This is our new campsite for the next week, we’re at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona. As soon as we had the trailer set up Matey and I took off for our first park reconnaissance.
This park has a lot of little trails that meander all over. We started out on the Arroyo Nature Trail and in a few hundred feet came across this flume. The flume carries the water of the Hickey Ditch…
over the arroyo. You can see the flume in the background. The arroyo also has water in it. The Hickey Ditch has been carrying water diverted from the Verde River to irrigate nearby land since 1874.
Not much further down the trail we came to the river. I had to stop and take a video to capture the sound of the water. The last time I’d heard flowing water was in Menard, Texas, over a thousand miles ago. It sounded beautiful to me and made me realize how wonderful it would sound to folks traveling in the desert. It’s no wonder this valley has been settled and farmed for a thousand years.
And with water comes trees. In this case big cottonwoods, hence Cottonwood, Arizona.
We walked a bit further and came back to the ditch.
The area along the ditch was also treed, though these trees were smaller.
Away from the life giving water the trees are gone, the now familiar desert plants are all that can grow.
Yesterday we drove north about 30 miles to visit Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. This is the remains of a large settlement built about 700 years ago. It dates from around the same time as the cliff dwellings in the Salt River basin.
This protective roof was built over the main house in 1932, replacing one built in 1903. There are workers repairing some of the walls in the large compound surrounding the structure.
These structures were all built from caliche, a mixture of sand, clay and calcium carbonate that was quarried near the site. It dries nearly as hard as concrete.
To support such a tall structure (35 feet) the bottoms of the walls were four feet wide. There is no reinforcement in the walls, they gradually tapered by having the outside surface curve in. The horizontal striping is from each section of caliche that was allowed to dry before the next layer was added. Timbers and smaller material woven together made the floors, which were also covered with caliche.
I was surprised to learn that the society that built this great house also constructed miles of canals to use the water of the Gila River to support agriculture. Among the crops they grew was cotton, which likes hot weather but also takes a lot of water. Cotton is still grown here today.
No one knows why they abandoned this place in about 1450, but evidence suggests that floods alternating with droughts made maintenance of the canal system too difficult. The O’Odam people (and other current groups) claim these people as their ancestors and some think when the bad times came they went back to a simpler and more sustainable lifestyle closer to the river.
Today we went to view the desert by itself, at Saguaro (sa-wah-ro) National Park. I was thrilled to see this ocotillo with leaves at the visitors center.
I was impressed with the density of plants here.
The saguaros were numerous and huge. Bud is in there at the base of one of them.
We visited a picnic area with this lovely stone shelter built by the C.C.C. I am amazed by how many of the parks we visit still have trails and structures built by the C.C.C. And all of their construction used local materials and so fits beautifully into the landscape.
It was nice and cool inside with a great view. How well thought out!
Even this old restroom (no longer in use) is picture worthy.
The desert can be quite stunning. Those are fruits on the top of the barrel cacti. We were curious how the one on its side could still look healthy.
It seems it has a couple of main roots holding on, and on the left side you can see a bunch of fibrous roots that are still attached. Hang in there baby!
We walked up an abandoned road where Matey was allowed to go and came as far as this vista.
Along the way we saw these small saguaros. Saguaro are more fragile when they are young. A study done in this park found that there were too few saguaro younger than fifteen years, so I was happy to spot these babies. Actually, these are probably somewhere around 10 years old, as these giants only grow an inch or so for their first six to eight years. They reach full height (40 to 50 feet) at age 150!
Although it was sad to see, I thought this saguaro dying in a mesquite tree made an interesting tableau.
On the way back from the park we stopped for a few holes of desert disc golf.
Even there we saw how hard organisms work to stay alive in the desert. Bud spotted this extensive root system unearthed in this freshly eroded gully, all attached to the very tiny plants on the surface.
We ended our day and our stay at Picacho Peak State Park with a meal Bud made from his find in Texas, Jamaican Curried Goat. With four kinds of peppers it was plenty hot, but it was good and the meat was tender and mild.
One goal this winter was to visit Native American archeological and cultural sites. For each campsite I had listed a number of possible sites. Today we chose to visit Tonto National Monument even though it was over a hundred miles away.
It turned out to be a beautiful drive. We drove north across very flat land to route 60, which took us up through the mountains east of Phoenix.
And it did take us literally through the mountains.
The hills and rocks were gorgeous.
Then we took route 188 northwest to Roosevelt Lake. This lake was made by damming the Salt River in 1911. It is the oldest reservoir in Arizona.
Tonto National Monument protects and allows access to two cliff dwellings high above the lake.
From the visitor center we hiked a paved trail about a half mile up to the lower cliff dwelling. Looking back you could see the lake.
Looking forward you could see the cliff face.
As we hiked higher you could see more of the lake…
and we drew nearer to the cliff.
We got a look at the overhang with the cliff dwelling.
The trail came up along the bottom of the cliff.
This was as far as Matey was allowed. We had to take turns visiting the dwelling so one of us could stay with him.
