Clear Creek Campground, Cornville and Dead Horse Ranch State Park

I have been doing some driving around just to see what there is to see lately. 

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.

My first rattlesnake

Saw my first rattlesnake today. I was walking around the campground and the road went through a dry wash. The area beside the road was a mixture of concrete and rocks to keep the road from washing away I guess. The snake was curled up in a hole right by the road. 

Here is a cropped picture so you can see it better.

It was hot but I was able to get my 10,000 steps in. I have been taking too many car trips lately and I have been neglecting my walking. I need to get back on track. 

Life is good. 

A walking stick

Saw this walking stick in the road the other day.

It looks so fragile. The body was maybe 4 inches long. 

Yesterday I went out for a drive and drove 89A from Cottonwood up through Jerome and beyond. It was a fun drive in my Honda but I think not in my RV. Winding mountainous road but it had lots of small pull offs so I could let faster traffic go by. The scenery was great. Here is a picture taken up past Jerome. 

I came from way down there in the background to the present level in no time at all. 

All in all a fun trip.

Life is good. 

Red Rock State Park and Sedona

Took a drive to Sedona today and saw Red Rock State Park along the way so I stopped in. I bought a yearly pass so I could check out the state parks here. Red Rock is a 286 acre nature preserve and has lots of trails throughout. There is a neat riparian habitat along Oak Creek. There was a Naturalist led hike starting just as I got there so I joined it. Very interesting and informative. Here are a couple of pictures I took along the way.

I was going to go on a different trail afterwards and get more pictures but there were so many people on the trails that I just left. Maybe I will go some other day and go on one of the longer trails where ther may be fewer people. 

I drove through Sedona next. Way too fancy for my pocketbook. I bought some gas there and some groceries at a Natural Grocers Store. Wasn't interested in going through the many shops.  Beautiful scenery though. I needed to get the groceries I bought out of the hot car so I headed home and had a nice green salad for a late lunch. 

Yesterday I cleaned the front of my RV. Almost have it all shined up again. Just a small part of the sunny side left. I wait till the sun goes down each evening and do a small section before it gets dark. Here is what the front looks like. 

My van is shiny and the sun is warm.

Life is good.

Trip Pictures

Here are the pictures from yesterday's trip through the snow.

I want to go on that road someday.  Wonder how it got it's name.

Snowing up ahead.

I spent today cleaning the RV.  I got all the windows washed, the back of the RV and most of one side.  Then it was time for a break.  Maybe I can finish it tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of my site.

These were taken last night after cleaning my Honda and before cleaning my RV.  This is a very quiet park with lots of roads and trails to walk.  The weather is warm during the day and cool at night.

Life is good.

Wind, Rain and Snow

I stayed another day at the Blake Ranch because of high winds yesterday that I did not care to fight. So I spent the day relaxing and taking a day off from my driving. 

I left Blake Ranch at about 9 AM. It was not very windy but it had rained in the early morning. The road was mostly dry so no problem. Everything was going good until I came close to Williams.  I noticed some snow on the hills ahead of me. I was hoping the road would not go that high.  It did.  And then it went higher and higher till there was snow alongside the road. Then it was snowing and the temp on my rear view mirror went to 31 degrees and said "ice". Not good.  Fortunately through all of this the road was just wet and never did get slick. The temp went up to 34 and stayed there for a long time. I turned south on I17 and the road stayed at the same elevation. I only had about 30 more miles until my turnoff for the campground I was going to stay at for three weeks. I figured either I was going to have a cold stay with snow or the road would descend very fast. Then I see a sign that says there will be 4 to 6% downhill grades for the next 18 miles!  Yikes!  It was a piece of cake though as there would be a steep descent then it would level off or go uphill for a bit before the next descent. Using the tow/haul feature on my engine kept me from racing down the hill too fast so I only had to use the brakes a time or two for a few seconds on each downhill section. 

By the time I got to the campground, the temps were reasonable. I am not sure how high but I was able to wash all the white stuff off my car dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. They must have had salt or something on the roads because my poor car was a mess. I could barely see out of my windshield of the car so I had to clean it. Tomorrow I will start on cleaning my RV. 

I took some pictures but the internet connection here is not very good at all so they are not uploading. Tomorrow I will take my laptop to the WiFi spot and get the pictures uploaded.

I have a full hookup site in a nice, quiet park and the weather is warm. 

Life is good.

Hello Arizona

Made it to Arizona today. Shorts and t-shirt weather now but it is going to cool down to a high of 59 and be windy tomorrow. Where I am going though has a high of 77 forecasted so shorts will still be good.

Today was a fast trip along the Interstate for 200+ miles.  Not many places to stop so no pictures.

I decided to stop at Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel because it sounded interesting. It's a nice, clean, well run park with large pull-through sites and only costs $25 for a huge, full hookup site. 

Dinner is cooking in my crock pot and the sun is shining.

Life is good.