My first outing of the early fall season here in Phoenix! Hazah! One hundred degree temps have hung on here like a hair on a biscuit! But over the weekend a cold front pushed in from the Pacific Northwest and brought MUCH cooler temperatures and rain , and just like that we went from summer to fall here. A sunny 72 degrees and I was dying to get out of the house! My recent move put me up on the absolute edge of the city limits and now rides into the great wide open are just a stones throw away. So without further ado, let’s go!
The Sun Valley Parkway, locally known around here as the road to nowhere. Did you think I just made that up? Back in the 1980’s a local real estate developer, and later convicted felon Charles Keating, was buying up huge swaths of land and building sprawling planned communities in the desert southwest outside of Phoenix.
Phoenix is a huge flat valley ringed by mountain ranges. To the far west, Phoenix dead ends against one of these mountain ranges, the White Tank Mountains. In the 1980’s , Keating bought most of the land that was on THE OTHER SIDE of the White Tank Mountains. This was just open desert with not even a road to get to any of it. So Keating built this massive four lane divided highway with his own money.
NOT.......
Forty years later it is still a 35 mile long road to nowhere. An area that was once projected to have a population of OVER A MILLION PEOPLE!!!! If you can believe that, presently has one struggling housing development. It’s just too isolated. But it sure is pretty out there.
The road starts here.....really....a riverboat in the desert.
At least it looks like a riverboat. Built over forty years ago in the middle of nowhere, it has been many things over the years, but for now at least, it is a bingo hall for the geriatric set.
C’mon..the road to nowhere starts just over that rise.
It could just not be any better out today. On this road, you rarely see another car, usually just a few motorcycles out for a joy ride. The police always seem to know the popular motorcycling roads and set up radar traps.
I am deep in Saguaro cactus country.
These guys behind me are nearly 30 feet tall and could very well be over a century old.
Some interesting notes about Saguaros, they are protected by law and you are not allowed to dig one up.
You can buy them from licensed dealers for about $100 for every foot of height, and if they have any arms at all the price goes up. If a real estate development has to remove any, they must carefully dig them up and transplant them ( usually somewhere in the development as an accent plant, because they are so uniquely South West) and when they dig them up, they must note the direction the cactus is facing, because they are sensitive to this. The side that has always faced the sun will be thicker and tougher than the Northern exposure and if they are not careful about the orientation , the transplanted cactus can get sunburned and die!
Recent rains have brought out some early wild flowers. In a few months, this road will be a riot of color. I’ll come back and take some wild flower photos.
Heading back now.
It turns out that the road to nowhere leads somewhere after all......it leads to lunch!
Till next time,
Bob ( happy to be back in the wind)
The Sun Valley Parkway, locally known around here as the road to nowhere. Did you think I just made that up? Back in the 1980’s a local real estate developer, and later convicted felon Charles Keating, was buying up huge swaths of land and building sprawling planned communities in the desert southwest outside of Phoenix.
Phoenix is a huge flat valley ringed by mountain ranges. To the far west, Phoenix dead ends against one of these mountain ranges, the White Tank Mountains. In the 1980’s , Keating bought most of the land that was on THE OTHER SIDE of the White Tank Mountains. This was just open desert with not even a road to get to any of it. So Keating built this massive four lane divided highway with his own money.
NOT.......
Forty years later it is still a 35 mile long road to nowhere. An area that was once projected to have a population of OVER A MILLION PEOPLE!!!! If you can believe that, presently has one struggling housing development. It’s just too isolated. But it sure is pretty out there.
The road starts here.....really....a riverboat in the desert.
At least it looks like a riverboat. Built over forty years ago in the middle of nowhere, it has been many things over the years, but for now at least, it is a bingo hall for the geriatric set.
C’mon..the road to nowhere starts just over that rise.
It could just not be any better out today. On this road, you rarely see another car, usually just a few motorcycles out for a joy ride. The police always seem to know the popular motorcycling roads and set up radar traps.
I am deep in Saguaro cactus country.
These guys behind me are nearly 30 feet tall and could very well be over a century old.
Some interesting notes about Saguaros, they are protected by law and you are not allowed to dig one up.
You can buy them from licensed dealers for about $100 for every foot of height, and if they have any arms at all the price goes up. If a real estate development has to remove any, they must carefully dig them up and transplant them ( usually somewhere in the development as an accent plant, because they are so uniquely South West) and when they dig them up, they must note the direction the cactus is facing, because they are sensitive to this. The side that has always faced the sun will be thicker and tougher than the Northern exposure and if they are not careful about the orientation , the transplanted cactus can get sunburned and die!
Recent rains have brought out some early wild flowers. In a few months, this road will be a riot of color. I’ll come back and take some wild flower photos.
Heading back now.
It turns out that the road to nowhere leads somewhere after all......it leads to lunch!
Till next time,
Bob ( happy to be back in the wind)
