Thursday, June 19, 2008

Memorial Day Camping


Well, the kids got out of school and our plan was to take the 5th wheel and head up to Stoneman Lake in the Coconino forest (just south of Flagstaff) as we always do this time of year. We'd been having some unseasonably cold weather as of late and it was snowing up there! Needles to say, we bowed out of that one really fast. I had ENOUGH snow growing up in Upstate New York!

So we opted to head north about 45 minutes and camp behind Lake Pleasant. It's a great camping area that has loads of trails to explore in the Ranger. It's the area that we stage in to head up to Crown King. And it doesn't feel like we're making a mortgage payment to put gas in the truck to get there either!

Of course I came down with a ridiculous head cold the first day, but I toughed it out and still managed to have a blast. Two other families came with us: the DeHeers and the Gillespie/Jensens. We went on some great trail rides, did some target shooting and found a trail that takes us right down to the lake on the far side of 'Party Cove.' It's been a few years since we've had a boat, but Party Cove will forever be etched in my memory banks! The kids braved the icy depths and went swimming. I sat firmly on the shore and watched! It was just a nice relaxing 4 days off and a great way to kick off the summer. I love exploring in the desert and unfortunately we're cut off for the next several months because it's too hot to be out there. Hopefully the next camping trip we'll be able to retire to the forest where it's cool!

Oh! Check this out! One of the boys was riding his dirt bike out of camp and came across this...


A gila monster! YIKES! It was about 50-60 yards from our camp! They're protected - not that we would have done anything to it anyway - but they're poisonous, too! It kinda freaked me out, but the kids thought it was soooooo cooooollll!!!!

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