Rim Road

Yesterday was the first chance we had to use one of our days off for a local adventure. We headed out to County Road 300, better known as the Rim Road, at about 10:30. The road begins at US highway 87 about 10 miles from our lodge location. We had heard about several vistas along the road that provided spectacular views of the valley and the Mogollon Rim itself. They were right on! Following are some pictures we took along the way:

The first is a view of the rim up close and taken toward the west.

Another shot taken a little further down the road and facing southeast. This one shows the jagged edges of the Rim.

Another of Josie standing close to the edge - a lot closer than Bob would get.

It was hard deciding which pictures of the many that were taken should be included in the blog but here is one more from another vista point on the Rim.

All along the road were areas of charred trees where you could tell forest fires had roared through in years past. The Forest Service was conducting a controlled burn not too far from where we were yesterday in order too minimize that kind of damage in the future. In addition to the spectacular views from the road, we came across some other interesting things. If you can believe it, there was a battle that took place on top of this rim on July 17, 1882 - called the "Battle of Big Dry Wash". It's difficult to read the story of the battle from this picture because the sun was creating a shadow but the net of the battle was that there were some Apaches that attacked a troop of soldiers and Indian scouts and two soldiers were killed and about twenty Apaches were killed.

Then, along the side of the road about halfway through our trip we spotted this hedgehog cactus in full bloom. Unbelievable! We were at an elevation of about 7400 feet and with the cold weather at this elevation this cactus was thriving. We saw no other cactus of any kind on the rest of the trip.

Finally, after about 42 miles of travel on the Rim Road we came to the end. The road came out on US highway 260 at Christopher Creek about 20 miles east of Payson. This is a shot of the highway just before we got to it at about 3:30.

By this time we were ready for some food. Our original thought was to stop at the McDonald's in Payson for a burger and coffee, but saw a Mexican restaurant as we drove into town - El Rancho. Well, El Rancho was El Bad-O. It was the worse Mexican food we have ever had. The only good thing about it was the margarita we had. That wasn't the best either. First thought is the best.

All in all a good day and a fun adventure. We expect to take many more of these on our days off. Today is probably going to be a "stay at home and do some organizing" day in the fifth wheel...