I woke up way too early Saturday morning. Like 3 AM. I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to go find a mountain and watch the sun come up over the valley. I thought I’d try south Mountain. I’ve heard there is a road up there, and I’ve never been there.
I idled out of the neighborhood so as not to wake everyone up (my bike is pretty loud) and headed west toward Phoenix. The roads were empty, and the air was nice and cool. A nice start to a Saturday.
5 more miles to the topMade it just as the sun broke the superstition Mountains. A helluva View up here.
I sat on top of south Mountain, drank coffee and had about 7 epiphanies. I forgot all of them, of course but I’m pretty sure they were epic. 🙂
On the way back down I checked out this place called Scorpion Gulch. Its right off the side of the road.
The thing that strikes me about Arizona, is they give things really bitchin names. Places like Bloody Basin, Two Guns, Horsetheif Basin and Bumble Bee. Theres towns called Tombstone, Happy Jack and even Santa Claus.
In 1936, William Lunsford bought some frontage along the road heading up to South Mountain to build a curio shop and Trading post. There was an active gold mine on the mountain, and William staked his claim to be a part of that turns out.
He gave it a killer name. In true Arizona Style, he called it Scorpion Gulch. I think its my favorite AZ name so far. It sounds like a place you could throw child abusers into; I mean…. “Scorpion Gulch” ffs.
If he were still alive, I’d find him and buy him a beer.
I can’t find a lot of details about this place, but it was still operating in 1966 when Lunsford was 75. In the 1970s, it became a bar and there’s a few stories of people who frequented it.
Scorpion Gulch Back in the day.
A cool little morning outing, and a great ride. Arizona has a lot of cool little places.
When its hot down here, you have to make the most of the weather you have. It was too hot to ride the 600 miles I wanted to see, so I took the car. Scout the perimeter, I thought… I can always ride it later. I don’t mind re-seeing a thing.
a couple of months ago I was able to bust out and go scout that perimeter. I’m a bit behind on my blogging, life being what it is, so this report is a bit late.
Road trips being as they are, I had some time on my hands, so I made a video introduction for this one.
The best road trips always come with a loose destination in mind. Most of what I find turn out to be my favorite trips are what I find a long the way, not what I set out for. You don’t even really need a great destination, you just have to have some curiosity and a willingness to explore. If you have that, you can always find something good. I headed south, toward Yuma to the territorial prison.
Ever seen 3:10 to Yuma? I watched both the original and the remake the day before, just for shits and giggles. I wanted to get a little sense of the place. They’re both pretty good.
I spotted this as I was heading out of town —a Maricopa County railroad water tower. You can’t move things on rails without a lot of water. Rusty, Riveted and old — Pretty cool.
I hit highway 8 toward San Diego. Yuma was my next stop, and the Yuma territorial Prison. Yuma is pretty cool; as I came into town the streets were named after fallen police officers Veterans who’d served in WWI and WWII. People that needed to be remembered…. Very cool.
To the left is the guard tower, to the right in the original prison entrance.
The original prison entrance took in its first inmate on July of 1876. It served the area for 33 years, when Arizona was just a territory.
Message received; Just go to work. Yuma didn’t like you being a Bum.
From 1867 to 1909, over 3,000 prisoners walked here.
Where you served the hardest time.
The Isolation ward was carved out of the side of a stone hill.
Yuma Territorial prison is now a historical museum, after closing its doors in 1909.
I left the prison to go check out the historic Yuma Downtown, and a bridge I’d spotted from the Prison hill;
in 1912, Arizona became a state about the time that Henry Ford had made enough Model T’s and American’s were wanting to explore the continent. Crossing the Colorado river was a problem. Before this, you had to cross the river by ferry. This was the first bridge that crossed the Colorado river, and was sold as the ocean to ocean highway.
I left Yuma, and crossed the Colorado river to make my way toward California.
Back in 1990, I was a kid who was just discovering route 66 and set out to see what it was all about. I went to Amboy California and bought a postcard of a 1 lane, wooden plank road from a man named Buster Burris, who owned Roys Cafe. He told me some stories about route 66 back in the day that have always stuck with me, and further fueled my desire to explore. I’ve never seen a plank road before, and I’ve always wanted to.
The postcard that inspired my road trip
It’s still there: A wooden plank road. Back in the early part of the 20th century, crossing the desert between Yuma and San Diego was a challenge. The solution they came up with to cross the sand dunes of Southern California was wooden Plank Roads.
