We had heard about Alamo Lake State Park, 37 miles north of Wenden and decided to go explore. On the way to Wenden, we passed fields of melons owned by Dole. As we came though the blink-of-an-eye town, we stopped at a roadside stand and for $2, we bought 3 tomatoes, a red pepper, 2 bananas and a melon. What a deal! It is 63 degrees today and not a cloud in the sky. Arriving in the early afternoon, we found plenty of available sites in the campground. We settled into B13 that had a great view of the Lake from our big window.
According to our neighbors Grant and Jim from Mesa, the fishing is outstanding on the lake. They caught 8 large mouth bass today, in addition to some crappie and talapia. We rode to the Alamo Dam and the Look-out, followed by a stop to the store to get some wood.
When we got back to our site, we cooked some chili outside in the afternoon sun, enjoying the lovely view. Apparently, there are wild burros that come down to the lake at night to drink, but we did not spot any. After sunset, we sat around our campfire appreciating the peace and quiet. The only sounds were the coyotes singing to the moon.
On our way out of the park the next morning, a coyote ran in front of our truck, turning to give us a curious glance before he was on his way. It was only 10:30 am and we were on the road to Clear Creek Campground near Camp Verde. On the way, we stopped in Prescott for lunch at Bill and Kay's Tastebuds. You never know what to expect when you randomly pick a restaurant and we were pleasantly surprised how good the pizza was.
Clear Creek Campground is in the Coconino National Forest, south east of Camp Verde.
The campground is a grassy, flat area surrounded by huge cottonwoods and has a relaxed atmosphere. The sites are large and are quite a bargain at $8 a night. We went for a 2 mile hike along Clear Creek ending up at a popular swimming hole. The evening was cool but we kept warm by the campfire.
Friday morning was sunny and a good day to drive to Fossil Creek, one of only two, wild scenic rivers in Arizona. It was a 7 mile trip on a dirt road that was narrow and one lane wide with switchbacks descending 3000 feet. On many of the turns, I winced at the huge drop-offs into the canyon.
I would not trust my life to anyone else but Bob on that road. Several times on the way down, he said, “this is really stupid”, but there were not many places to turn around. We parked at the Irving Flume Trail Head and hiked to the Fossil Creek Bridge.
We did see one person meditating down by the river and 3 kayakers that looked like they were having fun shooting some rapids.
We had a picnic lunch and were entertained by colony of ants who found a dropped Doritos chip and managed to move it about 10'' and worked on getting it down their hole. It does not take much to keep us amused when we are out in the wild.
Our ascent for me was not as scary since the passenger side of our truck was hugging the inside of the road.
We were glad that we did not meet any oncoming vehicles. On our way back, we did a little shopping in Camp Verde before going back to Clear Creek.
Click HERE to see where we are.
The places y'all have been are awesome for sure.It's cool following your travels
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