Day 4 - Bartlett Lake and South Mountain - 124 miles A simple but graceful dawn photo for a simple but graceful day.  We got back into Phoenix yesterday evening and today there is no significantly long trip on the schedule.  That doesn't mean nothing is going on, with this crew you can absolutely be assured that something is going on, but everything was relatively close to Phoenix today. I want to introduce a couple of my other hosts before I go any farther.  These are KC's two house cats and they did a great job of keeping me company.  Semba, the black male, followed me around the whole time.  Monkey, the calico female, is very shy and would only occasionally get close but she did let me scratch her ears a couple of times. We headed out to visit a couple of places relatively close to "Home" today.  First off we visited the Ben Avery Shooting Facility at the northern edge of Greater Phoenix.  This is a fantastic place for shooters of every venue from clay targets to long-range rifle to practical pistol.  They have an area for everything.  The facility is open to the public and is operated by the Arizona Department of Game and Fish.  We have nothing like this around Nashville and as a shooter I really enjoyed seeing it.  I didn't take any photos, I guess I was too busy looking around or something. Next we headed east to Bartlett Lake (or more specifically Rattlesnake Cove at Bartlett Lake in Tonto National Forest).  It is located a short distance northeast of downtown Phoenix and is a beautiful lake nestled at the foot of the mountains.  Given the mild 80° weather there were already a few boats on the lake, and I can only guess at the marine traffic in the middle of their summer. We stopped for lunch at the Horny Toad Restaurant in Cave Creek, AZ and had some great barbeque and then headed back toward Phoenix the scenic route through Scottsdale.  A great ride through some beautiful country, but the day wasn't over yet! When we got back to Phoenix we picked up KC and headed for South Mountain to watch the sun set.  South Mountain is the largest city park in the world at 17,000 acres.  Dobbins Lookout, at 2,330 feet, is the highest point in the park and that's where we headed, not by motorcycle but by car. GPS Track Log for 02/03/2009 Copyright © 1997-2024, Scott A. Craig, All Rights Reserved Site Use and Privacy Limitations