One of the things that Arizona is famous for is the large and expansive desert filled with an assortment of cacti. Another thing Arizona is famous for is having interesting tourist traps out in the middle of the desert. (Okay, Arizona may not be famous for that....)
Our adventure began by driving out into the Superstition Mountains east of Mesa. We drove past Canyon lake to the little town called Tortilla Flats. Grant is hesitantly standing in front of a cage filled with baby rattlers. There were a half a dozen of them inside. If you look closely at the picture, you will see a turquoise one and a greenish colored one. The glare on the glass challenges you from seeing the rest.
Mom is reading up on how this interesting town came into existence.
The town is comprised of four buildings: the museum, the ice cream shop, the cafe and the gift shop. After our barbecue burger lunch on the patio, we all ate the famous Arizona Prickly Pear Ice Cream (Brent and I had chocolate ice cream but Mom and Dad were the lucky ones to try the prickly pear ice cream. Mom's comment was that she liked the color. I think that means she didn't care much for the flavor. I know that I didn't' care much for the flavor when I had it the first time I came here.)
Our adventure began by driving out into the Superstition Mountains east of Mesa. We drove past Canyon lake to the little town called Tortilla Flats. Grant is hesitantly standing in front of a cage filled with baby rattlers. There were a half a dozen of them inside. If you look closely at the picture, you will see a turquoise one and a greenish colored one. The glare on the glass challenges you from seeing the rest.Mom is reading up on how this interesting town came into existence.The town is comprised of four buildings: the museum, the ice cream shop, the cafe and the gift shop. After our barbecue burger lunch on the patio, we all ate the famous Arizona Prickly Pear Ice Cream (Brent and I had chocolate ice cream but Mom and Dad were the lucky ones to try the prickly pear ice cream. Mom's comment was that she liked the color. I think that means she didn't care much for the flavor. I know that I didn't' care much for the flavor when I had it the first time I came here.)
When we left Tortilla Flats we ventured down a LONG dirt road. After several miles of driving we stopped at Fish Creek Hill to admire the desert canyon. Its an amazing site to see the desert so green.
After another 8 miles of driving down a dirt road, we arrived at Apache Lake. Its hard to imagine that there are lakes in the middle of what appears to be a barren canyon. This lake connects the larger lake upstream- Roosevelt - to Canyon Lake. To get to Roosevelt Lake we continued another 12 miles down the dirt road. 
The desert had a few flowers in bloom. We saw pretty purple flowers and vibrant yellow flowers along the road and the paths we hiked on.
It was another beautiful day in the desert! (I don't think I'll be saying that in the middle of July!)
This bird is taller than me!
One fun event we watched was camel racing. It was quite exciting to watch these large animals run around the track.
