Roosevelt Dam then on to El Olso Road
October 27, 2006
Today we drove to the national forest visitor center. We picked up a recreation pass, got information, and looked at the exhibits. One neat exhibit was a wooden toy wagon with wooden blocks a various shapes labeled with the names of items one might pack along when traveling. The task was to pack the blocks, items, into the wagon for your trip.
From there we drove over to the Roosevelt Dam. It was built in 1903 dedicated by Teddy Roosevelt;
it was the largest granite dam in the world at that time. In the 1980s it was tested and they embarked on a renovation program that took 350 million dollars to complete. They took the top layers off above the water line and raised the dam 77 feet. They did everything with rebar and concrete. We made our breakfast and enjoyed the view of the massive horseshoe dam. We met Dave and Sharon and Richard and Patricia, fellow travelers and stood chatting for some time. We deicided, based on their advice to take the Apache Trail from the south so that we are on the inside while driving the narrow road, the same road that was built to bring supplies for the making of the dam, the same road that Teddy Roosevelt took in order to give the dedication of the dam what bears his name.
We took El Olso dirt path up into the high desert; the road is windy, narrow, steep and scary. We made it about a third of the way up to almost 5000 feet where we could see the tops of mountains, Roosevelt Lake far far below looks like a puddle. We came to an open area where the road makes a sharp switchback to the right. In order to make the turn they made the road into a loop tha crosses over itself. The cross over point was th size of a small parking lot. We tucked in to the side of the hill. People coming up the hill especially those pulling trailers waved at us coming and going as they went around the loop.
After dinner we took a walk up the hill. We stopped at vantage points along the road that overlooked our campsite and took some pictures. The three atvs coming up the hill got to us Justas the pickup truck coming down the hill. We all went different directions and we were all safe. Later we sat and watched the stars come out. The big dipper slowly dropped behind the mountain and we went inside to watch Lord of the Rings but we realized we didn’t have the second one so we watched the special features on the first DVD.
Today we drove to the national forest visitor center. We picked up a recreation pass, got information, and looked at the exhibits. One neat exhibit was a wooden toy wagon with wooden blocks a various shapes labeled with the names of items one might pack along when traveling. The task was to pack the blocks, items, into the wagon for your trip.From there we drove over to the Roosevelt Dam. It was built in 1903 dedicated by Teddy Roosevelt;
it was the largest granite dam in the world at that time. In the 1980s it was tested and they embarked on a renovation program that took 350 million dollars to complete. They took the top layers off above the water line and raised the dam 77 feet. They did everything with rebar and concrete. We made our breakfast and enjoyed the view of the massive horseshoe dam. We met Dave and Sharon and Richard and Patricia, fellow travelers and stood chatting for some time. We deicided, based on their advice to take the Apache Trail from the south so that we are on the inside while driving the narrow road, the same road that was built to bring supplies for the making of the dam, the same road that Teddy Roosevelt took in order to give the dedication of the dam what bears his name.
We took El Olso dirt path up into the high desert; the road is windy, narrow, steep and scary. We made it about a third of the way up to almost 5000 feet where we could see the tops of mountains, Roosevelt Lake far far below looks like a puddle. We came to an open area where the road makes a sharp switchback to the right. In order to make the turn they made the road into a loop tha crosses over itself. The cross over point was th size of a small parking lot. We tucked in to the side of the hill. People coming up the hill especially those pulling trailers waved at us coming and going as they went around the loop.After dinner we took a walk up the hill. We stopped at vantage points along the road that overlooked our campsite and took some pictures. The three atvs coming up the hill got to us Justas the pickup truck coming down the hill. We all went different directions and we were all safe. Later we sat and watched the stars come out. The big dipper slowly dropped behind the mountain and we went inside to watch Lord of the Rings but we realized we didn’t have the second one so we watched the special features on the first DVD.
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