Archive for May, 2007
May 3, 2007 at 7:44 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s hardly a spot in central Arizona that isn’t scenic. Our drive from Prescott east brought us through hills and valleys, past buttes and wilderness area, and through parts of the three national forests: Prescott, Coconino, and Tonto. Every minute brought another spectacular view, studded with tiny hamlets named Pine, Strawberry, Rye, and Punkin Center.
We wanted to visit Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, but got skunked by a 14% grade on the entrance road. I didn’t remember the website mentioning that “¦ but there was a “trailer drop-off area” and then signs warning of a 14% grade ahead. That exceeds our comfortable maximum of 10%. We could certainly go down a 14% grade using low gear and the disc brakes (on both truck and trailer), but getting back up it would be a challenge that I don’t need.
Parked for lunch
So we parked in the “drop off area” for lunch, and continued down the road to Payson, where we got our second surprise of the day. The Houston Mesa campground in the National Forest just north of town must be very popular in season, because it charges an exorbitant $18 per night for sites with no hookups.
Yes, boondocking for eighteen bucks. I suppose that seems reasonable to heat-plagued Phoenix residents (Phoenicians?) in the summer, but we decided to pass. So we continued south, descending from 5000 feet to 2200 feet and watching the temperature rise from upper 60s to over 80 degrees.
In the Tonto National Forest, there is the beautiful blue Roosevelt Lake, with about half a dozen nice campgrounds surrounding it. Some are directly on the water, while others have views or are a short distance from the shoreline. To camp here, you stop at a retailer outside the National Forest (for example a grocery or gas station) and buy a “Tonto Pass” for $6 per day. Then you drive down to the lake and pick out a campsite, self-serve.
Camped at Roosevelt Lake. Click for larger
These campsites don’t have hookups either, but they do have a great setting and at $6 a night they’re a bargain. Where else can you see saguaro cactus beside a lake?
We’ll stay here a couple of nights. My Verizon phone doesn’t work inside the trailer due to weak signal here, but the backup Sprint phone works just fine. Likewise my Internet card doesn’t work, but I’ve found I can get it to connect ““ slowly — by sitting outside in a particular spot. (That’s why this blog entry has only two photos.) With limited connectivity, it will be hard to get work done. I guess we’ll have to just call this a three day weekend. What a shame.
May 2, 2007 at 11:25 pm · Filed under Places to go
Today Prescott returned to the fine and sunny weather we’ve become accustomed to, but work trapped me in front of my computer most of the day. I finally broke away in the late afternoon for our second hike over the rounded granite of the Dells.
It’s an incredible playground out there. Everywhere are canyons, cliffs, stairways, and shelters formed of rock. You can wander around and climb in them for days and not see it all. And despite the initially barren look of the place, there are many animals as well. A long Arizona Mountain King Snake crossed our path, along with more common creatures: squirrels, violet-green swallows, hawks, lizards, and even a skink about six inches long.
The snake is a rough look-alike for the venomous Coral Snake, but I caught the picture above before he slid out of sight and so we were able to positively identify him when we got back to the Airstream.
Once again the Dells proved to be a photographic delight, and so I’ve uploaded some new images to the Prescott album on Flickr. It was easy to get some nice shots with just a short zoom, a circular polarizer and a flash.
This is our last day in Prescott. We are going to wander over toward the Mogollon Rim, east of here, and then southward toward Tucson over the weekend. It’s hard to leave Prescott but I’m sure we’ll be back. Next time, I’m hoping to have a mountain bike and maybe our tent camping gear too.
May 1, 2007 at 10:03 pm · Filed under FAQs
We were going to go for a hike in the Dells today but the weather turned uncharacteristically gray with occasional light showers, so instead we’ve hung close to the Airstream. I’ve got a lot of editing to do on the Fall magazine anyway, and Emma seems entranced by her “Magic Tree House” books.
Eleanor took the opportunity to hunt up some groceries and when she returned I noticed how has been buying more dried foods lately. When we started traveling we had a large plastic bin filled with canned foods: soup, pie filling, tomato sauce, refried beans, condensed milk, pineapple slices, etc. You name it, it was in there — everything a good cook needs. The bin weighed about fifty pounds.
I was thinking that since she has discovered dehydrated and condensed versions of a lot of the things we like, that bin would get lighter. But it isn’t. Eleanor’s kitchen never shrinks. I can’t complain too much … I eat well.
We have renewed our site for another two days. We just can’t seem to leave Prescott, even though the weather is not nearly as nice as a few days ago. There’s a lot to explore. Tomorrow perhaps we’ll get that hike in the Dells. But in any case we will definitely leave on Thursday. Our site here is already reserved by someone else and there are many things we want to see on the way back to Tucson.
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