With a view like this, a temperature of about 70 degrees and lots of sunshine it wasn’t much of a chore.
This was one of two cliff dwellings in Tonto National Monument. They were built in the 1300’s by people who had settled in the Salt River basin. The archaeological evidence indicates people from different groups might have lived here together.
Unfortunately little is known about the origin or fate of these people. The Apache and Yavapai people still living in the basin were forced out in the 1860’s and 1870’s and any oral history they might have had was mostly lost through the boarding school system that took their children from them and forbid the children their language, customs and history.
They certainly had a beautiful view as they went about their business. The tools on the floor are for grinding corn.
In the other direction, not looking down at what would have been Salt River, they looked out at Cholla Canyon. It was a long way down to the river, where they had water and grew crops. I think perhaps they only stayed up here in the heat of the summer, or perhaps in times of danger.
Once we both checked out the dwelling we hiked back down. It was great to be out finding places like this again.
We drove I-10 today from New Mexico to Arizona to Picacho Peak State Park. In fact we drove past it about 10 miles to a travel plaza where we could fill our fresh water tank because the park doesn’t have enough water for campers to fill.
This park was on our original itinerary and I was excited to find we’d be camping among saguaro cacti. I’ve never been around them before.
Their botanical name is Carnigiea gigantea, and you can certainly understand where the gigantea comes from.
These boys are big.
I find them captivating…
even in death.
There are cholla…
and barrel cacti here,
but I really love the saguaro.
They grow all the way on top of the peak.
We even have a young one right on our site.
We have four days to spend here where the spacing is more to our liking.
Even though we are still close to I-10, and you can hear traffic and trains,
the view from our site makes up for it.
At the end of the day I’m glad to be back on track.
We drove out of Texas yesterday, finally. When I was plotting our route to get to Arizona and back to our original itinerary, I saw a state park near Deming, New Mexico that looked intriguing. Of course, two weeks in advance there were no spaces available, so we’re staying in a commercial RV park in Deming.
But since we were taking another day off from driving we went up for a day trip to City of Rocks State Park.
We visited their Desert Botanical Garden…
and walked a trail through the huge boulders that are made of ancient volcanic ash.
In many places the trail was delineated with rocks as it wandered through these columns.
The area was quite expansive. The main group of rocks was about a mile long.
There were a few outlying formations.
There were many…
fantastic shapes…
and almost impossible positions.
Even the sky was putting on a show.
Outside this area of rocks…
the land stretched empty.
We saw quite a few sotol plants with spent flower stalks.
And these were large plants.
And we saw one of my favorite birds, a road runner.
We ate lunch at one of their picnic tables amid almost total silence.
There were campsites nestled around the formations.
And had I been able to make reservations early enough we could have camped here…
and not here.
And by the way, I did get online at 5AM and managed to get reservations at three of the four National and Provincial Parks in Canada I was hoping for.
Friday we drove another 300+ miles to funky little Menard County RV Park. Most of the folks there seemed to be semi permanent and they had fairly nice spots under oak trees.
We were in the transient slots, which were on a gravel area with no trees. But they were level and had full hookups so that was fine.
We were taking Saturday off from driving so I was hoping the adjacent county park would be nice for walking Matey.
And it was…
sort of.
We didn’t have much of a day off, anyway. Saturday we ran errands in the tiny town of Menard. We needed a water pressure gauge, a refrigerator thermometer, a small round battery, hose washers (the soft black kind) and Bud was hoping to find goat meat. Amazingly we found everything and the people in town were very kind.
Saturday afternoon Bud decided he should cook some meals ahead before the produce went bad. And I realized that was my last day to figure out what Canadian National Park campgrounds we wanted to stay in and when, before reservations open online on Tuesday. (We drove today and we are driving again tomorrow and reservations open at 5 AM Mountain Time.) So I spent all afternoon working out our itinerary for Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, which will be from June 7th to September 3rd.
After a less than restful day off we started out this morning to drive another 324 miles. The first part of the drive was pleasant, straight west on U.S. 190. This was a pretty smooth road with no traffic. You can see we’re getting into drier land here, but there were still trees.
The second half of the trip was no fun. Miles of open country on I-10 with lots of headwind and plenty of tractor-trailers. My least favorite kind of driving.
And here we are, still in Texas, at the Wild West RV Park in Van Horn. Happily another very level spot, because we didn’t unhitch.
We’re in another little town.
I’m glad we’re only staying overnight because this place has two of my banes for walking with Matey; stray dogs…
and goat’s head thorns.
At least out beyond the dusty parking lot, cheesy motel and very busy train tracks there are some striking rock formations.
We drove just over 300 miles today to get to this campsite at Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area in Davy Crockett National Forest.
After almost six hours of driving Bud had to back in avoiding this hole…
and this rock…
which came in to play because he couldn’t let the front of the truck swing into this tree.
But in the end he got the trailer slotted in…
and we managed to level it without unhooking, so we can quickly take off for another 300+ miles tomorrow.
There is a lovely view from our “patio”.
