Four Peaks

It’s Tuesday, November 18 and the weather has been fantastic. This last couple weeks have been in the low to high 80s. Humidity is very low which dries our skin out, so we have to use more moisturizer than normal. However, it is still nicer than being in the rain and cold (much nicer).

We have been pretty busy with park activities and some caching, but the highlight of last week was on Friday, the 14th. We along with several other couples in a total of 5 vehicles took a 4WD trip around “Four Peaks” which are located in a 60,743 acre wilderness area of the southern Mazatzal Mountains (north of Apache Junction and the Superstitions).The Four Peaks, which rise to 7,650 feet, are visible over a very large area around the Phoenix area and have been a major landmark since Indian times. Usually, the northern upper most peaks have snow on them, but not now.

From Queen Valley, we drove west on hwy 60 to Mesa, then north through Usury Pass to Hwy 87, then northeast on 87 towards Payson before turning east on Four Peaks Road. The entire Four Peaks road is 28 miles long and can be driven in a two wheel drive vehicle, but there are narrow, twisty, rough, and sometimes steep sections, so high clearance is recommended.

The beginning portion of the road was graded thick dirt, sometimes wash boardy, but as we crawled higher, it turned rougher with exposed larger rocks because all the dirt and smaller gravel had been washed away....it was kinda teeth jarring in those spots! The 28 miles are slow going in many places and can take as much as 3-4 hours to finish.



When we reached the top and headed down the other side toward Hwy 188, we were treated with some gorgeous views of Lake Roosevelt and the small town of Punkin Center.

Our elevation change was from 1,900 feet to well over 4,000 before heading down to the lake. This route around Four Peaks is quite popular with people in Jeeps and on ATVs, so doing it on a week day is usually the smartest. On a weekend, we would have had a lot of traffic to dodge which would not have been fun. As it was, we did have some idiots on ATVs that rushed up on, and around us, as we were crawling up the narrow, rocky sections of the roads. We really thought we were going to see blood somewhere ahead of us, but we never did (thank God).

Once down to lake level, we drove into Punkin Center and had a late lunch (early dinner) at the Butcher Hook Restaurant.After lunch, we all headed back south to Globe, then west on hwy 60 through the towns of Miami and Superior before arriving back at the park in Queen Valley. We all had a great time and even some of our group got to see a Gila monster on the trip…. We weren’t the lucky ones (dang it). Our round trip mileage from start to finish was just over 163 miles

Last week I turned the ripe old age of 66. It was a bit disheartening when my husband gave me a huge kiss and said “gee, just think, only 34 more years and you will be 100.” What a sweet guy!! Well his turn is coming in less than four months (grin).