Tortilla Mts and the Tonto Forest

3-30-09
The AFB Base turned off the water to the campground, so we were forced to leave for the day. We decided to drive to an area north of Phoenix and explore the Tortilla Mountains and the Tonto National Forest.

We drove north out of Tucson, towards Phoenix, and turned off on a good road that led through the mountains and past several state parks, lakes and dams on the Salt River.

What we didn't know is that half way through the trip the road becomes a one lane winding, dirt path with a 10% grade. There were a lot of motorcyclists on the mountain road, but they all stopped at Tortilla Flats. We would soon find out why.

At the top of the next mountain, and just past a spectacular overlook, the pavement stopped. We had come so far that we decided to continue down the mountain on the single lane road.

The pay off was that there were few people on this trek of the journey, (though we did see a Fedex Ground delivery truck) and the vistas were spectacular.

We drove down the steep canyons, along the Salt River and the lakes that had been created by the dams. The Apache Lake is 266 feet deep!

For being so close to Phoenix, the area is quiet and relatively deserted. We also made a side trip to the Tonto Memorial Park, which was the site of some Indian cliff dwellings. Unfortunately, we got there so late in the afternoon that we did not have time to climb the hills to get to the site. We will have to save that adventure for another day.