Yesterday I east on 260 past I17 to check out Clear Creek Campground. Not impressed. OK for tent camping, not good for the RV. I wandered around on some gravel roads around there then went to the Verde Ranger Station. A very helpful lady there gave me lots of information on places to check out. I then went home for the day to digest and figure out daily trips.
Today I started early in the morning and drove the road to Cherry (75) so I could check out Powell Springs Campground, a National Forest Service (NFS) campground. I turned off 260 on to 75 even though the Ranger Lady said to come in from the other end because this way was winding and steep. But I had the Honda CRV and it can handle any road so off I went. The road was in good condition so no problem, so what if the left edge of the road drops straight down a couple of miles. I was hugging the right side and fortunately there was a nice comfortable bank there for me the entire way. Whew, glad I wasn't coming the other way. So anyway, I didn't look to the left so I missed a lot of beautiful scenery. So sue me! There were no good places to get off the road to take pictures and I didn't really want to see how high up I was so no pictures. Trust me, I was waaay up there!
I finally made it to Powell Springs Campground and it was a pretty nice place with picnic tables at every site and some I could even get my RV into but they were all shaded. Not good for the solar and, of course these were all primitive sites with no hookups. There were pit toilets, not sure about water. Good for tents again but I will pass with the RV.
Continued out the other end of 75 to 169 and then on to I17 and north to Cornville road. I just wanted to see Cornville. Nice little town but I didn't see any corn.
Cornville Road comes out on 89A so I turned right to go into Cottonwood and kept going until I got to the turnoff for Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Checked out the campgrounds and they were nice with paved sites and water and electric at the sites. Cost $25 a night though for the 2 campgrounds with not much shade, $30 for the one with shade. I wish they would have primitive sites for RVs for less money. Oh well, such is life.
There are a lot of trails here so I went to the end of Flycatcher Road where there was a parking lot with river access. This is the Verde River.
I was wishing I had my inflatable kayak with me but I left that with my son this summer.
So I took a hike.
The Raptor Hill Trail went up and up and up. I am not sure which hill was Raptor Hill but it was a beautiful hike.
This is where I stopped. I only had two bottles of water with me and I had finished one and started on the other so figured it was time to call it a day. It was a total of 3 miles and getting late in the day so I turned around. I plan on coming back again and spending a whole day here doing some more hiking. I have an annual State Park Pass so I can come as often as I want and it is only a few miles from home.
Life is good.
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