Matey and I had a nice two mile walk…
along pretty Ratcliff Lake.
On our walk we stopped and chatted with Libby Seigars. She and her husband boated the great loop. They also drove through Quebec to Labrador and Newfoundland. She’s from Maine and I had mentioned stopping in Thorndike to see our friends Barb and Charlie last summer. “I know just a couple of people from Thorndike,” she said, “who are your friends?” I told her; she worked with Charlie, is a potter and knew and admired Barb’s work for years and then met her through Charlie. Wow! And we meet in a campground in Texas.
It’s things like this that make the driving and the parking all worth while!
I have been remiss in posting. This has become a photo journal and we have just been hanging around Hot Springs getting things done, so no pretty pictures.
We have gone disc golfing several times, but you’ve seen that.
And Bud’s colonoscopy found no issues, but you don’t want to see that!
Otherwise I’ve been doing glamorous things like the wash.
And now that we know Bud is okay, I’m back to making reservations.
So far I have reservations up to May 22nd. Since we’re going back to Newfoundland I’m dealing with Canadian National and Provincial Parks again, which means I have to find the parks and then make notes on when reservations open on line. If you’re not in line when they open you may not get a spot!
Today we are replacing our gas absorption refrigerator with a 12 Volt model. Gas absorption refrigerators don’t work well in extreme temperatures and we’ve had ours quit on us twice during cold spells, most recently at San Angelo. I contacted the Outdoors RV factory and they are now using a Furion 12V model in all their campers. A bonus is that the 10 cubic foot model will slide right in to the slot where our current 8 cubic foot model sits.
And there it is. Eventually it will have black glass panels on the doors, but those take about 6 to 8 weeks from the factory. So for now it has the kind of ugly gray shipping panels, but hey, it works.
Tomorrow we leave to race across Texas and New Mexico to get back to our original itinerary in Arizona.
We’re back in Hot Springs at the National Park Campground, Gulpha Gorge. We have a pretty unlevel site, but we managed to get the trailer level and we have full hookups, so that is nice.
Unfortunately when we arrived the trails on Hot Springs Mountain were inaccessible from the campground because the water in Gulpha Creek was over the stepping stones. Matey might have been willing to wade it, but I wasn’t.
Yesterday afternoon Jamie, Sean and Bria came and got Matey and me and we went to a new set of trails they’d discovered just outside the city. (We left poor Bud at home to prep for his colonoscopy today, ugh!)
These are the Northwoods Trails, and although they are set up for mountain bikers they are open to hikers also. We hiked a bit over three miles and met just two bikes on the trail, though we saw four others go by on an adjacent trail.
They are built mostly on the land around several small reservoirs that are the water supply for Hot Springs. They extend onto some National Park land and into Cedar Glades Park, where we go disc golfing. We had all seen the sign for the trailhead, but had no idea what nice trails they were.
They were particularly pretty yesterday because the recent rains caused waterfalls over the dams that Jamie and Sean said are usually dry.
Some parts of the trails are along the maintenance roads for the reservoirs.
These offered nice views of the impoundment dams.
In other places they were just broad paths through the woods. They weren’t blazed but were easy to see.
And at every junction there were signs and maps and the trails were named. I loved the names. We walked on Funguy trail, Yaupon Yop and Bees Knees. There were dozens to choose from making loops of many lengths.
A lot of money has been invested, like in this bridge whose one approach is a banked curve for the bikes.
That bridge went across the top of a dam and I appreciated the dog safe railings.
We got an up-close look at one set of falls there.
We chose paths that hugged the lakes…
so we had lots of water views.
We found this stone bench and had to stop for pictures.
You only get to see Sean’s shadow because he thought I should be in one of my photos.
Here they had constructed a wooden causeway over a low area…
and across a little creek.
We then walked along the other side of the little lake and got to look back at the falls we’d crossed.
It’s a really pretty area…
and has the promise of many nice future hikes. Just when I thought I had walked all the trails in Hot Springs I have been shown a whole new set!
We are back in Louisiana and back for a second visit to Jimmie Davis State Park. We stopped here for one night on our way down to New Orleans and thought it deserved a longer stay. I’m glad to be back among the tall trees.
We are enjoying having this nice campground mostly to ourselves. This morning we saw two foxes cross this open area, and late this afternoon a small herd of deer went across.
Or course there are few campers because we are winter camping. But last night was the last freezing night predicted for our stay, so no more dripping water taps. (Yes, that is ice on the ground, although most had already melted.)
Now we’re all hooked up for the rest of the week.
This is a really nice park. It has these docks for the campers to use.
They are lighted at night.
This cement walkway leads from the docks to the other side of the campground.
Louisiana State Parks have laundromats. So far they all have two washers and two dryers. As a full time camper, I really appreciate that. I’ll do wash before we leave.
And the park has a disc golf course. We played today. Matey had to be on leash most of the time for obvious reasons. He’s interacted with four armadillos today, so he is a tired and happy dog. (No animals were harmed to get this photo…thank goodness.)
On the Roam Again 