Tortilla Flat, AZ

While visiting with my mother in Arizona, we took a short trip out Apache Junction to the Superstition Mountain Range to a small town named Tortilla Flat, Arizona. If you think you come from a small town, think again. Tortilla Flat has a total population of SIX PEOPLE! Yep, I said six. It's a quant little town that includes a gift shop, restaurant, and a convenience store. While waiting for our table, we visited the gift shop where you can find shirts, hats, small treasures, and jewelry, and we stopped by outdoor seating area where there was live country music with freaking hilarious musicians.
There are speakers throughout town (remember, it's only on side of the road and about 100 yards long) to announce to everybody when your table is ready. When you walk into the restaurant, one of the first things that you notice is the unique wallpaper throughout the restaurant on the walls and ceiling. People sign a dollar bill or paper money from their home country, and the staff will staple it on the wall or ceiling.

There are not very many bare spots available for future signed money, and there are signs throughout the restaurant stating that taking money off the wall is stealing and the police will be called if you're caught. We found money from Canada, South Korea, Japan, Germany, and many other countries.

Throughout the restaurant are relics from the past that include a plow, tools, and other equipment used when the town was founded in 1904 as a stage stop. The food we were served was delicious, and the atmosphere makes this town a must see, but the road in is not to be desired. It's curvy and slow, but you do have the opportunity to see a couple of beautiful lakes before and after the town. When driving out to Tortilla Flat, you will pass Canyon Lake which offers many places for picnics or swimming, and after the town is Apache Lake and Roosevelt Lake. The lakes are amazing, and at specific points, cliffs shoot out of the water hundreds of feet straight up.


The town is small but well worth the visit, and my mom and I had an amazing time enjoying the lake, the mountains, and this small town of Tortilla Flat. I am including the town's website which will tell you more about the town and its history: http://www.tortillaflataz.com/index-2.html

Gregg