When life gives you lemons, make lemonade (or maybe an historic discovery)

We drove two vehicles on our camping trip.  Dan drove the Turtle (F-350 with our slide-in camper). And I drove our Desert Rat (Toyota 4Runner).  The only reason we brought the Rat was because the dirt roads surrounding the campsite we had picked out looked awfully good, on our maps, for cycling.  There were about 20 miles of dirt roads, AND they were not labeled 4-wheel drive roads.  The roads headed north from our campsite to Mt. Peeley in the Matzatzal Mountains.  This seemed like perfect cycling roads, surrounded by spectacular mountain scenery, for our off-road eBikes. 

So we loaded our two 80 pound Rad eBikes on the back of the Rat and headed 50 miles south with the Turtle and the Rat.  About 1-1/2 miles off the highway, the dirt road leading to our campsite degenerated into a rocky, bumpy (almost, but not quite) 4-wheel drive road….5 miles of this nasty road. Darn!

So our bikes gathered dust and grime and sat on the back of the Rat for seven days, while we hiked and danced, and then hiked and danced some more.  Finally on the eighth day of our camping trip, our bikes had their chance to shine.

On our way home we stopped about a mile from the highway, where we decided that the dirt road was good enough to cycle.  So we unloaded our bikes with high hopes of a good bike ride.

We headed up north toward Mt. Peeley on a beautiful, sunny morning.  After a half mile, we had to call it quits. The road was VERY steep and rocky.  Now we figured we would be lucky to just get back down to our vehicles without flying over our handlebars.  And, in our mid-seventies, we’re much too old to be falling off our bikes.

But we safely skidded down the mountain road.  Since we had only cycled a mile, and we weren’t too excited about giving up and just loading our 80 pound bikes back on the Rat, we headed down the road the opposite direction.

And this is when we made a very fun discovery.  We ended up on the Old Beeline Highway!

It was called the Beeline since this road was considered a shortcut (or beeline) straight up to the mountain country of Payson and the Mogollon Rim from the valley (Phoenix, Mesa, etc.).

Photo of the Old Beeline Highway from the 1960’s, when it was the first paved road from Phoenix to Payson.

Before the Beeline Highway was completed, the route to Payson was a dirt path, called the Bush Highway.  It was named after a lumberman, Harvey Granville Bush.  It was completed in 1934 and followed an old path that more or less followed ancient trails that wound through the Mazatzal Mountains.  The Bush Highway was a dirt road that was used to bring the tall pine trees down from Payson that were needed for lumber to build the thriving town of Phoenix.

The new Bush Highway opened up the Rim Country for not only more logging, but also for settlers and vacationers.  Before it was constructed, it was a two day trip to reach Payson from Phoenix—through the Supertition Mountains to Lake Roosevelt, and then north from there to Payson.

Photo of the Bush Highway:

So here we are in 2023 finding ourselves on the Old Beeline Highway that followed much of the Bush path….almost 100 years after the first path was created from Phoenix to Payson!

Boy, were we glad that we had bombed out on our attempt to go to Mt. Peeley!

Unfortunately, this historic, scenic Highway abruptly ended with this obscure roadblock.

Administrative Site!  For what?  We don’t know what this could be….out here in the middle of nowhere.  Another mystery, and that mystery made this bike ride even more interesting and fun.

The narrow, winding two-lane Old Beeline Highway had 50 percent more accidents than the national average.  It was totally paved by 1958, but there were no passing lanes on the entire route from Phoenix to Payson.  

Due to the excessive accidents, the construction of State Route 87 was begun.  By 1983 about half of the 70 miles through the Matzatzal Mountains was a three- or four-lane road.  It wasn’t until 2001 that the entire route was a four-lane highway.  

This is the road that we use to go from our home in Mesa to our cabin in Pine. It is one of the most beautiful 70 mile drives that we have ever seen.  We often comment that it should be listed as a Scenic Drive.

State Route 87 follows much of the Old Beeline Highway.  It had to, since there are very few options for a road through the Matzatzal Mountain range that stretches from Lake Saguaro, just north of Mesa, all the way to the Mogollon Rim.  So we knew we had made a special discovery when we found ourselves on the Old Beeline Highway!

We did get in a very nice 10-1/2 mile bike ride, with over 1,100 feet elevation gain and loss, that wound through the mountains.  A bike ride that took us back through history. Another good day in our lives!