not bring rain, but after dinner on the 16th we heard “ping, . ping” on the roof. Big drops of rain? Look! Hail! Now it was ping!, ping!, ping!, ping! - a veritable barrage. Quarter inch stones of ice soon covered the ground, steam rising as they quickly melted. The sky darkened and we were treated to a scary thunder and lightning storm. We slept cool and comfortable that night.

Theodore Roosevelt Lake
On the 18th, on our way to Sedona via the scenic back-roads, we stopped at a view point for Roosevelt Lake to the northeast. If we looked back to the southwest we could see the Superstition Mountains again and realized that as the crow flies, we were only 27 miles from the Lost Dutchman Mine campground, about 30 from Apache Junction, and 40 from Mesa AZ.
Bill immediately was looking for the best spot to photograph Roosevelt Lake whose Dam was built in the late 1920’s, the first “big” one.

The Upper Ruins
But look the other way, a little north west—cliff dwellings! The informative plaque told us Tonto National Monument was only 4 miles away. Of course we had to stop. From the visitor’s center, there was an excellent, paved trail, only 1/2 mile to the lower ruins. The 13% grade in 95° heat nearly killed us! We were drenched in sweat. Luckily there was a little breeze once in while. Jean’s phobia of heights almost made her return to the air-conditioned visitor’s center, but Bill led her by the hand and sheltered her from the downhill side of the broad, safe trail.


Lower Ruins
We learned that the Salado people had built the dwellings around 1100 C.E., well above their irrigated farming sites along the Salt “Salado” River in the Tonto Basin, for unknown reasons. And as all through the southwest, after some 300 years of residency, these cliff dwellings were abandoned around 1400 to 1450.

The rooms in the dwellings have been stabilized, but not reconstructed

After a late lunch of bread and cheese washed down with lemonade at Roosevelt Dam, we hastened north, climbing through pine forests to 7,000 ft. and down the other side to the land of red rocks and our reserved site at Rancho Sedona RV Park.