MaverickTRD
Adventurer
So, for a few years now I have been wanting to take the family up north to cut down our very own Christmas Tree with the idea of making it an annual Tradition. Here in Arizona in mid November the national forests offer up a limited amount of Tree permits. For whatever reason I always had the impression they must be purchased at the actual ranger stations. I finally realized that Big 5 sells them over the counter, but alas they were sold out. So I took to the online search for second hand sales.
Depending on which Nat'l forest you get a tag for the locations and rules are a bit different. Our location allowed for any species tree <10ft. We had our minds set on a Blue Spruce.
This year, we finally made it happen. My Wife, Kids, parents and myself all piled into the my pops truck and set off for an adventure. (my toyotas were a bit small for 6 people.
Out of the whole month of December, Today was the lone day that we could make this trip possible....It was also the day that the mountain region was supposed to get its first Winter storm. I was excited for potential snow, my dad was a bit hesitant, as he doesn't enjoy driving in inclement weather.
I also pestered TheKSmith from this board. I was researching what to expect, where to go, etc. and I stumbled on some threads by him, apparently he does this every year.
Frantically reading weather.com updates and pestering our resident Rim country friend, to see if conditions on the forest roads would be impassible we loaded up all our snow gear, movies, saws, and snacks and embarked on a day to remember.
When I was my kids age my great grandfather lived in Payson. We spent a lot of time at his house up there and everytime we visited we would eat at the Airport Restaurant. My parents haven't been back since my great grand parents passed away. This would be our first stop
We filled up on french toast, pancakes, and eggs, watched the storm clouds roll in and reminisced.
Next, we hop on to Hwy 260 towards forest lakes and FR300:
We had plans to head back to the back side of Bear Canyon Lake. Eventually we settled on a pull out about halfway between Woods Canyon and Bear canyon lakes. The farther we went, the worse the roads got, and thicker the fog became. But the better the tree selection was. We were riding on some pretty aged tires and decided to play it safe.
The first thing the kids did, was run and slide face first into the snow. They spent their first few years with winter snow, they sure missed it.
My pops...the pilot for today:
My son said "we are real nature trackers!"
There's a couple of different methods to hurdle a downed tree:
The right tree is out here somewhere. We had initially decided we wanted to find a Blue Spruce, to hopefully achieve the most christmasy look.
She thinks she found one for her room:
IT SHOWTIME!
Timberrrrr
I love my LumberJack (err lumberJILL)
We grabbed two trees (one for my house, one for my parents house we each had appropriate permits)
Time for some Fun....Do you wanna build a snowmannn???
Another rounds of storms was coming in...and we were loaded up. Time to head back down the hill to Phoenix
The mood in the truck had changed Drastically!
Before and After:
And of course! THE TREE!!!!
Overall, very successful and fun trip. On the way back down, the mud plastered the trees hanging over the truck bed. Thoughts began to run about hosing them down in the driveway, until about 10 minutes into the drive and we hit about 20 miles of hail and sleet. Cleaned the truck and trees right up!
We plan on doing this again next year for sure! Now obviously the trees up there are not as full or perfect as your local lot. But this is the real deal. A nice day trip, the freshest tree you can imagine, that will last a solid month longer than a store bought. Aroma for days...and some quality time outdoors with the family. And with only 2 hours drive an entirely different scenery than here in the valley, with few people to boot!
not to mention the permits are only 15 bucks! Well worth it IMO.
I hope we are able to do this for many more years.
Thanks for reading!
Depending on which Nat'l forest you get a tag for the locations and rules are a bit different. Our location allowed for any species tree <10ft. We had our minds set on a Blue Spruce.
This year, we finally made it happen. My Wife, Kids, parents and myself all piled into the my pops truck and set off for an adventure. (my toyotas were a bit small for 6 people.
Out of the whole month of December, Today was the lone day that we could make this trip possible....It was also the day that the mountain region was supposed to get its first Winter storm. I was excited for potential snow, my dad was a bit hesitant, as he doesn't enjoy driving in inclement weather.
I also pestered TheKSmith from this board. I was researching what to expect, where to go, etc. and I stumbled on some threads by him, apparently he does this every year.
Frantically reading weather.com updates and pestering our resident Rim country friend, to see if conditions on the forest roads would be impassible we loaded up all our snow gear, movies, saws, and snacks and embarked on a day to remember.
When I was my kids age my great grandfather lived in Payson. We spent a lot of time at his house up there and everytime we visited we would eat at the Airport Restaurant. My parents haven't been back since my great grand parents passed away. This would be our first stop
We filled up on french toast, pancakes, and eggs, watched the storm clouds roll in and reminisced.
Next, we hop on to Hwy 260 towards forest lakes and FR300:
We had plans to head back to the back side of Bear Canyon Lake. Eventually we settled on a pull out about halfway between Woods Canyon and Bear canyon lakes. The farther we went, the worse the roads got, and thicker the fog became. But the better the tree selection was. We were riding on some pretty aged tires and decided to play it safe.
The first thing the kids did, was run and slide face first into the snow. They spent their first few years with winter snow, they sure missed it.
My pops...the pilot for today:
My son said "we are real nature trackers!"
There's a couple of different methods to hurdle a downed tree:
The right tree is out here somewhere. We had initially decided we wanted to find a Blue Spruce, to hopefully achieve the most christmasy look.
She thinks she found one for her room:
IT SHOWTIME!
Timberrrrr
I love my LumberJack (err lumberJILL)
We grabbed two trees (one for my house, one for my parents house we each had appropriate permits)
Time for some Fun....Do you wanna build a snowmannn???
Another rounds of storms was coming in...and we were loaded up. Time to head back down the hill to Phoenix
The mood in the truck had changed Drastically!
Before and After:
And of course! THE TREE!!!!
Overall, very successful and fun trip. On the way back down, the mud plastered the trees hanging over the truck bed. Thoughts began to run about hosing them down in the driveway, until about 10 minutes into the drive and we hit about 20 miles of hail and sleet. Cleaned the truck and trees right up!
We plan on doing this again next year for sure! Now obviously the trees up there are not as full or perfect as your local lot. But this is the real deal. A nice day trip, the freshest tree you can imagine, that will last a solid month longer than a store bought. Aroma for days...and some quality time outdoors with the family. And with only 2 hours drive an entirely different scenery than here in the valley, with few people to boot!
not to mention the permits are only 15 bucks! Well worth it IMO.
I hope we are able to do this for many more years.
Thanks for reading!
