Casa Grande Ruins and Apache Trail

Monday we drained the tanks, loaded up the rig and headed to Casa Grande Arizona. It was only about 176 miles so a very easy trip on mostly flat highways. We set up camp and took a tour of the park. Nice pool and a small hot tub with several buildings for meals, games and exercise. The park is nice but has some road noise that we are not used to.

Tuesday we climbed back into the truck and took a day trip out to the Casa Grande Ruins. These ruins date back before 1300 AD and the Hohokam Indians have been traced back to 300AD or as the literature says (300 CE) but that's another story.

What you see below is just a small portion of what remains of the village. They think that the village died out because of water shortage.

It was a hot day to wander around in the sun but we did take a couple of hours to learn a little more about the history of this area.

A cover was built back in the '30s to stop the deterioration of the building from the weather.

Four stories high and over 60' long with walls over 4' thick at the base. It's hard to believe that there is anything left after 700 years.

More of what is left of the buildings and wall of this Village.

Wednesday we woke to another beautiful day and decided to take a trip to the Lost Dutchman State Park and spend some time in the local Superstition Mountain Museum. We spent some time viewing the history of the area inside the museum. Outside was a grand view of Superstition Mountain with old mining equipment in the foreground.

Another view of some of the buildings that are on the Museum property. This area was used for a lot of the old western movies but the town, like so may others, burnt down several years ago. The state park is just a few miles up the road and at the base of the mountain with lots and lots of hiking trails. And, yes there is one that goes all the way to the top. Maybe we will try it later...NOT.

A view of the inside of a old bunk house. Looks a lot cleaner than I am sure it would be with some miners living in it.

What an awesome area with lots of history of the wild west. The loop road (Apache trail) winds by 3 lakes and circles the area of the Lost Dutchman Mine. We spent a few minutes looking but with no luck. (ha ha)

And this is one of the reasons that we decided not to spend a lot of time looking for the mine. This excuse works for us.

Last and final is this for Rich and Debbie. We modified the sign just a little after we looked at it later. Again, that's another story.

We have also spent part of two days geocaching in and out of town. We are up to 15 caches found and need to replenish our supply of trinkets to leave at each site. For those in the know, we have also found two travel bugs and two monuments. We plan to replant the two travel bugs later.

To be continued...