We have had the yuckiest cold this week and have felt pretty cooped up. So to cure the cabin fever we decided to take a drive southeast out past Apache Junction. It took us about an hour to get to the base of the Superstition Mountains where the road started getting pretty windy. Cole is the carsick queen and kept threatening to throw up the whole ride and Pierce didn't eat enough lunch and so he was pretty grumpy when we started. So much for a fun family outing! We stopped at quite a few scenic overlooks to take pictures.
So here's what Pierce thought of the road trip!
The next stop: Tortilla Flat for some much needed food. Turned out our food was just okay-- not the gourmet meal I had in mind for a western themed diner-- so good thing the atmosphere made up for it. The bar stools are saddles and there was lots of old west decor to look at but the most unique was the walls were papered in signed dollar bills-- which Cole wanted to steal. Is defaced money still worth anything? If so, there are thousands of dollars there! The line for the bathroom was ridiculous as everyone who used it had to take a picture of themselves. The doors are painted as a headless saloon girl so when you stand up after doing your business your head is on the body of a very curvy dance girl!
After dinner we headed next door to the ice cream shop to try Prickly Pear Cactus ice cream. Cole liked it since it was pink. Pierce got Chocolate Chip Mint and I had Toffee Gelato. Yum. This got everyone perked up and the rest of the trip was a lot more fun since no more grumpies!
After Tortilla Flat the road gets interesting. The pavement ends and you find yourself on a one lane dirt road that goes for like 40 miles through a series of canyon and lakes. The road is definitely not for the faint hearted driver. It was a little scary around some of the corners but the scenery was amazing.
Our last stop was this little cave. It didn't look like it was too far off the road so we decided to do a little hike up to it. It was a short ways up but the trail was super steep and slick and had tons of big rocks to climb over. The kids did great but getting Cooper over everything was a bit of a trick. He was a little nervous about it all and kept saying, "Help me"
We loved all the one way bridges. I think we crossed over at least 3 just in our short trip.
If you notice about half way up the solid rock mountain you can see the road winding it's way down.
