Awesome Arizona - On the Way

Every day in June in Tucson has been in the hundred degree range. While it is true it is a dry heat, it's been a particularly dry heat since we have gone over 60 days with no rain.  We are waiting for the monsoon and the meteorologists, as well as everyone else, scan the skies daily for signs of  rain.

So maybe you can understand why David and I decided to meander through the mountains on two-lane roads on our way to the Grand Canyon.  We craved pine trees and grass.  Anything green, really.  But along the way, we found something even better.  Something blue.

I always thought the only thing the desert was missing was an ocean, and we found the next best thing in the mountains.

Roosevelt lake is as blue as the Arizona sky and twice as wide.  We saw it from twenty miles away because it appeared as large as an inland sea.   We  kept hugging its shore mile after mile after mile, ogling the Baja-blue water (David said it did remind him in places of Baja.), and wishing we were on one of the sailboats skimming that cool wonderful wetness.  We were disappointed when we finally got to the lake's boundary, but the lovely town of Payson wasn't far away with its fir trees and grass everywhere.

We're at the Majestic Mountain Inn where there's a back door in our room leading to a little patio and a grassy tree-studded lawn.  Ah,  it'll be hard to tear ourselves away tomorrow.

Practicalities -

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam that created the 22000 acre, 112-mile shoreline Roosevelt Lake is located about eighty miles northeast of Phoenix.  From what David and I could see, every sort of recreational opportunity is available at this beautiful lake..