Hiking with Whazoo in Arizona

We arrived at the Upper Salt River Recreation area, a BLM (Bureau of Land Managment) area near Globe Arizona, 60 miles east of Phoenix. Sunny at last, and merely breezy. To get here we traveled the road through the Salt River Canyon...One has to ask, "Why would anyone spend the time and money to put a road here", but they did and what a drive it is. The Salt River Recreation Area is a place, owned by we the public, where one can camp for up to 14 days for free. These areas exist throughout the west and we will stay in many of them during our trip. We set up a few feet from the river and settled down to enjoy the river and wait for Whazoo and his wife to meet us on the next day. Whazoo and Lynn arrived and we broke out some of the microbrew beer I had been collecting since New York. We started a campfire for Bison Burgers and Hot dogs. Whazoo had planned a couple of long hikes for us but first we moved camp up onto what we now know as Whazoo Bluff. Whazoo Bluff is a huge escarpment in the Tonto National Forest with a terrific view of the Salt River Valley and Lake Roosevelt. We camped, again free on National Forest Land, on a cliff top hundreds of feet above the valley. While we waited for the "Almost Always " Arizona sun we took some pictures of the bluff. We started the next day with some of Whazoo's Cowboy Coffee, then headed out on a hike to view the Sierra Ancha ruins in Devil's Chasm. Sounds like a nice place, eh? whazoo's definition of a nice hike is: 3 brutal miles, climbing waterfalls, skirting along cliff edges, (Look closely, that's us up there)squeezing between rocks, and slogging through mud on a 25 degrees slope to find an amazing Ancient Puebloan Ruin of the Saluda Indians abandoned approximately 800-900 years ago. Pictures don't do justice to places like this, there is a spiritual content that one feels deeply near these ancient homes of people long gone. We could see the handprints left many years ago by people we know little about today, and see pottery shards and grinding stones laying on the floor as if left yesterday. Truly an awe inspiring adventure in the Arizona Mountains. Of course getting down was easy Right? RIGHT! But, we did manage to get back to Whazoo bluff to relax for day 2. Whazoo's next offering was a desert hike to Salome Creek, one of the feeder rivers to Lake Roosevelt. We had earlier decided not to head down to Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona and were rewarded with a plethora of Saguaro on this hike. Saguaro Cactus must grow to 15 feet (about 75 years of growth) before they get an arm. You can imagine the age of these stately Cacti. The green surface of the cactus feel about like a smooth basket ball, you can press it in a bit, but not much. The skeleton of the cactus is a stout woody structure much like bones. Most cacti have a very solid core which is surrounded by the pulpy succulent that we are used to seeing. Many of the cacti, inlcuding the Prickly Pears, and the Beavertails, as well as some varieties of Yucca, were in bloom. On the way in a big healthy looking bobcat crossed the road in front of us. Salome creek is a richness of water, flowing out of the mountains, in the bone dry desert, but because it flows so swiftly through it's rocky channels there is little lush growth around the stream. The Creek is clear cold and inviting, and many people swim the canyon in the late spring months. We even saw Salome Dance. After the hike we enjoyed another campfire up on the bluff with Pizza, and fine ales. Whazoo and Lynn left the next day and Cheryl and I headed back to the Salt River Rec area (Stopping on our way for a few pictures of this Gila Monster) for 1 more night before heading on.Next: A cold rain moves into Arizona and we head to Joshua Tree National Park in California.

P. S. Thanks to Whazoo for some of the pictures on the Devil's Chasm and Salome Creek hikes.

Zooming to Arizona...Against the wind

We left Hot Springs Arkansas for the trek west in good weather and headed through the Ouachita Mountains for Waurika Lake, south of Oklahoma City. Waurika is a Corps of Engineers Campground. Corps Campgrounds, often referred to with the acronym COE are usually exceptionally well built and designed campgrounds with water and electricity and almost always on a lake created by a COE damn. They are inexpensive too. Waurkika Lake was no exception. As is usual for this time of year we nearly had the campground to ourselves and found a nice spot right on the water. The weather called for a bit of wind so we did some laundry A' La John Steinbeck (See "Travels with Charlie") and hung it out to dry on the little Ramada provided at the campsite and went to bed. Cheryl awoke with a start an hour or so later to find a 45 MPH wind blowing our laundry straight out. It was fortunate that no one was around to see us scrambling around in our PJs taking down the laundry in the middle of the night. And it was dry. The lake was whipped up to a frenzy the following morning. Anybody care to guess how high that bluff over the lake is? I think Cheryl should have taken a picture of me while I was over there, but she didn't. (Answer at the end of the post) Knowing we would be facing that wind all day we pulled out early for Texas.

We hit the Texas border, dead into the wind with the dust blowing and Willie blasting on the CD player. I'm sure we did our Son-in-law Scott proud as he's a big Willie Nelson fan. We were headed for Caprock Canyon State Park in the Texas Panhandle. We didn't realize that this was cotton growing country until we started to see the plants, many of which still had some of last years crop clinging to them. Heading north to Caprock Canyon we passed through Turkey, Texas, home of the famous Bob Wills, one of the originals of Texas Swing music. We didn't have any Bob Wills, so Lyle Lovett had to suffice.

