Still in our month of January. Heading out to go "wheeling" crossing Tonto Creek on the back side of Punkin. At the end of the month the creek flooded from 2 days of rain, people on the other side were unable to cross into town. Creek Days.

A beautiful day for "wheeling". Roosevelt Lake can be seen in the 

background in front of the mountains.

On a trail that leads to the abandoned BlueBird Mine. A small mine that has been closed for years. 

I haven't been able to find much info on it as to what was mined there. 

The trail was 4-wheeling to say the least. 

Beautiful views. 

Punkin can be seen in the background in front of the mountains (Looks like little white dots.)

If you look closely, you can also see our trail into town. 

Following our Utah friends. 

The BlueBird Mine. It was a nice little hike up a canyon to reach the mine. 

Found some cool rocks but no gold. 

Shake rattle and roll. 

I got out and walked at this point. Our jeep is too stock to do many trails like this. 

I love the desert.

End of day, back into Punkin. 

 Late afternoon at Roosevelt Lake. The lake has many different looks, depends on time of day, lighting and what side of the lake you're on. The lake is the result of the Roosevelt Dam completed in 1911, it was named after President Theodore Roosevelt.

 More Roosevelt Lake.

 Our first week in Punkin we set out to find the remains of Camp Reno, but no luck. A later attempt proved successful.

 All that's left of Camp Reno are stone walls...and the history. Camp Reno was an outpost established to protect settlers and prospectors looking for gold. Indian raids, most notably from the Apaches were a constant threat. Abundant gold was discovered in this area...still today people find gold. In fact I saw a gold panning kit in a local hardware store and was tempted to give it a whirl. Maybe another year.
This outpost was so remote, difficult to keep soldiers supplied, it was in existence less than 5 years.

 When the girls were here we went cholla hunting. When the cholla cactus dies the meat of the cactus rots away and leaves an interesting wood from the inside. It's popular with crafters and often seen as decoration in gardens. The sun was setting and painted the desert with a beautiful peace.

The cholla cactus is beautiful to look at but one must beware, it's called jumping cactus because the slightest brush against it results in a clump being attached to one's limb, and it does not feel good.

All for tonight.  Jan. continues tomorrow.

 After being without internet for a couple weeks we're back in business. I have much to share to finish out our month of January. While staying in the Tonto Basin (Punkin Center) we spent time hiking and jeeping in the Salome Wilderness Area. The desert here seems very healthy and so beautiful, it's definitely wilderness, acres and acres of wilderness. We would be on trails for hours and never see another soul.

 This trail in the Salome was named THE JUG, probably because of the deep pools of water. Some of the pools can only be reached by repelling down cliffs, something we don't do. However, we were able to scramble boulders to get down to this pool. I loved the heart shaped boulder with bamboo growing behind it. One of God's whispers.

 More from THE JUG trail. There are lots of saguaros in the Tonto Basin.

We attended the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction, a week long event.
The Barrett & Jackson Auto Auction is held every January in Phoenix. This year thousands of immaculate autos were auctioned off, the most expensive selling for $500,000. There were model T era cars, muscle cars, prototypes that never made the production line to a very unusual tour bus made by GM (sold for 4 million), photo above. We spent the day there and didn't see all the cars.  


                                                         (My driver Drew)
Chevy, Ford and Dodge had large outdoor displays along with a small race track where they offerred “hot lap” rides with professional race car drivers. Figured we’d never get a chance like that again so we got in line. My first hot lap was in a Ford Mustang (photo), we peeled out, skidded and squealed around the corners and when I opened my eyes we were crossing the finish line. Driver Drew said he wanted to give me a good ride, ha ha. I think he just wanted to see me scream (but I didn’t).

Tom got a lap in a Mustang Shelby and then we both took a second hot lap in a new Corvette, only this time I asked the driver to go a bit slower. Was thrilling and fun.

 I liked the colors in this row of old trucks. The vehicles all so clean they sparkled with the overhead lights.

 There are several Indian ruin sites in this area. Fortunately the Forest Service has taken this site under their wings to help preserve and protect it from vandals and the elements. We were told there are others that are not protected, kind of wonder if there's anything left of them. Above are the Tonto Ruins from the Salado Indians. The Salados are thought to be some of the first people to use the Apache Trail as a footpath. Interesting side note...at the bottom of this trail by the visitor center we met an elderly couple from New Auburn WI, a neighboring town to Chetek.  The trail up is paved but too steep for many that have difficulty walking.

