Salt River Canyon is small compared to the Grand Canyon but this part of the Apache Reservation is beautiful. The road winds down one side of the canyon across the river then climbs up the other side. There are ample pull off to enjoy the view.
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| Linda zoomed in on these cactus on the top of the hill |
Once we traveled past the Salt River Canyon the greenery started to change from pine to sage and cactus.
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| Linda's "Only Cloud in the Sky". |
Around noon we were in Winkelman,
AZ. This is a time travel trip for
me. I lived in Winkelman in 1959. My dad was the superintendent on the job of
building the smokestack for the new power plant. It was the tallest stack the company he
worked for, had ever constructed at that time.
As I recall it was the tallest stack in the country (maybe the
world?) at that time. The stack is 604 feet high; the
bottom diameter is 65 feet and the top out is 25 feet. The height was needed to
get the draft near the top of the surrounding mountains.
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| The first sighting of the stack about 6 miles north of town |
When I attended school here my
class was 32 students. All, except for
me and one other student from Philadelphia, were either American Indian or
Mexican. My teacher was Mexican also. The town had not changed much except the 1960
census was 1,123 (probably inflated do the people needed for the opening of the power plant) ; the 2010 census was 353. The power plant is actually in Hayden, AZ. The two towns are only a mile apart.
I remembered that the little
trailer park where we lived was across the Gila River next to a bridge just outside
of town. I tried to find it on Google
Earth but there are no signs of it. I
explained in detail to Linda what I remembered but the evidence did not support
my story. There are two bridges now at
Winkelman. The old bridge (the only one
there in 1959) is now foot traffic only.
On a whim I turned down North Gila River Drive and drove to the
end. It looked somewhat familiar but
nothing was quite as I remembered. I
took a walk along the river but all I found was trash from people camping (or
whatever they were doing).
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| North Gila River Drive today. In 1959 this was the main highway. |
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| Out trailer would have been just to the right of the brush. |
We passed a small camper trailer
that was a permanent home. The man there
was talking to people in the driveway. I
stopped and asked about the trailer park and he agreed with everything I
described. Wow...I’m not crazy after
all!
The little trailer park washed
away in the 1993 flood. He told me if
you walk through the thicket you will find a few of the old cement patios. He also said, “You need to be careful. There are some El Morado cattle loose in the
brush and they don’t even like themselves.
They like to use their ‘clown pokers’ on anyone they see. I spent three hours in a tree last week
because of them.” So at that point I was
happy this clown didn’t get poked while he was poking around in the brush.
From there we headed to Tucson. I wanted to show Linda Old Tucson where many of the western movies were shot. We arrived at closing time so I asked the “Sheriff” where would be a good place for lodging. He directed me back to Tucson. I said “We’ll see you tomorrow.” He said, “At this time of year we are only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.” Best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. So we went to the Comfort Inn and I worked on the blog.
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| West Gates Pass Road to Old Tucson. |
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| Tucson from atop Gates Pass. |
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