This was the scariest road I’ve ever been on (SR88 or AZ88) between Roosevelt Lake and Apache Junction, AZ!
Flashback: We were on a paved road in Big Bend, going over what’s called “The Big Hill” and I asked Trapper to turn around because I just couldn’t take the turns and roller coaster feeling any longer.
Now, flash forward a couple months and I find myself on the worst road I’ve ever been on! I’ve traveled thousands of miles in my life but these were the 17 worst and best miles ever!!!!!
Before I go on… let me answer the top question you’re going to have, “Why didn’t you just turn around?” Well, simply put…. when the road turns really scary and you realize it’s really scary…. there is no where to turn around. You’re committed! Period!
The Apache Trail is deceiving…. there are a couple of places wide enough to turn around 2 – 5 miles in, but you’re sucked into thinking… “Ok, this isn’t so bad… let’s see what’s on up here… and then YOU’RE Committed. We couldn’t have done this in our 30′ 5th wheel with oncoming traffic and it would have been hard with no traffic. Research first if you’re thinking about pulling a trailer through here.
We were traveling to Apache Junction from Roosevelt Lake and saw a sign for SR 88 Apache Junction (37 miles). Northeast to Southwest.
Once you go past the dam there’s a sign that says no vehicles longer than 40′ (remember this as you see the photo’s) and it announced that the pavement would end in 1 mile.
Hummmm…. Ok, I thought, we’ve been on lots of sketchy unpaved roads here lately… what the heck? This is just another one. And it started out exactly like others we’d been on. Washboard, washboard and more washboard but with gorgeous views!
This stretch was gorgeous and if you take it slow, it was do able. Through the blind curves Trapper would swing to our right to allow any oncoming traffic to make the decision to swing to their right! There wasn’t a lot of swing room, no matter how you looked at it.
The higher we climbed the more spectacular the scenery. Little did I know – the scenery would get more spectacular but the road got…. well… you’ll see.
After that picture the road leveled out for a little bit. You can tell from the dust of the oncoming truck it was just washboard again and we were headed downhill. There was a drastic change in landscape as we approached an off branch of the river.
The washboard road took us down to the river where some folks were panning for gold.
We kept climbing, inching around vehicles or stopping for others. This is SINGLE lane through here. Vehicles were hugging the Canyon wall as we were hugging the CLIFF side or pulled over a little. You can see a little wide spot in the picture above but both parties have to be willing!!! We would either pull over and stop or pull over and let everyone get in position for anyone to move upward – or downward.
This man stopped so we could come on up to that slight pull off (veer off) ahead of us. It seemed the larger vehicle had the right-of-way. Being we’re in a Chevy 3500 HD (dually) – we were larger than most and he was giving us the most room he could! So most folks would see us and stop and let us find a place so everyone could make a safe passage. Or if we were in a good spot, we’d stop so they could come on through safely. Approaching the blind curves, some would blow their horn to alert oncoming traffic that they were on the other side or we would slow to a crawl and take the widest spot we could to make the curve just in case we met an oncoming vehicle.
Also for perspective, there is nothing to my right other than thousands of feet of air before hitting bottom. That little 24″ berm of dirt wouldn’t have prevented anything nor that flimsy piece of metal – I think that was just a visual marker to let you know how close to “going over” you were.
I didn’t take an enormous amount of pictures up here because part of the time my hand had a death grip on the door handle or I had my eyes closed. For about two miles we were moving inches at a time and paying close attention to traffic. Everyone we met was very courteous. There were a couple of conversations out the window where everyone was simply stopped trying to navigate or help the oncoming traffic navigate.
“Hey, I’ll back up and then pull forward to my right and then you can come along side and I’ll pull on forward”, a stranger yelled to us. Trapper says back, “I don’t want to run you off the other side into the rocks.” Man replies, “I don’t have 4-wheel drive for no reason. Y’all be careful!” He was a local that knew the road, evidentially.
You see, on the canyon wall side there was a 2 foot berm of dirt and then the canyon wall rocks. On the canyon wall side someone could easily get stuck in that berm of dirt or on the ditch side of the berm and then sent scraping into the rocks. For us, on the cliff side, we could easily get shifted over into the berm, loose footing, and go traveling down into the canyon.
I said to Trapper, as we still had our mirrors out in tow mode, “Maybe we should bring our mirrors in.” He replied, “Absolutely not! If our mirrors aren’t touching the other vehicle, we have room! The mirrors need to stay out so I can gauge us.”
“Gauge us?” Oh, OK… our mirrors in Tow Mode are exactly the width of our truck including the width of the duals. I get it. If the mirrors aren’t touching, then the duals won’t touch and we’re not scratching paint or removing fenders. A good “gauge of space” I’m guessing.
The mirrors got REALLY close a couple of times with the oncoming vehicle person, seemingly sitting at our driver’s window, as we all sat still or inched along, saying, “You got room!?” Surely an open ended question/statement!
I was never sure we had room! Our mirrors were 1/2″ apart in some cases on the drivers side. My side was 2-3″ from the cliff. I didn’t panic but I wanted to several times. However, that wouldn’t have been good for the driver if I’d freaked out. I would have been a distraction at that point and the last thing I needed was for him to become distracted!!!!!
Remember the “No vehicles over 40′ – sign” – where in the heck is 40′ going to fit up here at the summit of this passage. I hope no one ever tries this pulling a trailer of any size! We saw some small Class C’s struggling.
Seventeen miles and 2 1/2 hours later there is a rest area. Thank goodness the road turns back to pavement around Tortilla Flat and there are numerous camping sites and off-roading opportunities in this area.
The next 20 something miles were paved with switchback after switchback. We got back on a main road and back up through Claypool to Roosevelt Lake as we traveled around the base of the Superstition Mountains.
After researching the Apache Trail – there have been many cars/suv’s/trucks go over these walls. Some are said to be from the 70’s and further back. One family of 7 went over and the dad did not survive but Mom and five kids did. A car of 8 teenagers went over and all survived. According to the Rangers there are a lot of wrecked vehicles down there. For me, I’m glad to be off of it and I will never do that again!
Did you back the same way?
Absolutely not!!!! 🙂