Scenic Drive

For my birthday, we decided to go on a scenic drive, take a hike and have a picnic lunch.  We chose to drive the Pinal Mountains Loop.

Selfie on the Pinal Mountains Loop

We began at the Besh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park near Globe.

Besh-Ba-Gowah is a 200 room prehistoric Salado masonry pueblo located atop a broad ridge overlooking Pinal Creek.  Besh-Ba-Gowah was occupied by Salado populations between AD 1225 and AD 1400. "Salado" is the term applied to the complex of cultural attributes of the prehistoric peoples who inhabited the Globe/Miami and Tonto Basin regions.

Besh-Ba-Gowah architecture consists of multi-storied, masonry room block clusters connected by long, narrow corridors or elongated plazas. These room blocks and corridors are situated around a large communal plaza area.

Don in one of the walled structures of Besh-Ba-Gowah.

Many rooms are outlined by the wall remains.

The Pinal Mountain Loop began on Icehouse Canyon Road.  This area was populated by many Manzanita and juniper bushes 

Manzanita bushes have dark red smooth bark.
Manzanita means little apple in Spanish for their small fruits that wildlife enjoy eating.

As the road climbs to over 5500 feet, pine trees replace the scrub.  Pioneer Pass Recreation Area was deserted when we were there, but it is a popular location in the heat of summer due to the cooler air temperature due to elevation.

Pine trees take over as the prime vegetation at the higher elevations.

Don takes photos of the panoramic view.

Forest Road 112 was windy but well maintained.

Turnoff point where the road abruptly changed.

This road, definitely requiring at 4 wheel drive, needed rocks moved so we could continue on it.
Note the sheer drop off on the drivers side of the road!!

One of the worst roads we have ever driven on.  Including in Africa and Costa Rica!!
Very narrow and strewn with rocks.  Other sections washed out badly from  previous days rain.

Burn out area showing burned Manzanita bushes.
New vegetation is beginning to grow.

Animals that we saw along the way were squirrels with an extremely bushy tail, lots of birds including a road runner, and a javaleina (wild pig).

The completed scenic drive was a loop of about 30 miles.  We drove from 5 - 20 miles per hour most of the way.  Quite the trip.  A little more "scenic" than we were expecting, but a great memory for my 57th birthday!!