Off to Fish Creek Canyon

My friend Key of The Ramblin Rivercat fame and I planned to head into the Superstition Mountains just outside of Apache Junction for the day.  We decided to hike in Fish Creek Canyon about 20 miles from Apache Junction.  On the way we drove past Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats and the hit a very bumpy dirt road which led down into Fish Creek Canyon.

We hiked up a very rough trail to a cave that looked out to the bridge.

This pic was taken inside the cave looking out.

Key then wanted to hike further into the canyon, but the trail on one side of the creek seemed to end at a water fall and the other was a bit too much since I was carrying my new Nikon and all the water.  The gravel was very loose and steep in spots and I did not really have my hiking legs.

Here is a look up into the canyon.

These are the surrounding canyon walls.  It was a very cool spot.

This was the trail we were on.

Apache Lake was our next stop…

The it was further down the washboard road to Apache Lake. I was really impressed with my new for me Samurai 4X4.  The ride is rather bumpy but it takes the bumps pretty good.

We did stop along the road for Key to look for tarantulas (he didn’t find any) and check out the scenery.

Just up the road as we were following the lake was a beautiful campsite called Three Mile Wash right on the water.  That would sure be a great place to boondock.

It had a really neat island out in the middle of the lake.

Paved road again..

We finally reached pavement after 22 miles of narrow, washboard unpaved road (sometimes down to one lane).  It was nice to drive on pavement again.

Roosevelt Dam

The end of the dirt road came at the Roosevelt dam.

On the other side of the dam was a large bridge that led to Payson however we were on our way to Globe and then back to Mesa.

Stopped in Globe for a cold one

We stopped in Globe for a cold one and then headed back to Mesa which was quite a distance away.  It was a very full day.