The Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Visits
Apacheland, Whiteriver Motel
by
Unlike our November event where we had to deal with places
that did not know how, or did not want to promote tourism, our December event
planning was teased with unpredictable weather. The December event was
scheduled for Whiteriver and by mid week, a series of winter storms was
racking the high country along with the
Early on a brisk Saturday morning, I met
We departed to the east and our GPS direct course took us just to the north of
Four Peaks in the Mazatzal Mountains. By
this time, we had made contact with several other
The balance of the terrain from this point all the way to Whiteriver, is
dominated by an endless series of ridges and narrow valleys and, for the most
part, covered by ponderosa pine trees. But today, with some small exceptions,
the valleys and ridges were all covered by a low level layer of clouds or maybe
fog. This scene provided plenty of "fodder" for the
The clouds or ground fog continued all the way to Whiteriver where it
abruptly ended up against the ridge line that is adjacent to the
When I opened the cabin door, I wondered if we had made a serious mistake. The
outside temperature as only 25 degrees. The jacket that seemed to have been a tad to warm during the ride over, now kept this
desert dweller, acceptably warm. While we waited, a couple of us took some
pictures of the group and the aircraft that now covered the ramp. After the
last of our gang arrived, we headed out through the gate at the north end of
the ramp. From there, it was a 2-3 block hike to the White Mountain Apache
Motel & Restaurant. In all, we had about 28 people in attendance and
the restaurant seated us in a separate dinning area.
At this point, I would like to add some excerpts from a brochure that I
picked-up from the motel.
"Whiteriver is the Tribal headquarters for the
To make your stay more pleasant, the tribe has built the White Mountain Apache
Motel and Restaurant, the most complete resort accommodation of the
This resort is in Whiteriver on
This recreation complex also includes a
supermarket, a First Interstate Bank, a variety store and offers extras for
campers such as ice, camping, fishing and hunting supplies, filling of butane
bottles, and many other services.
Nearby attractions include the Cultural
Center, Old Fort Apache, the Tribal Fairgrounds, (where rodeos, ceremonial
dances, and the Tribal Fairs are held), Kinishaba
Ruins, Geronimo's cave, the Alchesay fish hatchery
and miles and miles of the most beautiful portion of Arizona, made even more
spectacular with 26 excellent fishing lakes and more than 420 miles of
sparkling trout streams that include over 1,000 camp sites.
All facilities, enterprises, game and fish and other resources and Resort
accommodations on the
The service was just a bit slow (but so is
everything else on the Reservation) but on the other hand, they had no warning
that they would be invaded by 28 hungry aviation enthusiasts. The food was
fairly good and the portions were generous. After a leisurely breakfast, we
made the hike back to the airport. The sun's warmth was very welcome and by the
time that we were ready to fire-up for the return trip, the temperature and
risen all the way up to 35 degrees.
After
departing runway 19, we headed towards the "gap" that I described
earlier and upon reaching the west side of the ridge, we noticed that all of
the early morning clouds had vanished. We could clearly see some of the burn
area that was ravaged by the wild fires earlier in the year. As this was Paul's
first ride in a personal aircraft, I let him fly the airplane all the way to
The Whiteriver Gang
What's Next?
The Whiteriver event marked
the completion of 10 years of the
Click on the Whiteriver link to view photos of this fly-in event.