Howdy, Partner! Welcome to Tortilla Flat

If you visit Mesa, Arizona, there is SO MUCH to do here, it's impossible to give you all the lowdown with just a post or two and only staying two weeks. One of the best recommendations we can give you is to drive the scenic Apache Trail, a distance of about 40 miles. 

The Apache Indians originally used the trail to navigate through the Superstition Mountains. It became a stagecoach route in the early 1900's, and now runs through the mountains and the Tonto National Forest. The trail/drive starts in Apache Junction and ends at the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. We have never been able to drive all the way through due to road closures and we have tried three times. The most we have been able to drive in one direction, was about 17 miles, having to turn around at Tortilla Flat, a tiny little outpost. At Tortilla Flat today, the road was flooded just beyond the little town, so no driving any further was possible.

The road is very winding, and there are a lot of steep switchbacks. All the more fun in a big road hogging dually. RV's are NOT recommended past Tortilla Flats and we wouldn't even recommend taking an RV on the steep, narrow, winding mountainous road passages on the way, either. This wasn't the road, (photo below with the tan road) but maybe a ATV trail? Because of a fair amount of rain which is unusual for the area this time of year, the rocks and boulders were covered with beautiful colors of lichens and mosses. The area was a LOT greener and more beautiful than past years on this visit.

The drive along the way is SPECTACULAR! Here are some sample views..... 

The best view of the day

There are LOTS of scenic stops along the road, so you could make a day of it or just a few hours of your afternoon. The first stop you might want to see if the Goldfield Ghost Town. It was closed to due Covid last year, but appears to be open now. It looks interesting, but we didn't stop. We thought it might be a little too touristy, but for a reconstructed 1890's ghost town, it does look pretty cool. There is an old gold mine there, Old West scheduled gun fights, a history museum, a gold panning opportunity, and more stuff to do than that. It's free to enter the town, you just pay for some of the attractions.

The second stop is Lost Dutchman State Park. Sparky will blog about that in the next blog. Briefly, it's a 320 acre park, with great wilderness trails and it's popular. Seven dollars entry fee gets you into the park and get ready to hike away!

Canyon Lake

Third stop---Canyon Lake, one of three man made lakes along the trail. It has a large marina, an RV park and campgrounds. There are red rock cliffs surrounding the lake, making for a beautiful backdrop. supposedly, bighorn sheep and bald eagles make their home here. Keep your eyes peeled for them! You can book a ticket on the Dolly Steamboat to tour the lake if you like.

Fourth Stop--You will drive by the Superstition Mountains on the right on your way to a reproduction (?) town by the name of Tortilla Flat, population 6. You pass through a couple of one lane bridges on your way, but they are tall enough for most, at 14 ft. 0 in. And then, you get to town.

Don't try nuthin' in this town or else!

Tortilla Flat is one of the last vestiges of the Old West. When it thrived as a stagecoach stop, it was where travelers and workers stopped on their way to the Roosevelt Dam construction site. the population at that time was about 125 people. It had a little school, a church, a livery stable, a general store and of course, a saloon, the Superstition Saloon. It has since transitioned into a folksy, charming, humorous little place with LOTS of history behind it. It and a couple other little shops and stores have also been rebuilt after fires and floods over the years. The inside of the saloon is decorated with dollar bills, completely covering the ceiling, walls and everywhere there is a space to fit one, several times over.

Nobody knows how much money is plastered all over the walls, but it's been a tradition and still continues. If you want to have your moniker on a dollar bill, sign it and ask the wait staff to put it up for you. The tradition started when prospectors (thar's GOLD in them Superstition hills and lost gold mines!) would leave their last buck for a drink.They'd pin up their card and dollar bill behind the bar to reserve a drink after their shift. They'd return, pull down their dollar and buy a round. After awhile, tourists picked up on the idea, the tradition flourished and VOILA! The bills are from all over the world.

The saloon is famous for its chili, great burgers and fresh home cooked food. They serve prickly pear lemonade there, too, along with prickly pear salsas. (Prickly pear cactus is VERY abundant and a food source for many people in the southwest). We really enjoyed our meal there at the end of our drive. Eldo had a HUGE burger, and Sparky had street tacos that were fantastic!