 Beautiful views on our way to Young. 
A day trip to the remote town of Young was another scenic drive with lots of oohs and awhs. This town has only one road in and one out, most of it dirt. The road is called “Desert to the Pines” because you start out driving in the desert and climb up into the pines to snow level, over the mountain then desend into the Pleasant Valley which was the former name of Young. It’s a beautiful green valley, we didn’t see any industry, mostly ranching. This is cowboy country...cowboy hats, boots and dusty trucks. We had lunch at the Antlers Restaurant, we loved the quaintness (wood stove in dining area) as well as the good food. Interesting side note...Young didn’t get electic service until 1965. History includes the Pleasant Valley War waged between two ranching families that continued for years with many lives lost. 

 Hard to believe this is the only road into the town, or out, depending on what way you're traveling.

 23 miles to go. Not the greatest picture but wanted to show you the road as one travels into the town of Young.

In the Pleasant Valley entering Young.

Will continue with more tomorrow.
Erin, thanks for the blogging tips.

Unfortunately, our hot spot providing our internet has crapped out. Straight Talk (would not recommend, very poor tech support) was to send a replacement, learned today it hasn't been shipped yet, could be another week or so. I'm at the library now but not sure how to update blog using my iPad. (Erin?)

Our first week (Jan 4-10/2015) has been nothing short of awesome. We had a couple good hikes and found some great jeep trails. The town of Roosevelt flourished in the early 1900's due to the construction of the Roosevelt Dam. About all that's left of Roosevelt is a forest service office, a marina and a few homes. We hiked a trail that went past this cemetery. Buried here are Roosevelt residents from the early 1900's. Wooden crosses, piles of stone and a few monuments mark the graves. Lake Roosevelt created from the Roosevelt Dam is a big attraction is this area. Fishing, boating, camping and tons of trails, this is mostly national forest land so there's lots of area to explore. We're only about 15 miles from Lake Roosevelt.     

Too close to a prickly pear cactus.

I never tire of saguaros, they're majestic. Lake Roosevelt in the background. 

Crossing Tonto Creek.

 Tonto Creek runs thru this little burb of Punkin Center. We're careful of these crossings...watched a few others go thru before we did so we knew how deep and best path to take. The creek is running from the snow melt up in the high country, there was a foot of snow in Payson on New Year's Eve. There are  several houses and people living on the back side of the creek, the school and businesses on what I'd call the front side. There is no bridge, when the creek is running full, it floods, the school closes and they call it a creek day. (No snow days here.) Locals tell us they've been trying to get a bridge built for years.

HIKING - Salome Wilderness Area in the Tonto National Forest. Beautiful hike into a very deep canyon. Steep canyon walls, waterfalls and bamboo growing in some of the pools. People rappel some of these canyon walls to get to pristine pools of water. Not us. The hike out was strenuous, about 3 mi. up hill, we were tired. Going down was a lot easier!!

On our way out of the Salome Area, evening setting in, Roosevelt Lake in background. It's a 4-wheel drive road to get to the trail head. 

This little bar/grill seems to be the main attraction in Punkin Center, and about the only attraction in PC.  It's quite busy on weekends, have heard good things about the food, will definitely be checking it out. An easy walk from Olaf, our home on wheels. 

Our little RV park. We're on the far end beyond the white vehicle. We like the smallness of the park and the rural feel.

A view from the park, you can see the Punkin Bar/grill to the left. And yes, they spell it Punkin here. 

Straight ahead is the M & M Diner which we ate at when the girls were here, very good food and such friendly people. 

Our site.

We moved from Winslow to Punkin Center Saturday (1/3), originally planned to move on Friday but a winter snow storm resulted in road closures in the higher elevations.
Punkin Center is an interesting little burb...low key, lots of old trucks, hunters, quads, jeeps and RV's...very friendly people.
Happy to say all systems on our RV (Olaf) are working. Still have a lot of organizing to do so we can find things.
We loved the sunny 60+ weather today, hard to believe it's January. This area (which includes Punkin Center) is known as Tonto Basin, it's full of hiking and jeepin trails. We did both today, hiked a bit and went jeepin. We set out to find the remains of an old military encampment up in the hills but no luck...found out from our neighbor that we were on the right trail but turned around too soon, will try again another day.
It's very scenic here, mountains in every direction. We can see snow on some of the peaks and saguaro cactus down here in the desert. We're living the dream!!

Looking for Camp Reno.