Where Am I? -- Volume IV

We'll start with the road (letters have been scrambled and/or smudged):

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC04736.jpg

Next, there's a rest stop along that road, with a picnic table and a pillar:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...04719-crop.jpg

Topped by a black iron silhouette of a horse that's been shot full of holes:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC04734.jpg

Lastly: out west, most of the streams only carry water in the wet season. The rest of the year they are dry, and the bed of a dry stream is known as a wash. This is a wash:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC04731.jpg

What's the connection? And, by the way,

Where am I?

Name the road!

Name the Rest Stop!

Name that riderless horse!

and (for a bonus):

Name that dry wash! (He's kidding, right? No, actually--I think he's serious!)

Rick

Well, I have an unfair advantage. I know what page in your book the explanation for this place is. I thought I had the topo map of Arizona for the name of the wash. But I must have lent it to someone.

Cool history -- lots of movies!

Mark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

We'll start with the road (letters have been scrambled and/or smudged):

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC04736.jpg

Next, there's a rest stop along that road, with a picnic table and a pillar:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...04719-crop.jpg

Topped by a black iron silhouette of a horse that's been shot full of holes:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC04734.jpg

Lastly: out west, most of the streams only carry water in the wet season. The rest of the year they are dry, and the bed of a dry stream is known as a wash. This is a wash:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC04731.jpg

What's the connection? And, by the way,

Where am I?

Name the road!

Name the Rest Stop!

Name that riderless horse!

and (for a bonus):

Name that dry wash! (He's kidding, right? No, actually--I think he's serious!)

Rick

---

Ok...I had to work for this one on google so I'm going to try and answer all the questions! 1st Clue: It was Arizona by the missing road sign in the rocks and the saguaro cactus helped too! 2nd clue: You left to much of the plaque in the second picture and I could get the date Oct. 12, 1940 and from that info VIOLA...a picture hit! ;)

This is the Pinal Pioneer Parkway, Arizona State Highway 79 south of Florence, AZ. This is a memorial to Tom Mix a Western Film superstar at a rest stop near mile marker 116. The silhouette is of Tom Mix's steed "Tony the Wonder Horse". From what I read this is near where he died in a car crash in what is now know as the Tom Mix Wash.

How did I do? We've never been down this road but I have been on I-10 a couple times as an adult.

Utahtea

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Utahtea

This is the Pinal Pioneer Parkway, Arizona State Highway 79 south of Florence, AZ. This is a memorial to Tom Mix a Western Film superstar at a rest stop near mile marker 116. The silhouette is of Tom Mix's steed "Tony the Wonder Horse". From what I read this is near where he died in a car crash in what is now know as the Tom Mix Wash.

How did I do? We've never been down this road but I have been on I-10 a couple times as an adult.

Utahtea

---

Nice sleuthing! I thought about smudging those dates, but I wanted to leave you guys something you could work with, and sure enough, you found it! You're correct on all counts, all the way down to the name of the Wash where Tom Mix rolled his Cord Phaeton convertible, and died at the scene from a broken neck.

Old Tom most certainly isn't the only person who has ever driven much too fast on that road. The Pinal Pioneer Parkway is a very pretty stretch of two-lane highway that shoots straight as an arrow through a cactus forest. There's little traffic, and wide open spaces that beckon you to fly. In one particular year--2011--the fastest 5% of the vehicles using this stretch of road were clocked at an average speed of 88 mph, which made the Pinal Pioneer Parkway, during the course of that survey, the fastest road in the west! (Actually, it was the fastest road in the entire USA, which is truly amazing!) AZ 79 between Florence and Oracle is what us deep-rooted Phoenix natives have always called the "old road" to Tucson, since it pre-dates the Interstate, and because it still has the look and feel of Arizona the way it used to be, before the mega-population boom turned Phoenix into a major modern city. If you're headed from Phoenix to Tucson, or vice versa, it takes a little longer on this back road (unless you're one of those crazies in the fastest 5%!) For everyone else who's not in a hurry, it's a Scenic Side Trip--an easy alternative to Interstate 10, SST#8 in my book-- that's well worth considering!

