“Let’s do the scenic drive from Apache Junction to Tortilla Flat,” Simon suggested on our first full day in Mesa, Arizona. “Yes, let’s!” Susan agreed. We’d traveled that road many years ago, and recalled how flat it was; just a nice, straight shot past a ghost town to a cute Western saloon with horse saddles for seats at the bar.
Oh, the folly of faulty memory!
Our destination’s location deep within Tonto National Forest in the Superstition Mountains should have been our first clue, and the words “scenic drive” should have been the second, but we’re road-drunk and were lulled into a sense of comfort and familiarity by the luxury of Monte Vista campground resort, surrounded by every store, eatery, and convenience we could imagine. Plus, this is the Sonoran Desert, and deserts are supposed to be flat.
If you’ve been following our blog, you already know what happens next (if not, it’ll be steep drops along a tight, winding road with no guardrails). But part of what happened next, as we ascended into the Superstitions, was that Simon expertly hugged the mountainside on the way up and navigated the middle line as much as humanly possible on the way down, while Susan called on all her newfound coping skills, which, for the most part, added up to an extremely pleasant drive.
Tortilla Flat is the “last surviving stagecoach stop along the Apache Trail,” and the last time we were there it had rained enough for those Flash Flood warnings to matter. The road immediately beyond the tiny strip of shops and the saloon was under water, so we were curious to know what lay beyond it.
The first stop along State Route 88 after Apache Junction was Goldfield Ghost Town, which was closed the first time we’d been in Mesa, but open – and busy – this time. It’s not a real ghost town, but it was once a mining town that originated in 1892, then died a spasmatic death when the gold vein tapped out. Now it’s a tourist attraction with a saloon, gift shops, tours, and a narrow gage railroad train.
The afternoon was too hot for much wandering along the dusty Main Street, and there were many signs telling visitors what to do if they come across a rattlesnake, so we walked the length of the attraction and back, met lots of people who wanted to pet Ruthie, then headed north-east along AZ-88 again.
Our next stop was Lost Dutchman State Park, where the perky attendant assured us we’d be wasting our time if we paid for entry and couldn’t do any of the hiking trails, but she did suggest we take some photos of the mountain as we turned around and exited, which we immediately forgot to do.
We would visit the Usery Mountain Recreation Area two days later, so this wasn’t a great loss. Having a stroll and lunch in what felt like the middle of desert nowhere, with birdsong all around us, was among the most relaxing things we’ve done so far.
As we wound up the mountainside the views became more expansive, and we marveled at all the Seguaro cactuses, which look for all the world like people, often with too many arms. We later learned that these succulents swell to twice their normal size during monsoon season, much like we do in Florida’s humid months.
The Canyon Lake Vista offered a view over Canyon Lake (obviously), a manmade waterway that is one of four lakes created when the Salt River was dammed due to the Roosevelt Dam project. Even from the heights, we could see how well-used it was, and we decided to make it our lunch stop.
The lake is accessible after a one-lane bridge, which neither of us remembered from our last visit, and once we were settled in at a picnic table in the shade, we spent a happy half-hour boat-watching. Dolly Steamboat tours make their way through the canyon and out into the lake, and locals were out making the most of the gorgeous weather on boats and on jet skis.
Crossing a second one-lane bridge after lunch brought us to Tortilla Flat, which everyone in the whole wide world including us calls Tortilla Flats, because the singular just sounds wrong. It’s a tiny single-street “town” that would be a strip mall if it were in a big city, but it’s got an atmospheric saloon, debatable history, and good ice cream, so we’ll forgive it its idiosyncrasies.
The tiny burg’s origin story revolves around a treasure trove of gold hidden in the Superstition Mountains by the Jesuits, which everyone wanted although no one knew where to find it. The town wasn’t actually around in the 1600s to mid-1700s, but who doesn’t love a little greed with their legends?
There is no agreement about when the town (really just a freight camp) came into being, but it’s safe to assume it was just prior to or during the 1904 building of the Roosevelt Dam and the road leading to it. Celebrities as varied as Teddy Roosevelt, Clark Gable, and Colonel Sanders of chicken fame have been past visitors.
We had a wander along the walkway, where Ruthie met a bear and we had an ice cream cone, but more than anything, we were just happy to be out enjoying one of Arizona’s iconic locations under a cloudless blue sky.
What about that flooded section of the road we couldn’t pass the first time around? A big, yellow warning sign indicated it was closed. Sometimes you don’t get to travel every road that appeals to you, and we’ve learned to be fine with that.
And Tortilla Flat’s unusual name? The website insists it’s due to a group of people who got stuck during a rainstorm while returning from Phoenix after getting supplies, back when the area was nothing more than a trail running through the flat land. They used up all their supplies, and only had some flour, so they made tortillas to stave off starvation.
We’re pretty sure any story you can come up with will be just as convincing, so let your imagination run wild!
Veness Travel Media 