You get a folksy newspaper, Tortilla Flat Telegraph, with lots of local history, comic strip and tongue-in-cheek information with your meal and afterwards, there's a general store and an ice cream shop for some great dessert and treats. And, there is the toilet seat photo op which is to to be missed, but we missed it. And sorry, no photos, darn it. But maybe that's for the best. There are three toilet seats, old wooden ones hanging outside of the saloon. Stick your head through one (EWWWWWWW!)  and get a memorable photo! We passed.....Second option, get someone to take your photo in the bathroom, haha.

We thoroughly enjoyed our drive today, up through the Superstition Mountains. We will definitely return to check out Lost Dutchman State Park. Stay tuned, Sparky is gonna check out some trails!

                                                Bye for now......

Last Day in Mesa

In our little family, Sparky is usually the "events" planner, and Eldo, the "trip planner". But he reminded Sparky of a unique restaurant we went to years ago, that was in the Mesa area called the Organ Stop Restaurant, and he asked if Sparky wanted to go. Of course she does! That means she doesn't have to cook, (HAHAHAHAHA, she very seldom likes to cook, laughs E., as he's rolling on the floor) and she remembered that it's the home of the WORLD'S LARGEST WURLITZER ORGAN, and that a VERY talented organist plays the coolest songs while you eat decent pizza. Without boring you with a ton of information about the organ itself, because probably only serious musicians would appreciate the details more than the average person, here a  few of the most interesting facts about this particular Wurlitzer, a theater style organ.

When silent movies first started, there used to be pit orchestras and pianists to provide the music to accompany the action on the screen. That became too expensive, so the theater organ came into play and was designed to be part military band, part symphony orchestra, and part sound effects. The Wurlitzer organ was considered the best by far in its time and still is today.

The Wurlitzer at the Organ Stop was built for the Denver Theater and installed in 1927. It was used regularly till the 1930's. As talking pictures came into play, it was seldom used by then. A later fire caused some damage, but in the 1970's the instrument was recovered, rebuilt and installed in the restaurant in 1975.

The organ has four manual consoles--that's FOUR keyboards you have to simultaneously rotate between or blend using just your two hands!

Over the years several rare sets of pipes have been added  and today the organ has over 6,000 pipes! The ceilings in the restaurant are 43 feet high, so the acoustics are great for the amazing sounds pouring forth from the Wurlitzer. It is very noisy in the restaurant because of that, but who cares? The dominating sound is that fabulous organ. 

The huge quantities of wind needed to operate this massive Wurlitzer are provided by four humongous turbine blowers. The organ is installed in four chambers at one end of the restaurant. The platform that the organ is on rotates back and forth as the organist plays, on an 8,000 pound rotating hydraulic elevator. AND--he takes a break for ten minutes every hour by slowly descending down into the organ "pit" and then ascends back up shortly after his break and resumes play. 

You may or may not be an organ music fan, but you gotta see the world's biggest Wurlitzer when you are in the Mesa area, that's for sure! We loved it, and highly recommend it! And then...there is the scenery......

Apache Trail Scenic Drive

We love scenic drives. They are always scenic and in many cases jaw dropping or awe inspiring. We decided to revisit a drive here we took over ten years ago, when we first started full timing in the motorhome. It's called the Apache Scenic Trail and is 39 miles long. From the Viewpoint RV Park in Mesa, take US 60 east to Idaho Road, exit 196. Go north to Arizona 88 and follow AZ88 through the Superstition Mountains. The road ends about 9 miles after Tortilla Flat, so you will turn around and head back once again to the valley. Sparky had her regular camera, the Nkon Coolpix 900 on the wrong setting so NONE of her landscape photos turned out today....phooey! Take our word for it, it was a terrific drive! Don't miss it when you are in the area....

We leave Mesa tomorrow for Yuma, AZ, for a week. The weather is warming up both in daytime and nighttime temperatures...(About time! says Eldo.) Sparky is still trying to recover from some sort of stomach bug, but hopes to be out on more trails in the Yuma area soon. So we don't really have any great restaurant suggestions for Mesa, because Sparky has been under the weather, (I know she is pretty sick when she doesn't want to eat out! explains Eldo), but you know, there are fabulous ones out there to find. Next time, we will be checking that out more. Thanks for following us! See you on the road.....