This a special picture for our friend Connor who is almost 7, likes trucks, and whose favorite color is red

Caprock Canyons is a beautiful park with lots of mule deer, lizards, soaring birds and gorgeous red rock canyons. This is a Blue Bellied lizard, very common in red rock country. (About 4" long)

We stayed 2 days and did some serious hiking. We left early one day for a hike out a trail to take us up to a high point overlooking the canyon, but as often happens to us we got distracted. We knew that the Red River, which is a dry wash this time of year, crossed the trail at several points. So, we decided to hike up the river for a while. Before intersecting the trail we found several dry washes coming in from side canyons.
The white stuff you see layered in the rock is Gypsum, sometimes the layers will be almost a foot thick. One of these washes led up to the head of a box canyon with great views we never would have seen from the trail. We ended up hiking 4.8 miles in 5 hours, and felt like we hiked 20. Caprock Canyons is the home of the Official Texas Buffalo herd but we never saw them. It's a big park.

From Caprocks Canyon we headed west, again fighting the wind (we averaged around 10MPG for these 3 days - well below our usual 12 - 13 MPG) for Manzano State park in Mountainair, New Mexico. I'll tell you what, West Texas and East New Mexico are FLAT ! I swear you can see the curvature of the earth. And there are lots of tumblin' tumbleweeds. Approaching Mountainair we once again headed up into mountains, which we like. We followed a couple of Forest Service roads to the park and found at the gate that Red Canyon, a Forest Service CG, was open so we drove up another 3 miles and found a gem.
The entrance sign was posted with Black Bear and Cougar alerts. We like places like this. Since the campground, situated in a Ponderosa Pine forest, is National Forest, we could gather wood and had a great campfire (Can you say S'Mores). In the morning we hiked up to 8200 feet to the Ox Trail dispersed camping area to get a hunger going... it worked.

Prior to leaving we chatted with a couple of NFS rangers who were passing through the campground doing a timber survey. There had been a fire in the area last year and they were finding "hazard trees" that needed to be removed. I can't say enough good about the wonderful people who serve in our National Forest and National Park services. They are dedicated professionals with a lot of hard work to do and yet they still always find time to answer the questions of people like us who travel these areas. When you pass through one of our nations great parks, or minor forests, give them a shout out whenever you can. They deserve to know we care. We left Red Canyon for the Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona after filling up with water at the NF ranger station in Mountainair.

We passed through Pietown, New Mexico, but to my vexation it was closed. I'll bet that pie would have been good. We were now seriously in the mountains, and the wind, as we lugged our way into Arizona. Due to an oversight (ours, not theirs) the Campgrounds we were headed for were closed so we found a trail head parking lot at Pole Knoll and spent a night stealth camping.

This is Arizona ?

This turned out to be an unexpected bonus as we were visited by a herd of Elk. Marvelous. We woke up to 24 degrees with blowing snow. It's time to head south, so we headed for the Phoenix area.

Oh Yeah, the bluff at Waurika lake, 30 inches high, no lie.

Next: down through the Salt River Canyon to the Salt River Recreation Area (BLM lands...Free Camping,) to meet our friends Mr & Mrs. Whazoo.

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

Hot Springs National Park.
Hot Springs National Park is a tiny gem in the National Park system. The park, which consists of a row of Bathhouses many of which were built in the late 18th century, and the protections areas of the natural hot springs, was first established as a reservation in 1832, making it truly our first national park. The springs, heated not by volcanic action but by the earth's central core a mile deep, rise through a fault at the base of Hot Springs Mountain. It is believed that the water flowing out of the springs today, fell as rain more than 3000 years ago. The springs are completely protected and there are no outdoor bathing areas, although there are several fountains around town with spring water flowing continuously...some cold, some hot. A marvelous promenade walk behind Bathhouse Row protects the springs and gives one a peek at them in several places.
To use the springs you must enter a bathhouse (think ancient Greek bathhouse, not the bathhouses at Old Orchard Beach) where for a small fee you can soak in the mineral rich water at 104 degrees for as long as you can stand it. You can also drink the water (It does not taste sulfurous, but is delicious spring water). Cold showers next to the pools give the brave (count me in, Cheryl out) an invigorating temperature shock.We bathed at the Quapaw bathhouse (one of two that are restored and the only one that allows coed bathing - clothed of course) for several hours on a warm rainy afternoon and left thoroughly relaxed. I can personally tell you that 2 hours in a hot mineral bath, followed by a "Fat Tire" Amber Ale, leaves one totally mellowfied.

The campground at the park is very nice but perhaps lacks a little privacy between sites. It is situated below a bluff on the banks of the Gulpha Creek. Heavy rain on the evening following our rainy afternoon at the baths had the creek roaring by the camper a few steps from the back door.

Garvan Woodland Gardens.
The following day we headed for Garvan Woodland Gardens just outside of town. The gardens are a Japanese style managed garden of exceptional beauty. We strolled stone walkways, trails and steps, past Tulips, Magnolias, Camelias, Azaleas and inumerable other trees, many in blossom. Flowers, ferns, and shrubbery surrounded the many water elements including streams, ponds and waterfalls. There's a beautiful small lake with an island you can walk to. The lake is filled with Koi the size of an Atlantic Salmon.

I believe we walked every trail in the park, including the 1.6 mile nature trail, and Cheryl took 1.6 million pictures.I don't know how we manage to keep so busy, but in three days at Hot Springs we never really got a a chance to stroll around town or eat at Bill Clinton's favorite Barbecue place, but we will next time.(I know this isn't President Clinton's favorite barbecue place, but we liked the name)

If you don't already know it, Cheryl takes all the wonderful pictures we post in this blog while I try to relax.
Next: We zoom through Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico to meet up with our friends Mr. and Ms. Whazoo( in their wonderful Outfitter Pop-up truck camper "Mr. Whazimoto") in Arizona. Actually with the weather predicting 40+ MPH winds from the southwest we will probably creep through OK,TX, & NM.