State Route 88 Drive Guide

This is the old wagon road built in 1905 to haul supplies to the Roosevelt Dam, and it is still, in stretches, a white-knuckle dirt shelf clinging to the flank of the Superstition Mountains — the range that swallowed the Lost Dutchman’s gold and, according to the count, more than a few of the people who went looking for it. From Apache Junction the route runs past Canyon Lake, the clapboard stagecoach stop of Tortilla Flat (population 6, and it will tell you so), and up to the ragged Fish Creek Hill grade before reaching Roosevelt Dam. Flash floods after the 2019 Woodbury Fire tore out the dirt grade past Fish Creek Hill, and that section has stayed closed to through-traffic ever since with no reopening date — so you currently cannot drive the full trail through to Roosevelt Dam. The realistic trip is the paved run out to Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flat, which is gorgeous on its own; this is the one drive on the list you must check before you go.