The Apache Trail - February 2020

Sunrise over the desert
Photo © Jo Hackett

Entering the Superstition Mountain
Photo © Jo Hackett

I'm back in the Wild West!

Jo and I left a few days early for the Canada and USA tour to see special pals Leigh and Franck in Arizona.

It was uplifting to spend time with them in their lovely home outside Phoenix on the edge of wilderness, with an amazing mountain view.

On day two we all spent a whole day out together with Billy of Private Jeep Excursions. What a fantastic trip! First, he took us to Goldfield Ghost Town... once a mining community. It has that real old rough, but hugely characterful Wild West look.

We then all headed into the Superstition Mountains via two picturesque lakes, followed by a spot which holds a tragic story. This was where a group of Apache warriors met their end. Avoiding the humiliation of capture by the Cavalry, they jumped off a high cliff. Wives and children cried so much, it's believed that their tears turned black.

We continued to weave our way into the mountains, surrounded by high peaks and rocky outcrops...

A short while later we reached a high dam at the entrance to the Apache Trail. This is a dirt road, mainly following the edge of a deep Canyon with a river deep below. Dramatic mountains surrounded us as we drove several miles along the Apache trail. There'd just been unusually heavy rainfall, so parts of the track had fallen into the depths and one of the old bridges had virtually transformed into an aqueduct! What breathtaking scenery... We could feel the heartbeat of that wild remote place from every tree and rock, and we made it as far as the beautiful and mysterious Apache Lake, before eventually having to turn back due to a spot where the road had totally crumbled away...

Returning to the magical valley filled with those extraordinary ancient saguaro sentinels of the desert, we were filled with dreams of ancestral spirits whispering through the mysterious mountain peaks and valleys...

Thank you Leigh, Franck and Billy for such an amazing experience!

Now on to Calgary and the mountains of the snowy north...

Steve, Jo, Franck and Leigh with Superstition Mountains in the background