Holbrook KOA, Holbrook
Sunday, 5 December 2021
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| today's route |
On the road
Before I left Globe I saw signs for the Besh Ba Gowah Archaeological Park, which I hadn't heard of. It turns out to be a site near Globe with ruins of the Salado people who lived here about 800 years ago. Maybe like the Anasazi ruins I saw in Utah? Someplace interesting to visit when I come back with more time.
I left town heading north, which the highway numbering people call east, on US-60, where I stayed for a couple of hours. A sign told me to "Watch for Animals Next 81 Miles." A shame I didn't see any animals to speak of on either this highway or on AZ-80 between Tombstone and Benson a couple of days ago. False advertising.
I passed a sign saying the AZ State Prison was down a road to my right. And another sign saying the Gila County Fairgrounds were down that same road. That seemed like an odd combination to me so I looked it up and, sure enough, they're both down that same road. It dead-ends at the prison, and the fairgrounds are part-way along it. I tried to see if they have a prison rodeo here, but the internet didn't want to tell me.
I was about a third of the way down a steep hill when I saw a sign telling me the elevation there was 5,000'. I just don't understand those signs - when did I start seeing them - Utah? What is the point of putting that information out in the middle of nowhere? And in Utah they posted those signs at 3,000' and 4,000' also. Why don't they tell me the elevation at the top of the hill or at the bottom of a hill? That might be useful and interesting. Is there some magic about 5,000'? I don't remember seeing them in Colorado, for instance.
Today's drive took me around curves and up & down steep hills. I was on a long steep winding hill when I came across a horse campground, with a sign saying closed - maybe for winter? Some states cater much more for horses than others, even including whole sections of state campgrounds for horses and their riders.
I passed through the Tonto National Forest, which I assumed was named for the Lone Ranger's pal, showing how dumb I can be. It turns out that "tonto" means dumb in Spanish, and the national forest and nearby river basin were both named for the Tonto Apache band that lived in this area. The interesting story of how a tribe came to be called dumb is told by a park volunteer in this blog post. https://www.npca.org/how-a-spectacular-park-got-its-dumb-name Enough to make me want to come back some day to view the remains he speaks about.
I passed through the San Carlos Apache Reservation, then the town of Seneca which seemed nonexistent from the road and is so small it isn't even incorporated. And I came to elk warning signs (but still haven't seen one).
I kept encountering 6% grades - "next 3 miles," "next 5 miles," "next 3 miles." In between was a sign warning me of "curves, mountain grades next 3 miles" and I learned that "mountain grades" means steep - maybe so steep they didn't want to worry me by telling me the grade? I came to a series of 13 signs, all warning of "switchbacks." I was unfortunately on the downhill side of the road, so I wanted to go slowly on those hills and switchbacks, but I had cars camped on my tail that wanted to go faster and no place to pull over.
The rock in this area was deep red, like I saw in Monument Valley in Utah and Arizona.
I passed the Fort Apache Historic Park, a tribal museum that includes a couple dozen original and reconstructed buildings from the late 1800s, when US soldiers, including Buffalo Soldiers, were stationed here to try to keep the peace between the Apache and other Native tribes in the area. After it was decommissioned, it was used as a BIA boarding school, which used the unpopular practice of discouraging Navajo children (though it was on Apache land) from continuing traditions and language of their tribes, all under the guise of educating them.
The whole road was laced with deep canyons (with road surfaces to match), some of which were named on highway signs: Salt River Canyon, Cedar Canyon, Corduroy Canyon. Signs that promised "deer, next 5 miles" and "horses, next 3 miles" with as much result as those that promised elk.
I came to a sign for the Sitgreaves National Forest, which the Forest Service says they manage together with the Apache National Forest, since they're right on top of each other. All together they include 2.7 million acres of land that some call God's Country.
I came to the town of Show Low, elev. 6,331 and est. 1870 (Arizona highway signs show this information for most towns). The town is named after a card game played in 1876 - and here's the story according to the town. https://www.roadtripamerica.com/Show-Low I guess it's as good a way to name a town as any other. And it really does have a street named Deuce of Clubs - I saw it. This is now one of northern AZ's faster growing cities, with a population of more than 11,000 in the 2020 census. We stopped at the local campus of Northern Arizona University to take a walk and have some lunch.
I passed a sign saying:
Trump
America First
Join the Resistance
I figured it was a pro-Trump sign, but after looking it up, I'm not sure. Around the 2016 election, the "resistance" was against Trump being president, and efforts in that direction continued through his term. But in these days of mass denial of reality about the election results, the "resistance" may be something like the actions on Jan. 6th.
I stopped to get some gasoline and a woman filling her RAV4 said she'd been the victim of road rage. She hadn't accelerated fast enough getting on the highway and a guy had pulled around her and then stopped suddenly. She said the damage it did to her tires to stop that fast cost her 4 new ones. She said if she ever found out who did it, she'd buy a dozen eggs and decorate his car. People who aren't willing to talk to strangers miss so much.
From Show Low, I switched to US-77 where I was once again promised elk in the next 10 miles, then deer. Of course I saw none of either species.
The town of Snowflake, elev. 5,630' and est. 1878, isn't named for the little piece of Nature you'd expect. Instead, it was named for early Mormon settlers Erastus Snow and William Flake. Really. It now has 6,100 residents and is one of 4 locations of the Northland Pioneer community college. A sign in town told me, "We Vote God First."
Since soon after Globe, I've passed highway signs saying "Watch for Ice." The thing about them is that they're that kind that are hinged in the middle and are opened when the weather warrants. The fact that the highway folks think the weather warrants opening them now has me worried. Outside Snowflake, another sign told me there was a Regional Ice Alert on and it May Be Present On Roadway. The day had finally become sunny by then, so I wasn't too worried, but I did use caution on bridges.
Up in this part of the state I saw lots of red dirt and far fewer hills, giving me a much greater sight distance than I'd had all day.
And finally I got to Holbrook, along the Little Colorado River. Its elevation is 5,080', meaning I climbed 1,400' today from Globe's 3,510'.
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