A DRIVE ON THE MOGOLLON RIM, FOREST ROAD 300

Tuesday, May 23 - Today we took the drive on The Mogollon Rim!! The Mogollon Rim , Forest Road 300, is a dirt road that is about 100 miles long. The drive we took was only about 40 miles -- West on Forest Road 300, from AZ 260 Southeast of Payson, to AZ 87 North of Strawberry.

This is the Visitor Center across AZ 260 from Forest Road 300. The Visitor Center was closed down because it had been broken into and vandalized; many of its irreplaceable items were stolen!

Ken standing on the porch.

These were our first views of the Mogollon Rim -- the vista from the deck of the Visitor Center!

The first vista on Forest Road 300 was the Military Sinkhole vista!

The next vista was over-looking some lake. I can't remember the name. I was walking out on a ledge looking for the lake to take a picture. Suddenly, I tripped over a rock!! Rather than trying to catch my balance and taking a chance of falling over a two-foot drop to the next ledge, I decided it was safer to drop to my hands and knees!! OUCH!!!

Fortunately, I had some tissues and band-aids in the car and was able to cover the cuts on both knees and the big gash on my right chin!

The worse thing was Ken would not let me get out of the car after my fall!! He took the rest of the pictures from the car! I made several mistakes on this drive. My first mistake was the fall!!

I soon discovered my next major mistake on our drive! I thought since it was a Rim Drive, the vistas would be on both sides of the road. We were heading from East to West. There was not a single vista on the passenger side -- the East side of the Rim!! Every vista was on the West side!! We frequently had to crane our necks to see the vista behind us!! We still managed to get some beautiful views!!

(I highly recommend driving from West to East on the Mogollon Rim.)

Forest Fires scared thousands of acres of the National Forests along FR 300.

The Mogollon Rim, Forest Road 300, is also known as Arizona's Backbone and General Crook Trail.

Our final vista!!

The drive along The Mogollon Rim was fantastic!!