A postcard, from back in the day
I crashed for the night and
I left, and headed toward the Salton Sea.
Gristons cafe. I gotta think they slung hash here, and knew their regulars by name. Open 24 hours.
The salton Sea to be honest, was pretty underwhelming. It’s a massive lake, the largest in California and was never supposed to be there, but a breach from the Colorado river filled the valley with water in the early 1900’s. It became a resort town in the 1950’s, filled with Motels, restaurants and Homes. As the lake has no outlet, it slowly started killing the fish, started to smell and the resorts died.
I showed up and checked them out, but the structures that were left were either collapsed or filled with Graffiti, and I lost interest and decided to start heading back to AZ.
Ehhh, bring a gas mask.
Places like Bombay Beach and Salton city are always cool until some dickhead vandal finds them. They lose the vibe….
I’m always up for the Patton Museum, and headed for Chiriaco summit, just outside of Indo. It was closed, but they look like they’re expanding it and doing a complete re-model. I was ready to get home anyway, so headed down the 10 toward home.
Highway 60 is still one of the main roads into Phoenix. Back in the day, it was *the* road if you were coming in from the East. It runs through Mesa Arizona first, and there’s still parts that retain its past of epic sized neon signs and old school road trip memories. The Buckhorn Baths is the king of those places in the area. It just stands out. When I first saw it, it reminded me of Roys in Amboy on route 66. I liked this place immediately, and wanted to know its story.
The Buckhorn Baths Motel. This sign was built to not be ignored. There’s a ton of Arizona history here.
Ted and Alice Sliger started the Buckhorn Baths. Ted was was an entrepreneur and a Texan, but found his way to Arizona and in the 30s, started a gas station on the corner of the Apache Trail and the bush Highway on the way to Saguaro Lake. A fire later destroyed their business. Ted, ever the opportunist bought a homestead on the far edge of highway 60 into Mesa to start over and try again.
With the brutal desert heat and water a necessity, The couple got tired of hauling in water and put together enough money to drill a well. It didn’t go so well. The results were an undrinkable, hot, odorless Mineral Water. Ted made the most out of it and they started the Buckhorn Mineral wells in 1939.
The Buckhorn Hot Mineral Wells.
It didn’t take Long. Right down the middle of the Apache Trail and right in view of the superstitions – the Buckhorn brought in travelers, and started to grow.
More and more people were travelling by car, and the Buckhorn started getting more and more business. Ted and Alice’s venture started to grow. They put in a cafe, motel, Curio shop and even a 9 hole golf course. They bought old bricks for $5 per thousand from a local school that was being torn down and built a trading post complete with a greyhound bus station. When local cowboys came through town and needed food and a place to stay, they’d be put to work in exchange for labor to expand his new enterprise. Ted was also a skilled Taxidermist and started a small animal museum to bring in customers.
The Buckhorn became the home of the New York Giants for Spring Training in 1947
Arizona seemed like a great place for Baseball spring training, and in 1947 Ted capitalized on an opportunity. His Motel and therapeutic mineral waters were a perfect fit to house baseball players. He cut a deal to have the world champion New York Giants stay there for spring training. He outfitted locker rooms into the facility for the team which are still there. This was the Giants spring training home for 25 years. Ty Cobb, Willie Mays and a list of baseball players all stayed here. Other teams soon followed into Arizona, and the cactus league was formed. Today, more than 1/2 of the Major League Baseball teams train in Arizona. It all started with the Buckhorn.
Any good curio shop has self promoting postcards with “World Famous” In there somewhere.
Buckhorn Baths Arial View 1940s
All the amenities of the day: Kicking back at the Swimming Pool
The Place was packed.
The Buckhorn continued to thrive through the 60’s and 70’s. The staff of 25 made beds, sold admission to the museum, cleaned and made food. The business had 27 stone tubs, 15 adobe style cottages with attached carports to get out of Arizona sun. The wildlife museum had over 450 animals, some that were extinct in Arizona. Ted and Alice lived on the property and continued the business of hospitality.
When Ted Passed away in 1984, Alice continued to run the place for 15 more years When route 60 was re-routed in the mid 1990’s, traffic all but stopped and Alice finally shut the doors for the last time at the age of 93 in 1999.
There’s been some on and off discussion on what to do with the place: The city of Mesa spent a couple of years trying to acquire the property but they weren’t able to pull it off. The whole 15 acres is currently for sale. Its currently listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Inside its still a time machine:
Inside: Ted Sligers Taxidermy still displays proudly
I busted out the drone and got some Arial shots…
Just a cool old place, with a great Story. God, I love Arizona.
