A Virtual Drive Up The Superior to Miami, Arizona Highway -- December 15th, 2021

Constructed between 1919 and 1922 and in use until 1952, this original and still intact 2.5-mile section of the Superior-Miami Highway is now known as the Legends Of Superior Trail (LOST). With completion of the 1949-built Queen Creek high arch bridge and the 1952-bored Queen Creek Tunnel, the safer and quicker US-60 was able to bypass this dangerous section of the Superior-Miami Highway with its narrow road cut into cliff-faces and rock walls, very tight curves, and steep grades.

With the idea to try and recreate a "drive" up the long abandoned Superior-Miami Highway, I set my GoPro Hero 9 to TimeWarp mode and started up the now 100-year-old highway. Starting at the very edge of Magma Road in Superior, we start up what many refer to as Devil's Canyon. With Queen Creek to the left and the modern US-60 high to the right, we head east into the canyon. After 2 left turns we cross a concrete arch bridge across Queen Creek and continue a short way and see the 1949-built Queen Creek Bridge high above carrying the US-60 up the canyon. With Queen Creek now on the right for the remainder of the journey, the canyon widens out for a bit as we now again are heading east. Shortly we come to a huge modern water tank where the Superior-Miami Highway makes a quick 180° hairpin-turn and quickly begins to gain altitude. The next half-mile is no joke steep for a paved road! With several sharp switchback curves -- in short order, Queen Creek is now a few-hundred feet below us. The road now is perched on a man-made ledge high on the cliff-face as we are now dodging many large rocks which have fallen onto the road in the last 70+ years. A few more turns and the very tight Claypool Tunnel now comes into view. We quickly are through the solid rock bore and emerge onto an almost 90° left turn with a sheer 200-foot drop to the creek below. This is the last section of the abandoned 100-year-old highway through Devil's Canyon and is perched on a ledge cut into the cliff walls. Shortly we pass through a gate and are now at the east end of the 1952 Queen Creek Tunnel and are standing next to the busy US-60 which continues up the Devil's Canyon on the same shelf cut for the Superior-Miami Highway 100-years ago.

The US-60 now carries all of the traffic from the Phoenix metro area east through Superior and up into Devil's Canyon (Queen Creek Canyon) and on to Miami, Claypool, and Globe -- also known as Arizona's Copper Corridor.

According to the walking app on my phone, the elevation gain on this 2.5-mile section of the abandoned highway is 666-feet. Somehow appropriate for a location known as Devil's Canyon.

Thank you for taking this journey and for reading all of this if you've made it this far. 😊

The song is Cross The Road by Silent Partner and is available in the YouTube Audio Library.

Видео A Virtual Drive Up The Superior to Miami, Arizona Highway -- December 15th, 2021 канала eSPeeScotty