A new Post a Long Time Coming

I know it's been a long time since my last update, but we haven't had Wi fi and with Mike and Lisa and the kids here the past week we've been quite busy. I'll try and catch up today since we're doing laundry and I have signal...

March 30

We are in Cottonwood, Arizona, camping at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Telephone reception is good but this camp as well as Alamo Lake State Park where we spent the prior week do not have Wi-Fi service. In fact Alamo Lake (which is west of Phoenix), was 35 miles off the highway and did not even have a cell phone signal or radio reception or TV channel reception! Talk about off the grid!

Alamo Lake was a reservoir created by the Bill Williams dam. It was a large lake with excellent fishing for large mouth bass and crappie. Every time we went by one of the fish cleaning stations there were people filleting fish! Many of the campers had boats with them and they were obviously here for just one thing. Alamo Lake was a nice area in the high desert with rolling hills and lots of hiking and kayaking. There were wild burros and deer here and the burros were constantly baying, both day and night.

We moved from there to Cottonwood after a week and set up camp for a week here. This is a great location for day trips as we are near Sedona and Jerome as well as Prescott over the Minghus Mountain to the west. We took a ride to Sedona on Monday and found it to be busier than ever. No parking left anywhere and the main route through town very slow and congested. The town sprawls further each time we visit. This is the third time we have been here in the past fifteen years and the develp[ment is moving further in every direction each time we come.

Yesterday we drove over the mountain and through Jerome, which is an old copper mining town built on the side of the mountain above Clarksdale. Jerome doesn't change much simply because there are no more flat spots to build on. It seems like one good earthquake and the whole place will slide down the slope and into the valley below!

Onward into the valley and then into Prescott itself. This is the first time we have been there and were impressed w ea and the old homes surrounding it were all maintained and cared for. The weather in Prescott was a bit cooler than areas at lower elevations as Prescott is at 5200 feet, the same as Denver, Colorado.

Second post, Sunday April 8,

We have been at Lost Dutchman State Park east of Phoenix for the past week. Mike and Lisa and the kids flew in on Tuesday and are spending the week with Lisa's parent's in Apache Junction. They are about ten minutes away from our camp and we've been spending a lot of time with them at their palce and at ours. On Friday we all loaded into two cars and headed north. We drove through some new territory for Nancy and I through Payson and into the higher elevations. We passed Saguaro Lake Rec area and stopped in to see the marina and lake there. This is just north of Phoenix and quite a nice area. Further on we drove through the Payson area and the pine forest there. Slightly higher elevation than Phoenix and cooler and out of the desert valley. The area was very picturesque and looked more like home. driving further we came back into high desert area and came to the Meteor Crater Natural Monument. We stopped and went through the visitor center then out to view the crater. It was formed 50,000 years ago when a huge crater slammed into the earth. It is the best preserved meteor impact site in the world. #/4 of a mile across and 1/2 mile deep it is huge!

Further up we drove into Grand Canyon National Park which was our destination. We walked a bit of the rim and then checked into our rooms and went to dinner. Saturday we hiked the Bright Angel Trail for a couple of hours and then started off on the shuttle to the west end of the park. We got on and off at several spots along the rim and marveled a the views. We spent the morning and early afternoon at the canyon and then started off back towards Phoenix. On the way back we enjoyed views of the snow on the mountains north of Flagstaff, then Flagstaff itself. We drove south through Oak Creek Canyon and then through Sedona and the Red Rocks on the way back to Phoenix. Mike and Lisa and the kids got a whirlwind tour of some of the best that Arizona has to offer.

As I'm writing this my battery on the laptop is getting low, so I'm going to have to post pictures on the next blog. Needless to say we are having a great time and enjoying the last month of our vacation. The plan is to be home on May 2nd.

Lots of love to all...