We got up “early” and headed down Arizona 87 into Tonto National Forest, right into a navigational blunder.
We still plan some of our trips with Caltopo atlases, some of which are quite old — the highway has since been rerouted. And cell service was pretty hard to come by… and… well dammit, I missed my turn. But on a divided mountain pass road, that was a big problem because the next turnaround was 5 miles away (though Google Maps wanted me to turn around 15 miles later).
So then I tried to Google Maps myself to the trailhead and it took me too far back the other way, necessitating yet another “and keep going to the turnaround.” But after thoroughly embarrassing myself in front of Dad — though insisting that at least I was no worse at this than Google appears to be — I found my trailhead.
We took this little forest service road ribbon along a narrow shelf between rocky and forested terrain up toward Mount Peeley until it petered out at a hiking trailhead for us to continue the rest of the way on foot.
About a half-mile from the trailhead, the trail joined up with the Arizona National Scenic Trail, showing us at about the half-way point.
Up to a picnic spot at the peak and back was about 4.3 miles, with a partial view of the Horseshoe Reservoir beyond, which can supposedly be a great fish nursery, except:
Horseshoe Reservoir is the first of the Salt River Project lakes to be very low when irrigation and domestic water requirements dictate. It can be virtually dry for long periods of time.
U.S. Forest Service
Which explains why I looked out and saw what looked like a massive dried up lakebed in the middle of an otherwise healthy and green forest valley.
From there, it was a long slog of a drive to Vegas once we picked up I-40 in Flagstaff. I promised a mostly interstate-free trip, but any way to avoid I-40/US-93 still eludes me. On the way, Dad called Mom to check in, and at one point, he mentioned that our hike was “only 4 miles.” So when we got there, we had to take a tour of The Strip, which clocked in at an additional 6.5 miles. Garmin says that was 31,000 steps for the day — if I also count the three thousand after midnight, too.
The only thing I really make a point to see is The Fountain at the Bellagio. Dad said he recalled “a place where they’ve made it look like an outdoor canal,” so we added The Forum Shops at the Ceasers to get to the Grand Canal Shops at The Venetian to our stroll. And while that may sound like retiree mall-walking, a flare of authenticity: we even caught the tail end of a drunken fight on the sidewalk. And even with all that, it only covers about half of The Strip.
Tomorrow, if we can manage it after such a late night, we head for our finish line in Death Valley, the fifth state on the trip.