Last evening we found ourselves in a campsite, named
“Schoolhouse” on the shore of Roosevelt Lake in the Tonto National Forest.
We had come up highway 70 from New Mexico – a route that
takes one through varied desert scenery including valleys with productive
farming. The irrigation is by controlled ditches and either is ground water or
comes from nearby mountains.
There is an interesting system of registering in these
campsites (which have no hookups) so it is “dry” camping. You pick up a sort of
scratch and win type of card from a local store for $6 then scratch out the
date and time and display it in the windscreen.
We arrived at this campsite to find it completely deserted –
no other campers. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful. (Like being at a remote
anchorage!). We sat out in the sun – it
was about 70F and we were greeted by a bright red male Northern Cardinal bird who
played around the campsite. Meanwhile Lucy was off lead (which is not possible
in most camp sites) and she had a great time exploring.
The weather has been clear blue sky for several days now.
When the sun went down (about 6pm) we went inside for supper. There was no
wind.
Then when it was completely dark, before the moon appeared,
we experienced a superb view of the night sky, the milky way and many stars of
which we were able to identify a small number.
We were about 100 miles north east of Phoenix.
We have found the Audubon field guide to Southwestern states
a great help for bird identification and it even has star maps.
Yours in pursuit of enjoyable wilderness camping.
Shaun, Penny and Lucy.
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