Posted on 07/05/10 at 5:26 pm to Adventures
We decided this year that we weren’t going to have any kind of BBQ. It just stresses us out. Having to prepare all the foods, make sure the pool is clean and the house is spotless, there’s enough seating, sun screen, towels and that people are following pool rules. It’s just more stress than it’s worth so we decided this year we’d just leave the house and the city behind and go exploring. We did this for Memorial Day too and maybe I’ll sit down this week and write about our adventures that day too. Yesterday we left the house around lunch time. We picked up some chicken strips and jojos from Albertsons and packed the cooler with Gatorade and soda and headed out. We decided to explore and check out the Saguaro Lake area. We’ve never been there. We stopped at all the little recreation areas along Bush Highway and made notes of some of our favorite ones for future visits. We’re always looking for places that aren’t overly crowded that has a decent picnic area with grills and shade and good parking. All the recreation areas are in the Tonto Forest so they all require a parking pass that you must obtain in town.
The first place we pulled into was for Off Road Vehicles. We didn’t know what it was so we just pulled in to check it out but quickly turned around when we saw the dirt hills and stuff. We were in the van not the truck and the truck isn’t a 4×4 anyway. The 2nd place we pulled into was the Butcher Jones Recreation Area. It’s about 3 miles in off Bush Highway. It had swimming, picnic tables (many with shade), grills, parking and bathrooms but I recommend taking a sun tent and chairs of your own. The picnic tables weren’t near the water so you have to take your own shade for the swimming area. We made notes in the notebook and continued on our adventure since most of the tables were taken already anyway. But it’s was our favorite spot and would be nice if you go early enough.
The next stop was Saguaro Del Norte Recreation area. This area has a restaurant and the Sheriff’s office as well as first aid. We didn’t really get to check this area out though because in order to even enter it you have to have a parking pass. We had a parking pass but we didn’t want to scratch it off just to look around when we could save it and use it for another day when we planned to actually park and get out somewhere for the day. We did ask at the booth what they had though and we were told swimming, boating, fishing, picnic areas. Basically this area has it all so maybe we’ll consider checking it out one day.
The next place we turned into was Saguaro Lake Ranch. It wasn’t the most scenic place to look because it was right next to one of SRP’s dams but it looked like a quaint little place to stay for a weekend and they had stables so they must have horse back rides. Devlin is dying to get on a horse. They don’t offer the horse back riding in the summer months though.
We checked out the starting point for tubing down the Salt River. Which is where we also found a bathroom for Bathroom Inspector Devlin. They have buses that bring in people to go tubing. People also park there and bring their own tubes and there are some serious tubers there! We saw one “tube” that would seat easily 6 – 8 people on top of somebody’s car. We checked out a few other picnic areas that didn’t seem worth writing down as well as the main tubing hub where there’s major parking and tube rental as well as the end of the tubing experience where you can catch a bus back to parking or back to the beginning and do it all over again.
We also checked out the Phon D Sutton Recreation area. The first parking area seemed pretty populated. There wasn’t much in the way of picnic tables but there was access to the river. But then we kept driving farther in and found an almost deserted parking area with only one car parked there. There were picnic tables available and water access too. If that location is always that way then it might be a great place to visit when Devlin gets a little older.
After looking at a few more smaller picnic/fishing areas and seeing horse poo EVERYWHERE we decided to head back toward town. We saw a line of motorcycle cops just waiting to catch the drunks after tubing. And catch them they were. They pulled over at least 2 people. The 2nd one was a young girl getting a very stern lecture from a fatherly looking cop while her friends looked on almost defiantly. But she sure looked scared! Then a little farther down the road we saw a car pulled over on the opposite side of the road and wondered what was going on there only to discover that there was a man peeing in the brush. Guess he couldn’t wait a few more minutes to the next recreation area with a bathroom.
We decided to go check out the place with the tee pees in Apache Junction and see if we could find the little store with the old toilet seat hanging by the entrance. Devlin wants to have his picture taken looking through the toilet seat. LOL We didn’t go far enough up the road to find the store but we stopped at the tee pee place and Rob & Devlin went in and checked things out and talked to the man that runs the place. I guess on October 1st they will be having their grand opening and out behind the building the whole field area will be filled with tee pees and occupied by actual Native Americans who will be selling their wares and living in the tee pees. I would assume this will be a seasonal thing but who knows. The place is called Dreams and Legends and it’s on the Apache Trail.
By this point it’s getting much later in the day so we started for home to let the dogs in and let others have a turn outside before we headed off to the drive-in. We figured we’d be able to watch a movie and see some fireworks at the same time. So we went and saw The Last Air Bender. They had an inflatable water slide that Devlin went down a couple times & had a blast. We all loved the movie and I love the concept of the elemental tribes. We were able to see some fireworks but from where were seated we couldn’t watch the movies and the fireworks at the same time so I opted to watch the movie instead and just glanced at some of them through the trees. There must of been at least 4 different fireworks shows visible from the drive-in. It was worth it to go. We were going to stay and watch Iron Man 2, which we’d already seen, but decided to just go home after Air Bender. It was either deal with traffic leaving the fireworks or deal with the drunks when Iron Man got out. We got McFlurries from McDonalds and spent the rest of the night quietly at home. Most of us crashing out soon after. It was a fun day of exploring and finding new things.
Here’s a photo from last night. I’ll post more to an album as soon as I remember the password to get into it since it’s been so long.
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