Did a tune up trip this weekend, to see how Bri would do on the bike. I’ve always called em a tune up trip; a practice run. Where you see what gear you need, and how everything goes. We did 120 miles and she seemed to love it. This weekend we’ll do a thousand. She’s a good travel buddy. Utah it seems, has some great roads.
Thinking about going up through the Sawtooth mountains up in Idaho. Hit up Golden spike National monument along the way, take some back roads and do some tent camping. See where Evel Knevel jumped the snake river. Find a hotel with a pool and just kick back and enjoy the day. Find some new roads we’ve never seen. Maybe make a moment she’ll remember, if the conditions permit.
Went with a couple guys from my BACA chapter on a ride. Great road. Maybe the best I’ve been to since I’ve been up here. Had lunch and a couple of beers in Hanna, got to know friends a little better and had a great time. Did some shooting and the cops showed up. He was cool. Ya gotta love wasatch County. I’ll do this ride again and take pictures next time. It really was a good one.
My week started with my street glide making noises that I couldnt tell were in my head, or not. Turns out, a cam chain guide fell off and rested in the bottom of my engine, so I took it in to get it fixed. That left me with a weekend to ride, and the untested fat boy in garage. It was time to see what this softail was made of. if it was destined to be an around the town bike that I end up bobbing and make into something worth looking at, or if I would bag it up a bit and make it into something that makes some miles.
So saturday morning I headed out around gunlock, and up towards rachel nevada. That was my goal anyway, to head out, have a couple of beers and lunch in rachel, and mabye see some terrain I hadnt ever seen in nevada.
My first stop was mountain meadow. I hadnt been here for a few years, and figured that it would be a good place to rest my ass and see what new things have been there in the way of monuments. Mountain meadow still holds controversy, as mormon settlers and indians seiged and massacred 120 men, women and children. Its a complex story as to why, and Ive studied it and read about it several times since college. I stopped, snapped some pictures and headed north.
Somewhere up toward Enterprise, erik’s cousin wrecked on erik’s ultra glide the night before. I couldnt find any evidence or wreckage, and bombed to the nevada border.
Just on the nevada utah border, I explored modena a little bit…. another cool little old (almost) ghost town in nevada that vandals havent done anything to.
after modena, another hour and I found myself in Caliente, drinking a beer and hearing my brothers plans had fallen through, so I headed back to st george to meet him, drink a bottle of Glen Livet and prep for another ride tomorrow.
Gotta go back to caliente, theres more to see there.
Enterprise Utah stop- Heading to Cedar City with Erik
108 degrees out, and my air conditioner went out friday night. Erik called me to go ride for a few hours, so we headed north out of town on highway 18 up to enterprise, and over to cedar city. Had a bite to eat, then it started raining pretty hard. Who cares. Rain just makes you wet, its just made of water.
Rode up through cedar canyon a few miles and about 4 miles up the road turned into a dirt road, which sucks on a bike but it wasnt too bad. 14 miles of dirt road till we hit kolob reservoir, and then we blew home. Rode about about 179 miles
Southern Utah Harley Owners Group does day runs almost every weekend, and at least one overnighter a month. I’ve done maybe 3 runs with them. Great bunch of guys, and very organized.
Megan, my oldest daughter went with me on this one. Shes a great rider. The weather was not looking all that great, and the original plan was to head through Zion National Park, and up to antimony. We ended up running up through cedar city, and over Cedar mountain. There was snow on the ground, but really wasnt cold. We stopped in Kanab to get lunch, and the thunderheads looks pretty ominous, so we headed back through the park and home.
Every year, Zion Harley Davidson sponsors thunder in the tunnel. This was the first year I’ve made the run from the dealership, up through Springdale, through Zion National Park through the tunnel, out to kanab and back through colorado City and then home. Its a fun little poker run.
This year, Wendy, my 10 year old Daughter went with me. She’s a fun kid. Lots of energy, and I like how she looks at life. She’s just got style. She also refuses to smile for pictures, and I told her on this run, she didnt have to. We’re harley davidson owners right? Isnt there something in the manual about scowling and hiding how much fun you’re having in the name of looking bad and being cool? I don’t quite pull it off, but maybe Wendy can.
We had a blast.
Theres nothing like the sound of 500 harley Davidsons booming through a 2 mile tunnel. Wow. It was awesome. We left in the morning, and got back around 3 PM, had a nice lunch, and rode around with some friends.
