We drove up through Payson and got on Rim Rd 300. We stopped several times to look out over the rim and see the beautiful country. There was a haze so it wasn't real crisp and clear, but it was still beautiful!
This flower/weed always amazes me! It's so prickly and evil looking but still the bees love it! Must have some sweet nectar. Just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by it's cover!
We stopped for lunch and just enjoyed the 60 degree weather! It was so refreshing!
I don't know if you can see it very well, but there is a RV on that outlook across the way from us! Almost on the edge!!!!! It's crazy where some people like to camp!
Going down the road we saw a lizard cross in front of us. Stanley stepped on the brakes and said, "That's a hornytoad!" So I got a picture of him, being really still, waiting for us to leave so he could move again! On our adventures we saw FIVE tarantula's at different spots in the middle of the road - hope they made it across! We saw a fox cross the road without any mishap, two 2-point bucks grazing on the side of the road, bluejays and several squashed stinky skunks!
There was also a storm moving in. I love clouds, especially storm clouds! These were pretty awesome!
Close up
We went all the way to Heber on the Rim Rd. It's a beautiful drive if you've got time to do it. We went over to Lakeside and found a little motel to stay the night. This is the next morning, that's our door on the left from Stanley. It was a big room with a pretty good bed. Slept really well! Don't usually do that on a motel bed!
Here's the name if you're ever up there, check it out. Cheap and nice!
Saturday was spent wandering all over the Big Lake area. These next pictures are of the burn area that we saw. So sad to see those trees gone. But grass is growing and there were little saplings about a foot high in some areas and it was amazing to see how it jumped from one spot to the next. You can see the green trees amidst the burned up or charred ones! Such an amazing contrast!
That's a totally burned up tree or what's left of it, next to a living tree that just got it's limbs scorched!
One of my favorite pictures above and below.
Flowers growing over the charred ground!
I took these pictures and thought "This looks like those pictures of bigfoot!"
We were over by Crescent Lake and again the storm was moving in! Loved it!
Isn't this the weirdest cloud formation you've seen?!?
We went over to Greer to see Bro. Cooks cabin. He had told us they could see the fire from his cabin. I didn't know it was that close! I can't imagine sitting there waiting to see if it was going to come closer and destroy my home! This is from the porch sitting in his chair!
They have this awesome porch swing, so we tried the timer on the camera to get a picture of us both. I'm not liking the way I look in pictures and it wasn't getting the whole chair, so I took another one of just Stanley to see the whole thing! I loved it!
This is the front of their cabin. Beautiful!
They even told us about a little place to go get some cobbler and ice cream. The Rendezvous. I got peach cobbler and Stanley got apple pie. It was yummy!
We went through Salt River Canyon on the way home so we could stop in at another place in Globe for dinner that we'd heard about. It's a little fuzzy, but I was taking it while driving! This is on the bridge looking over at the muddy Salt River.
Do you see that white spot near the bottom of that rock slide? It's a car!
It's all smashed and the door is laying next to it! Hope no one was in it when it happened! It looks more like it was already that way on a trailer and just fell off!
I also love rock formations. The canyon on the other side of Globe (coming home that is) on the way to the tunnel has some awesome ones!
Does this look familiar? I have great memories of this tunnel! We would pack up the car and head to Grandpa and Grandma Porters in Safford when I was a kid. Dad would honk the horn every time! I remember going through the old tunnel too before this one was made. But memories are complex things! Love this tunnel!
This is the run-a-way truck stop. Sometimes you can see big ruts made by a semi truck that was going too fast to make the turn! Glad I've never seen it happen!
And then the bridge!
I tried to get some sunset pictures. But I was taking them through the front windshield and the camera would focus on the bug splatter!
This one turned out pretty good out the side window! It was too hot to roll down the window for a better picture!
Almost home! Love this mountain!
We had a great time in the cooler weather. Really hated coming home to the heat, but ya gotta do it! It's nice to know it won't last forever and fall is just around the corner! X (fingers crossed)
