Adler's Midwest Meandering Spring 2021

 April Fool's Day!

We left The Valley this morning at 9:30 and we made our way northward to Grants, New Mexico.  We saw 2 bands of wild horses, one of which was the Salt River Horses and we spotted them as soon as we got on the Bush Hwy, not far north of Apache Junction.  The second band was the Heber Horses and we saw them between Payson and Heber.  Our terrain changed a lot today with the rocks, and mountains around The Valley, to the pines in Payson and once we were on 40 heading east, we saw many red rock mesas.  We ran into an hour stop and start just east of Gallup, so we got in later than we anticipated.  The traffic got heavy once we hit I-40 at Holbrook.  We are seeing Mount Taylor at Grants and it has a lot of snow on it.  We actually, saw a lot of snow piles around Payson.  It was to get to 97 today in Phoenix and 67 at Grants.  We'll take the cooler temps!  I will post pictures when I can.  Tomorrow will be an excursion with the truck north of here toward Farmington, NM.  

My pictures are taken while traveling in the motor home so they aren't as sharp as if I were outside.  This was taken shortly after we left Apache Junction and got on the Beeline Highway.  You can see the burned out areas here from the wildfires last year.  It burned a very large amount of acreage and many of our hiking trails were affected by the destruction of the fires.  Arizona didn't get their monsoon rains last summer, nor did we have much precipitation during the winter, so even the cactus plants had a hard time to survive.  We had never seen it so dry as it was this year.  

We got out of The Valley and getting close to Payson, AZ and into the tall pine trees.  In the far distance, at the skyline is the Mogollon Rim, and we still had to go over that.  Our elevation in Apache Junction is about 1700 feet.  We reached 7,525 feet elevation today.  It's a climb out of The Valley, but a pretty drive. Once we got to Payson and headed east, we saw a lot of elk signs along the road.  We had seen elk on previous trips this way.  You wouldn't think that of Arizona.   I previously mentioned the snow at Payson, and most people don't realize that Flagstaff, Arizona gets more snow than Wisconsin!  This year, they got over 3 feet in 2 days.  The snow in the 'high country' is crucial for the run-off for the water supply in The Valley. 

As we traveled along I-40 east of Holbrook toward Gallup, New Mexico, we saw many mesas from the pink hues to the more red rock colors.  If you look closely on the left side of this picture, you will see a natural bridge arch.  It is huge!  Jim is studying our route for tomorrow and loading the GPS, as we should have a scenic and educational day.  I plan our route, he okays the distance traveled each day and then he prepares for 'the next day' when we arrive at our destination for the length of our stay.  We know each other pretty well and we've made this trip many times.  We just like to venture off the beaten path.