Road Trip

Hi again,
Our time in Roper Lake State Park is really getting short. Leaving here on Feb. 24 only leaves about six more work days. Whew! we finally get a vacation ,)
 The park is really starting to get busy with many new arrivals daily. Valentines weekend which coincides with Presidents day will probably be full. We will spend Monday at Dankworth Pond day use area, because of the holiday.
 Though some AZ state parks close during the summer heat this one remains open, having a lake and beach brings out many day users.
 This week co host Glenna and Milton joined us for an adventure to Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park.  Glenna and Milton have been hosting at Roper 11 years. They are great couple and we have enjoyed visiting with them. Listening to Milton tell stories from his day are a blast.

javaelinas

 Boyce Thompson is Arizona's oldest and largest botanical gardens. It has three miles of trails that criss-cross 100 acres of plants from desert ecosystems across the planet.

 They offer tours but we just decided to walk through at our pace. Oh and the good part as it is a state park we used our volunteer card for entrance.
 The gardens featured 3200 different desert plants from the US, Africa, South America, Asia, and the Mediterranean. With volcanic rhyolite cliffs as a backdrop it is a photographers dream. We only wished we could be here a month from now when things start to bloom.

Glenna & Milton

 As we had gotten a early start to the day we took a different route home along the Copper Corridor Scenic Road. Just out of Superior AZ along 177 to 77 this scenic drive passes through high desert mountains past the huge Ray Copper Mine. On 77 we headed north along the Gila River then through El Capitan Pass, finally back to Hwy 70 our initial road to Globe.
 What a neat drive this was with saguaro and other cactus all about in beautiful but rough looking mountains.

The huge copper mine surprised us, astounding in size they had a visitor vista where we could actually watch the digging and loading of the 240 ton dump trucks. Course they looked like the grandkids micro minis from the distance. They also had a nice informational board of the operation and a tire and bucket from a digger. (fun fact- one tire = $20,000.00)

 While I'm sure there is a negative impact on the land it is still quite a site to see.
 Overall it was a great day and glad we could spend it with good friends.

Happy Valentines Day