Rick

There are quite a few mountains in the southwestern states that have roads all the way, or most of the way to the summit. Sometimes they lead to fire lookout towers, or radio/TV towers, or ski lifts; sometime the roads are paved, and sometimes they're dirt or gravel, climbing upward through desert scrub, mesquite and pinon forest, pine, and finally stands of Aspen when they switchback their way up to 7,000 feet or more. There's plenty of variety in these mountain-climbing roads, but there's one thing they all have in common: they all have spectacular views! Out west, with our wide open spaces, once you gain a little elevation, you can see most of the way to infinity, and when you can achieve that advantage without getting out of your car, you've cheated your way into something pretty special.

Here's one of my personal favorite spots, where you can drive to a parking area well above 9,000 feet, and gaze to your heart's content without breaking a sweat.

I walk a few yards from my Jeep, and I look to the West:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_6985.jpg

Then I spin around, and I look to the East:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_7048.jpg

Keeping my eye glued to my camera's viewfinder and my telephoto lens, I look down:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_6946.jpg

Yikes, that's a big horse fly! I'm not sure I needed the closeup of his rump!

Where am I, anyway?

This next is not the road to my Where am I spot, but it's close by:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_8177.jpg

And so is this, a bit of leftover damage from a prior fire season (a common occurrence in these forests):

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_8165.jpg

Give it a guess! (If you've ever been there, it should be easy. If not? You might need more clues!)

Rick

Two more clues:

Another view looking west, only in this one, the true purpose of the vantage point is a bit more obvious:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_6983.jpg

And here's another view (from a lower vantage point, in a different season) of that peak that rises immediately to the east. It's a tall sucker! The equipment in the photo above will lift you well above 11,000 feet, yet it's still a significant hike to the summit:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ads/199-20.jpg

Okay, one more time:

Where am I?

Rick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

Two more clues:

Another view looking west, only in this one, the true purpose of the vantage point is a bit more obvious:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_6983.jpg

And here's another view (from a lower vantage point, in a different season) of that peak that rises immediately to the east. It's a tall sucker! The equipment in the photo above will lift you well above 11,000 feet, yet it's still a significant hike to the summit:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ads/199-20.jpg

Okay, one more time:

Where am I?

Rick

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Beautiful location but it's not ringing any bells in my memory bank. It looks like a ski lift in the top picture but I don't ski. I doubt it's California. It's too GREEN. Were all the pictures taken at the same time? I ask because a few of the pictures show fall color and you don't find green in the fall in California. ;)

Utahtea

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Utahtea

Were all the pictures taken at the same time? I ask because a few of the pictures show fall color and you don't find green in the fall in California. ;)

Utahtea

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The pictures with the yellow wildflowers were all taken at the same time. The others, in different seasons (and different years). Like I said, it's a personal favorite spot!

Rick

Okay, here's one last opportunity to sleuth this one out:

I'm at a spot you can drive to, where there's a helluva view. There is what appears to be a ski lift in the vicinity. There is a nearby mountain that I've hinted is well above 11,000 feet tall (or more!); and if all that isn't enough, I give you this:

When you leave this place, you drive back to the main road, and you can turn left, or you can turn right. If you turn right, you'll end up at a place that just about every person reading this has been at least once. If you turn left, you'll pass this building on your way to the nearest town:

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...s/DSC_7085.jpg

C'mon, guys--put me out of my misery, and tell me: Where am I?

Rick

Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona, near Humphrey's Peak and the ski area there. In one direction you can get to Walnut Crater, Sunset Crater and Waputki NM's. In another, you can get to Grand Canyon's South Rim. In a third direction, you can go to GC's North Rim (IF it's open) and on to Lake Powell, Zion NP, or any number of other attractions.



Donna

I think the mountain is Humphreys Peak, and you are at the Arizona Snowbowl?

