7-18-17

I woke early again and we were out the door if the hotel by 8:15. We stopped at Walmart to replenish water and a few other things and right across the Main Street was the Casa Grande Ruins. This was the first Pueblo style ruins we have  seen thus far and it was interesting. We spent about an hour there and then drove northeast about 90 minutes to Tonto National Monument. On the way we actually saw a road runner run across the road. They have been having trouble with people having medical emergencies because of the heat at Tonto so they have limited walking up to the ruins at noon. If you are on the trail up before noon, you are ok. We started walking up at 11:45. We were able to actually be in the foot prints of those native people that were here between 1000 and 1450. Pretty amazing how they lived and their industriousness. We hiked back down and enjoyed the AC in the visitor center while Lorelei completed her junior ranger. 

We drove in from the east but the route that looked shorter on the map was to the west. I'll have to write Rand McNally a letter of complaint because their map indicated about 8-10 miles was dirt. It turned out about 20+ miles of this road was dirt. It's called the Apache Trail and I later found out that is was originally a stage coach route that was based on the trail the Apaches used. It was a winding bumpy road and it took an hour to go 20 miles from the visitor center to somewhere near the end. Since we were trying to stay hydrated on our hike, we drank a lot of water so the pit toilets and the overlook at almost the end was extremely welcome. We enjoyed the views and it was pretty amazing to make it on some of the curvy, steep and narrow parts. 

Once we were through this road we were quickly in Phoenix for a stop into the Capitol. Unfortunately the buildings closed at 4:00 and we arrived at 4:15 but we got our 43rd State picture and then enjoyed the drive up to Scottsdale and our hotel. There was a Krispy Kreme near the hotel and we tried to get donuts but at6:30 they were completely out of donuts. How does that happen???