DVD
Adventurer
We left a warm, dry room at Hampton Inn and Suites in Page, AZ, around noon on a Friday, planning to drive an hour or so to Alstrom Point to camp for the weekend and explore the environs. We were eager to see the incredible vistas over Lake Powell, set up a base camp for the weekend, and explore some of the cool sites on Croton and Collette trails on Saturday. Once we got onto the trail, however, cold, lingering showers and poor conditions slowed us considerably. After 3 hours and a couple of self-extractions from deep muddy clay, we turned back only to find the trail blocked by three stuck horse trailers. So we spent the night at a makeshift campsite alongside the trail - a wide spot where the horse trailers turned around. That night, the 10% chance of rain was 90% underestimated. Well, at some point during the night the rain stopped - and turned to snow.
Not a great start for a trip - especially since this the first time my daughter and her husband were taking our almost-2-yr-old granddaughter camping.
But the next day, my wife asked our granddaughter if she’d rather stay in a motel that night or stay in the tent again. Her answer: “I want to camp!”
Here are some of our adventures in the mud, trying to get to Alstrom Point.
Perspective on the wet clay and hills
We won’t say who is pulling whom
Serious mud
The LR3 didn't get through unscathed
Discretion got the better part of us, and we turned back, planning to find a campsite in the rockier, drier section of the trail close to Big Water, but then we found the trail blocked by 3 trucks pulling horse trailers. The cowboys were going to work some range land on the plateau to the east, but they had to turn around and then got stuck. So they unloaded and split up with some taking the horses away and others working on the vehicles. In the end they got all the vehicles unstuck but had to leave a trailer overnight.
Iconic view of cowboys riding their horses when the vehicles got stuck
We found a beautiful ad hoc campsite, and we had a great evening in spite of all the challenges and changes.
Learning the fine art of warming hands by the campfire
Another campview
The elemental satisfaction of a campfire, with well used hot dog roasting sticks nearby
The rain and snow stopped at some point during the night. As an aside, we both have Exped Megamats and love them. Warm sleeping makes all the difference. Day broke early - well it did for our granddaughter, so it did for all of us. But we were greeted with some blue skies!
We inspected the amount of clay/mud stuck to the shoes (vehicle’s and people’s)
That next day, we got back to pavement with no further issues and decided to head down towards Phoenix to find warmer, drier weather. But the wheels and undercarriage had so much residual clay that both vehicles had fairly severe suspension wobbles at highway speeds.
After a couple hours combined at the car wash and hand-digging behind the rims, we were able to hit the highway
Heading south, we didn’t have a place in mind, but our granddaughter wanted to camp, so we were all determined to do so, but hopefully someplace warmer and drier. Passing through Flagstaff, we encountered freezing rain, so we kept on heading south to lower elevations. Camp Verde had blue skies and 60+ temps, so we got off the highway to look for a place to camp. We found a nice place and then were blown away by the natural rock formations just below our campsite. We called this place the "Hobbit Village."
Blue skies, beautiful vistas, warm weather - it's a good place
Great times and memories - camping and exploring and having fun with the next couple generations.
Not a great start for a trip - especially since this the first time my daughter and her husband were taking our almost-2-yr-old granddaughter camping.
But the next day, my wife asked our granddaughter if she’d rather stay in a motel that night or stay in the tent again. Her answer: “I want to camp!”
Here are some of our adventures in the mud, trying to get to Alstrom Point.
Perspective on the wet clay and hills
We won’t say who is pulling whom
Serious mud
The LR3 didn't get through unscathed
Discretion got the better part of us, and we turned back, planning to find a campsite in the rockier, drier section of the trail close to Big Water, but then we found the trail blocked by 3 trucks pulling horse trailers. The cowboys were going to work some range land on the plateau to the east, but they had to turn around and then got stuck. So they unloaded and split up with some taking the horses away and others working on the vehicles. In the end they got all the vehicles unstuck but had to leave a trailer overnight.
Iconic view of cowboys riding their horses when the vehicles got stuck
We found a beautiful ad hoc campsite, and we had a great evening in spite of all the challenges and changes.
Learning the fine art of warming hands by the campfire
Another campview
The elemental satisfaction of a campfire, with well used hot dog roasting sticks nearby
The rain and snow stopped at some point during the night. As an aside, we both have Exped Megamats and love them. Warm sleeping makes all the difference. Day broke early - well it did for our granddaughter, so it did for all of us. But we were greeted with some blue skies!
We inspected the amount of clay/mud stuck to the shoes (vehicle’s and people’s)
That next day, we got back to pavement with no further issues and decided to head down towards Phoenix to find warmer, drier weather. But the wheels and undercarriage had so much residual clay that both vehicles had fairly severe suspension wobbles at highway speeds.
After a couple hours combined at the car wash and hand-digging behind the rims, we were able to hit the highway
Heading south, we didn’t have a place in mind, but our granddaughter wanted to camp, so we were all determined to do so, but hopefully someplace warmer and drier. Passing through Flagstaff, we encountered freezing rain, so we kept on heading south to lower elevations. Camp Verde had blue skies and 60+ temps, so we got off the highway to look for a place to camp. We found a nice place and then were blown away by the natural rock formations just below our campsite. We called this place the "Hobbit Village."
Blue skies, beautiful vistas, warm weather - it's a good place
Great times and memories - camping and exploring and having fun with the next couple generations.