EDIT: You posted while I was still digging, Donna!

Ah, but you got the "Arizona Snowbowl" name that I couldn't remember!


I came into this "new" thread late. For good reasons!

Donna

You guys are correct on all counts, so you share the prize (ie., the profound admiration of all the rest of us ;-)!

I was indeed at the Arizona Snowbowl, on multiple occasions, and in every season of the year. The mountain is known as the San Francisco Peaks, and consists of two summits, Mount Humphreys, and Mount Agassiz, the highest, and the second highest peaks in Arizona, respectively. The San Francisco Peaks dominate the landscape around Flagstaff, and can be seen from many miles away when you approach that city, from just about any direction.

The ski season at the Snowbowl varies from year to year. It's never great, but it's fun, and for desert dwellers in the big city of Phoenix, just two hours south, it's a popular place to go, even (or maybe especially) in the summer. For anyone who enjoys a good museum, the Museum of Northern Arizona, at the bottom of the hill that leads up to the Snowbowl, is definitely worth a look.

All of it is part of my Grand Canyon Loop, a Scenic Side Trip that begins and ends in Flagstaff. It's Scenic Side Trip #14 in the book, and it's one of my personal favorites.

Rick

My photo of the Arizona Snowbowl, taken last November on the way to the Denver area for Thanksgiving:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e3808968_c.jpg

It was a point-and-shoot from the window of the truck.



Donna

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

Nice sleuthing! I thought about smudging those dates, but I wanted to leave you guys something you could work with, and sure enough, you found it! You're correct on all counts, all the way down to the name of the Wash where Tom Mix rolled his Cord Phaeton convertible, and died at the scene from a broken neck.

Old Tom most certainly isn't the only person who has ever driven much too fast on that road. The Pinal Pioneer Parkway is a very pretty stretch of two-lane highway that shoots straight as an arrow through a cactus forest. There's little traffic, and wide open spaces that beckon you to fly. In one particular year--2011--the fastest 5% of the vehicles using this stretch of road were clocked at an average speed of 88 mph, which made the Pinal Pioneer Parkway, during the course of that survey, the fastest road in the west! (Actually, it was the fastest road in the entire USA, which is truly amazing!) AZ 79 between Florence and Oracle is what us deep-rooted Phoenix natives have always called the "old road" to Tucson, since it pre-dates the Interstate, and because it still has the look and feel of Arizona the way it used to be, before the mega-population boom turned Phoenix into a major modern city. If you're headed from Phoenix to Tucson, or vice versa, it takes a little longer on this back road (unless you're one of those crazies in the fastest 5%!) For everyone else who's not in a hurry, it's a Scenic Side Trip--an easy alternative to Interstate 10, SST#8 in my book-- that's well worth considering!

Rick

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I remember you mentioning AZ 79! We are going to be traveling back and forth between Phoenix & Tucson next month and wondered if this is do able in a motorhome towing a jeep? We won't be in any hurry. Is one direction better than the other? I don't think we will have time to dedicate a day to just do this in the jeep.

Utahtea

Howdy!

AZ 79 is a two-lane State Highway. I can't speak to the state of the pavement, since I haven't been down that way in a few years, but I would expect it to be in good shape, and no problem at all for your motorhome, with or without the "toad!" As for direction of travel, north to south, for beautiful views of the Santa Catalinas growing ever larger as you approach the 'old pueblo' of Tucson.

Happy Trails, and enjoy the ride!

Rick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rick Quinn

Howdy!

AZ 79 is a two-lane State Highway. I can't speak to the state of the pavement, since I haven't been down that way in a few years, but I would expect it to be in good shape, and no problem at all for your motorhome, with or without the "toad!" As for direction of travel, north to south, for beautiful views of the Santa Catalinas growing ever larger as you approach the 'old pueblo' of Tucson.

Happy Trails, and enjoy the ride!

Rick

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Thank you Rick for getting back to me! Looking forward to spending some quality time in Arizona!

Utahtea