Safford, Arizona on the Salsa Trail

November 11 - 12, 2015:  

This move was about 150 miles from Silver City, NM to Safford, AZ.  We took route 90 from Silver City to Lordsburg, NM and then I-10 across into Arizona and then route 191 north to Roper Lake State Park.

  

Racing this freight out of Lordsburg, Arizona

We weren’t too sure what to expect at Roper Lake State Park, but it turned out better than expected.  The park is a natural lowlands area with a lake partially fed by hot springs, they even have a natural spring fed hot tub in the park.  The lake is reputed to have good fishing and there are hundreds of ducks.  We did a 1 mile loop trail to a small mesa top adjacent to the park where we are seeing many old familiar cactus types again.  This is a large farming valley surrounded by mesas and mountains in the distance.

Roper Lake

There were hundreds of these ducks

Twinkles on the trail

Stafford is the largest local town with a small old downtown area surrounded by the usual unattractive commercial district.  There are several other nearby small towns along route 70, most settled by Mormons. There is a huge Mormon Temple that looks much out of place.  The desert area here has been transformed by irrigation into a a major Cotton farming area famous for it’s world renowned Pima Cotton.  They also call this area the Salsa Trail, a bit of a local tourist marketing strategy.  There are many good Mexican restaurants here that all claim to have the best Salsa and they have a Salsa festival in September.  We had lunch in downtown Safford at the “El Coronado Restaurant”, where I had an excellent  green chili chicken enchilada, highly recommended.

Mural in Safford

Safford Theater

Safford County Court House

Twinkles hanging out

Safford downtown view

Cotton fields are all over this area

We are now entering Apache country, next stop is Globe, Arizona:

Twinkles and Slick