Gillespie Dam Bridge: Phoenix Day Trips

Are you looking for a Phoenix Day Trip? If you’re a fan of historic bridges, let us recommend the Gillespie Dam Bridge (Wikipedia Link).

While on international travel lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, Carol and I are out exploring the beautiful state of Arizona is a series of day trips.

Completed in 1927, the 1,667-foot long Gillespie Dam Bridge was built as a part of U.S. Route 80 designed as a transcontinental highway between San Diego, California, and Tybee Island, Georgia.

However, over the years, Arizona State Route 85 was built.  As a result, the rerouting of the traffic left this bridge seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Our Gillespie Dam Bridge Photographs

© 2020, David A. Porter

An Arizona Ghost Farm

If you are approaching the bridge from Highway 85, when you’re done poking around the bridge, head north a bit to view a “ghost farm”.

The Arlington Cattle Compay has its roots from the early 1900s. Over the years, the property changed hands until the property went into receivership with a portion of the property now owned by the State of Arizona.

The property has been unused for decades, with a vast array of stock pens rusting in the Arizona sun across the street.

© 2020, David A. Porter

Agua Caliente Road

If you’ve got another 3-4 hours to spend, you might want to explore some or all of the Agua Caliente Road.

Driving our SUV, we enjoyed a freshly graded surface.  Therefore, the road was remarkably smooth, with no chatter bumps.

The drive was beautiful, and we only passed one other vehicle on the entire journey.  However, it only took one rock on the road to blow out our right rear tire.

We were very fortunate that our blowout occurred at the end of the road with four bars of service on our phones.  Otherwise, we would have been in a real pickle.

Warning

DO NOT attempt this part of the day trip without a high-clearance vehicle equipped with all-terrain tires. Furthermore, you will be without cell service for much of this road, so please do not take this drive without someone knowing where you are and when they should expect you home.  You do not want to encounter a problem on this remote drive with no way of communication.

We called AAA, and they sent a tow truck to change our tire. We then limped home on our “doughnut” spare tire. While waiting for the tow truck, a forest ranger stopped to see if we needed help.  He mentioned that he was going to do his rounds on the Agua Caliente. So we would have found help. But what a dork I was to take this remote drive on primarily beefed up passenger tires. Shame on me.

Sadly, that blown tire overshadowed this part of our journey, but if you’ve got a high-clearance vehicle with all-terrain tires, this is a beautiful drive.  And, you might want to plan a little extra time to poke around the ghost town of Sundad.

Well, what an exciting and drama-filled journey this turned out to be.  We’re having a set of Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S tires installed on our SUV and we’re looking forward to our next Phoenix Day Trip.  🙂

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