As Long as We're Here...

There are a handful of NPS units within a couple of hours' drive from Phoenix. When we were here in March for spring training, we stopped to visit Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, but didn't have time to visit any of the other sites.  So, on this trip we decided to check out Tonto National Monument, which preserves the ruins of 700-800 year old Salado cliff dwellings.

From Glendale, we headed east towards Mesa, took the 60/Superstition Fwy to Globe, and turned north on Rt. 188 to the monument. It doesn't look like it's that far away on a map, but it still took us a little over 2 hours to get there. The scenery along the drive was pretty, but man, beyond Mesa, you are really in the middle of nowhere!

Even though it was a little early for lunch, we probably should have stopped to get something to eat in Globe as there was not much available or open (due to Christmas Eve?) closer to Tonto NM. Fortunately we had enough snacks and Christmas cookies in the car to tide us over.


Roosevelt Lake and the Tonto Basin in the background

Once we arrived (and I got my obligatory pic of the park sign), M and J went to work on finishing up their junior ranger booklets at the visitor center. I had printed out the PDFs at home, so they had already completed what they could during the drive over. After watching the video and looking at the exhibits, we headed up the trail to the lower cliff dwelling.

It took a bit of effort to make it to the top (350 ft elevation gain over a half mile), but there were lots of places to sit, catch your breath, and take in beautiful views of the mountains, saguaro, and Roosevelt Lake along the way.



I especially appreciated the interpretive signs identifying the various plants along the path. We seem to have a hard time remembering the names of what we've seen before at other places!

Teddy bear cholla

It didn’t take us very long to look around the lower ruins. We visited Mesa Verde National Park a few years ago, so this site doesn’t evoke quite the same “wow” response, but it was still amazing to imagine what it must have looked like when the Salado lived here. A 3-hour guided tour is available to the Upper Cliff Dwelling ruin, but we didn't try to make reservations to do that this time.

After the boys turned in their booklets and received their Jr. Ranger badges (#71), we were back on the road towards Phoenix. I had gotten several recommendations to take the Apache Trail scenic drive, but I was just a little apprehensive about traversing 22 miles of dirt/gravel road in our minivan. So we continued north on Rt. 188 towards Payson instead. It was probably a good thing we didn’t go that way, because it started to rain before we reached the Beeline Highway (Rt. 87). 

However, the downside to taking this loop route counterclockwise was that we had a hard time finding someplace to stop for food after we left Tonto. There were a few sketchy-looking options along the road, but we didn't really find anything passable until we got to Fountain Hills. Then it was back to Mesa for our last stop to visit one of my brother-in-law's best friends.

All in all, it was *lot* of driving, but still a good way to spend our extra day!