Last 4th of July, I jumped out of an airplane. This year was quite a bit more relaxing. Josh and I took the dogs up to the Tonto National Forest to do some camping over the holiday weekend. We left town without any solid plans as to where we were going, headed north with a car full of camping gear and a forest map, and ended up having quite a nice time exploring bits of the area that neither of us had seen before.
This was the first time we had taken both dogs camping together (and really, the first time we'd ever even had them in the car together for more than 15 minutes or so), so it was a bit of an experiment. My car is officially a furry, muddy disaster, but otherwise both Sienna and Callie had a great time in the forest and dealt extremely well with each other and the elements. Sienna had a blast chasing lizards and pretending that she's a tough mountain dog, and even though she can't be trusted to run off-leash, Callie seemed to thoroughly enjoy lounging around in the dirt. We managed to get both dogs into the water at Roosevelt Lake, and although neither of them was very happy about it, they both swam a bit. I never would have imagined that I could have such an outdoors-loving dog who hates swimming. Sigh.
Our first night camping, we found a nice little spot north of Roosevelt Lake, near Cherry Creek. There was a small running stream and blackberry bushes and we were able to camp right next to the car. The second night, we drove further north towards Payson and found a really gorgeous spot on the East Verde River (which apparently is a popular spot, as we had to really search to find a place that wasn't already occupied by noisy rednecks with generators and gas grills- you know, real campers). The spot where we camped on the Verde required that we park the car on one side of the river and hike our gear across to the other side, which required a few trips because we hadn't packed for actually carrying our gear, but this worked out really well because it put us further away from other campers in the area. I would definitely go back to this spot-- it was beautiful and the water was clean and cold (and the higher elevations and cooler temps were nice too).
While driving around the forest we visited both the Tonto National Monument and the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, neither of which I knew much about or had ever seen. Turns out, Tonto Nat'l Monument is where the Tonto Cliff Dwellings are [duh, I should have known that!], so we took a quick-yet-steep hike with the dogs up to the base of the ruins, which were pretty nice but currently off-limits due to budget cuts. Tonto Natural Bridge is apparently the largest natural travertine bridge in the world, or something like that. The park is really pretty and lush, with waterfalls and really green vegetation and a neat old historic lodge. SIDE NOTE: The state of Arizona is cutting budgets to the state park system so badly that more than half of the state parks are in danger of being closed this year. Some have already been shut down. Tonto Natural Bridge was supposed to have been closed in June, but the town of Payson fronted the funds to keep the park open until late September, at which point it is likely to be shut down indefinitely. This is crap, and the legislators in Airzona right now are full of crap. Just FYI.
(You should be able to click on any of the photos to see them in a larger size.)
No comments:
Post a Comment