Tweet
Back from a week's camping.
Howdy
I just returned home from a week long camping excursion into Arizona. First we left Las Vegas and drove to Manzanita Campground, in Oak Creek Canyon which is just south of Flagstaff about 15 miles and 7 miles north of Sedona.
Then we drove over to look at Dead Horse Ranch SP to see if it would be a nice camping spot. Oops, not for us! Since we are from the desert we were looking for a cooler climate and the tent camping area for the SP was in the desert we decided not to camp there. The lakes were lagoons and seemed great for fishing and I threw a couple of flies and had no luck. We asked if any eagles flew here from the north and no one knew. We decided not to camp here. The third day we packed at Manzanita Campground and drove on Arizona St. Hwy 5 from Flagstaff to Show Low, looking at campsites that were closed much of the way; between 5800' to 6500'.
We arrived in Show Low, Arizona in the White Mountains at 7000' and the lake campground was opened: Fool Hollow Lake. However, the tent camping area was closed so we found a RV site, as far away as we could find away from the RVers and adjusted the site to acommendate out tent.
The first night the temp got down to 20 degrees, we weren't ready for that. But we stayed because we had heard that eagles nest here in the winter. Our camp host said that the eagles hadn't arrived yet. The second day we kayaked the Fool Hollow Lake and only saw a kingfisher and few crows. The lake was not blue but kinda green which we didn't like either. On the evening on the third day it snowed, still no eagles. The next morning we left, cold, wet, and still no eagles.:(
On the way back to sunny southern Nevada we decided to stay at Temple Bar, which is in Arizona and on the eastern side on Lake Mead. We had been there many a year before and we know the area very well. In fact the last two days of our trip we saw more wildlife there than we saw the whole rest of the time we had planned. No eagles though but we did see a Great Blue Heron, a team of Ospreys, Ravens, Great-tailed Grackle, Quail, Coyotes, and warmer temps that we were happy to see again. Going to Temple Bar allowed us to dry our stuff out and more tandem kayak time on beautiful Lake Mead. Hence we decided to look for eagles here and will probably return for a short weekend to Temple Bar before and after Thanksgiving. In the coming days, I'll upload photos which I'm still editing(489), and I'll have some good reviews and some not so good reviews to post of our trip. All in all we decided that we could winter camp if we had had the mountaineering tent and more clothes of the wool fabric, that is if we didn't mind the mud, but we really do mind the mud now since we are both in our fifties. We did like the kayaking, but we actually got in more flat-water kayaking at Lake Mead. 
I just returned home from a week long camping excursion into Arizona. First we left Las Vegas and drove to Manzanita Campground, in Oak Creek Canyon which is just south of Flagstaff about 15 miles and 7 miles north of Sedona.
Then we drove over to look at Dead Horse Ranch SP to see if it would be a nice camping spot. Oops, not for us! Since we are from the desert we were looking for a cooler climate and the tent camping area for the SP was in the desert we decided not to camp there. The lakes were lagoons and seemed great for fishing and I threw a couple of flies and had no luck. We asked if any eagles flew here from the north and no one knew. We decided not to camp here. The third day we packed at Manzanita Campground and drove on Arizona St. Hwy 5 from Flagstaff to Show Low, looking at campsites that were closed much of the way; between 5800' to 6500'. We arrived in Show Low, Arizona in the White Mountains at 7000' and the lake campground was opened: Fool Hollow Lake. However, the tent camping area was closed so we found a RV site, as far away as we could find away from the RVers and adjusted the site to acommendate out tent.
The first night the temp got down to 20 degrees, we weren't ready for that. But we stayed because we had heard that eagles nest here in the winter. Our camp host said that the eagles hadn't arrived yet. The second day we kayaked the Fool Hollow Lake and only saw a kingfisher and few crows. The lake was not blue but kinda green which we didn't like either. On the evening on the third day it snowed, still no eagles. The next morning we left, cold, wet, and still no eagles.:(
On the way back to sunny southern Nevada we decided to stay at Temple Bar, which is in Arizona and on the eastern side on Lake Mead. We had been there many a year before and we know the area very well.
In fact the last two days of our trip we saw more wildlife there than we saw the whole rest of the time we had planned. No eagles though but we did see a Great Blue Heron, a team of Ospreys, Ravens, Great-tailed Grackle, Quail, Coyotes, and warmer temps that we were happy to see again. Going to Temple Bar allowed us to dry our stuff out and more tandem kayak time on beautiful Lake Mead. Hence we decided to look for eagles here and will probably return for a short weekend to Temple Bar before and after Thanksgiving. In the coming days, I'll upload photos which I'm still editing(489), and I'll have some good reviews and some not so good reviews to post of our trip. All in all we decided that we could winter camp if we had had the mountaineering tent and more clothes of the wool fabric, that is if we didn't mind the mud, but we really do mind the mud now since we are both in our fifties. We did like the kayaking, but we actually got in more flat-water kayaking at Lake Mead.
A canvas campateer