Winter Road Trip Day 8: Arizona's White Mountains

When people think of Arizona, most of them probably envision landscapes like the Painted Desert that we visited the previous day.

But an hour south of where we were staying in Holbrook, we encountered a very different landscape.

As we entered the White Mountains, we found ski resort communities, tall evergreens, deep snow, and families out sledding by the side of the road.

The scenery is every bit as lovely as the mesas and buttes to the north.

This was a largely unplanned excursion. We mapped out a route that took us due south from Holbrook to the town of Snowflake (founded by two Mormons whose last names were Snow and Flake, respectively!), and then continuing south to Show Low.

The story of how Show Low got its name is even better. The original ranch land was won in a card game between early settlers C.E. Cooley and Marion Clark, where the stakes were raised until finally a challenge was issued to "show low" and you win the whole ranch. Cooley turned up the two of clubs, and the main street through town is named Deuce of Clubs Blvd. in memory of the town's beginning.

From Show Low, we turned west and made our first stop at Fools Hollow Lake State Park. With its tall pine trees, it could almost pass for a New England forest.

 Until you look a bit closer...

 We don't have any of THOSE peeking up through the snow in New England.

That's right. Cacti in the snow.

 At the lake itself we were treated to the sight of three bald eagles. Too far off to photograph, unfortunately, but the lake still made for a pretty picture.

 The lake ends at a dam, which had a little bit of water flowing over.

 Beyond the dam, the stream has carved an impressive gorge in the rocks.

And there are shear cliffs on the hill above.

Here's another view.

After a little bit of walking around Fools Hollow Lake, we continued west to the town of Strawberry, which was a quaint spot full of artists studios.

We turned north, passing through some forest that had been damaged in wildfires.

Our next stop was Tonto Natural Bridge State Park near Payson AZ.

The drive down the mountain road to the park is beautiful in and of itself. Once inside the park we found ourselves looking up at towering rocky cliffs.

The ranger told us that the stream was just "a hundred and fifty steps" from the parking area. We thought she meant steps as in paces. Turns out, she was talking stairs.

Down we went. At the end of the twisting staircase was a cave where dripping water had formed huge icicles.

The biggest was actually formed on a hanging vine.

Here's a look deeper into the cave.

Here I am in front of the cave.

And Gynn facing the other way, with the gorge at her back.

Across the stream were the rocky walls of the gorge.

Here are some closeup shots of the ice formations. At one point a bunch of icicles fell onto a part of the path where we had just been standing. That was when we decided we'd seen enough of the stream trail.

We drove to the opposite end of the park (not that long, really; we could have walked it easily if we'd had a better sense of the distance). We still had not seen the natural bridge, so we followed the path toward the observation point. There is another path that leads back down to the stream to see the natural bridge from below, but we decided not to take that trail. Here is that walkway as seen from our vantage point above.

And the view looking up to the cliffs above this section.

We also saw some cacti here, but these didn't have snow to contend with due to our lower elevation at this location.

When we finally reached the viewing point to see the natural bridge (which we had been unknowingly walking on top of along the trail), we were in for a treat. The water from melting ice showered down and the sunlight created a rainbow in front of the natural bridge.

This is the largest natural bridge of its type (travertine) in the world.

After spending some time in awe of the natural bridge and the waterfall and rainbow, we headed back to our car and continued on our way north toward Winslow. The land turned back to the more stereotypic Arizona terrain.

Now, this was mentioned earlier in a comment someone made, but of course what does one do in Winslow AZ? You stand on a corner! In fact, the town has a park dedicated to the Eagles hit song "Take It Easy", which said,

"I was standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona,
Such a fine sight to see,
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford,
Slowin' down to take a look at me..."

Here we are at Standin' On A Corner Park in Winslow Arizona.

Note the girl in the Ford truck in the mural. I'll also point out that the statue is not actually meant to depict Don Henley (or Glen Frey, etc) specifically. It's a generic "Seventies Guy" with a guitar.

We returned to Holbrook and had dinner in the hotel room, planning on a low-key day of souvenir shopping the next day. Then off to see the Grand Canyon.