Salt River Canyon & Globe, AZ - May 2006

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took a drive to the town of Globe, Arizona to meet up with our friends Charlotte and Smoot. They used to live in Austin, TX, but now live in Scottsdale, AZ. Chris and Charlotte used to work together at St. Edward's University. They are also the kind, generous and animal-loving couple who adopted two of our cats -- Pico & Annie when we began our fulltime lifestyle. Anyway, we chatted over a long lunch at a local restaurant and had a wonderful time catching up on each other's lives. It was also good to hear about how well our cats had adapted to their new home and also to hear stories of their recent antics.

Our drive to Globe took us through an area called the Salt River Canyon. Hwy 60 took us through this gorgeous carved out canyon and we really enjoyed the awesome views. The road twisted and wound down-down-down into the canyon (dropping about 4,000' of elevation) and the steep grades and edge hugging switchbacks gave us a few white knuckle moments -- definitely not a road for the RV, but easy enough in a car. There were lots of pull-outs to stop and enjoy the views as well as a picnic area at the bottom of the canyon. From the overlooks, we could see the Salt River down at the very bottom of the canyon. The colors were pretty -- browns, reds and tans with sprinkles of green bushes.

At the bottom of the canyon were two bridges that crossed over the Salt River. The newer one was used for motorized traffic and the older, more quaint one was used by pedestrians. We walked across the older bridge and had a great view up and down the Salt River. We could also smell the burning brakes from the big rigs that had dared to drive down the steep descent. This picture was taken from underneath the newer bridge. I thought it's pretty red arch made a beatiful frame for the mountain peak in the background.

Also at the bottom of the canyon was a rest area (complete with a dozen Native American jewelry vendors) where we were able to get out and walk down to the river for a close up view. Here is Frank looking out over the river. Thank goodness the rail was there or he would never have gotten that close to the edge.

Can you see the people in this picture? They are standing on a dark brown rock just in front of and to the right of the falls. They were jumping off the rocks into the water and we could hear their screams all the way up to the top of the lookout point.