But the trail runs through a river bed that's normally dry at this time of year.
Unfortunately, the recent storm north of there has caused the riverbed to be, well....a river!
Looking down at the river. You can see where the trail continues on the other side of the normally dry riverbed.
Lots of interesting rock formations.
Nope. Didn't feel like getting our feet wet!
This rock wall looks wet. But it's not.
A pretty flower.
Kevin, taking a picture
of Ruth!
Heading back up, looking at where we had been.
Kevin, taking a picture.
The picture Kevin was taking!
We got back to the trailhead parking lot and we were surprised by the number of RV's that had pulled in. One girl asked us if we had parked there for the night, and we said yep, with no problems at all. She said she goes by here regularly and had always thought it would make for a good overnight spot.
When we got back, Sherman had lots of neighbors!
We had an early lunch, and then got on the road to Prescott. It's quite a bit higher in elevation, and with clear skies in the forecast it would be chilly at night, but perfect hiking weather during the day.
We stopped at the Sunset Point Lookout rest stop on Interstate 17.
Zoomed in on the hills in the distance. The remains of that storm that went through a couple of days ago!
It wasn't all uphill...Sherman enjoyed coasting down this stretch!
Coming into Prescott.
It was along the way, so we stopped at the Prescott Municipal Sewage Treatment plant. They have a free dump station for RV'ers, but sure enough it is only open from 7:00am to 2:00pm. We had missed the deadline, so we'll stop in there again when we leave.
From there, we drove to White Spar Campground in Prescott National Forest just on the outskirts of the town of Prescott. During summer, they have about 60 sites here, at $14.00 per night. Winter is only 12 sites, and it's $10 a night.
It's a really pretty campground at 5,700 ft altitude set in a pine forest.
Yep, there's still some leftover snow on the ground!
Sherman, in site number 3.
The temperature was forecast to get down to 26F (-4C) last night, and we're okay with that because it's also going up to 60F (15C) today and that's great hiking weather.
We were comfy yesterday evening with our Mr. Heater Buddy 4,000-9,000-BTU Indoor-Safe Portable Radiant Heater
and I shut it off when we went to bed.
and I shut it off when we went to bed.
I got up at 5:15am to check the temperature, and it was 14F (-10C). Holy winter camping, Batman!
So I put the heater on full and went back to bed!
By 6:30am when I got up, it was starting to warm up....inside!
No worries, the sun is now out and things are warming up. Should be a great day to explore the area, I think we'll stay here another night.
Another timed Amazon deal this morning...this tablet is under $100, but its going to be even less during the timed lightening deal later this morning. Check back to see how cheap it is...
It's beautiful sunny weather for you both. I didn't know about the forest camps open in winter near there. I assumed they all closed during winter. I'm glad to know otherwise. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are now getting beautiful weather, cold at night but perfect for us during the day. Not sure if all forest camps are open, best way is to check their website to see what is open and what isn't.
DeleteWe have had some of that cold weather at higher elevations and its doable no problem especially with our Mr. Heater. Same as you we shut ours down at night and fire it up in the morning run at full blast and our furnace about 15 minutes then soon pretty cozy inside , When the sun comes up and we are good to go.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the area.
Yes, we are sure finding that the Mr. Heater needs a little help with the furnace first thing in the morning at these temperatures. After that we can shut the furnace off and Mr. Heater does a fine job at keeping us nice and cozy until the sun starts to come in the windows.
DeleteYikes, that is cold - that heater buddy sure is coming in handy. What the heck did you do in cold weather before you had that?
ReplyDeleteWe would just use the built in RV furnace. But they're terribly inefficient. They use a lot of both propane and battery power. And they're noisy! Our purchase of the Mr. Heater Buddy means that we use less propane and less electricity. It's a win-win!
DeleteHeader caption says 2014... I know you sometimes post old pix so better fix now :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's fixed now.
DeleteHighway 89A from Prescott through Jerome to Cottonwood is narrow, twisty, and quite steep in places. But like Ruth said, if you can handle Mexican roads, it is certainly doable! In Jerome, park RV at http://goo.gl/maps/Xta92 and walk.
ReplyDeleteYes, Sherman is quite confident. Thanks for the GPS coordinates!
DeleteRegrading the picture of the rvs around Sherman, "see what you started"
ReplyDeleteI said that to Kevin as we were coming back from our hike, lol!
DeleteHa! See what happens when you give out GPS coordinates! Just kidding. You kill me with your captions "Pretty flower." Not even an attempt at giving it a proper name. That's what I would have done, too. That campsite is lovely. There's just nothing like the forest! Have fun! This weather is prime for great hikes. Grace (in Tucson)
ReplyDeleteLuckily they all showed up later, Kevin didn't put out the coordinates until after we had our night alone. Just a coincident, I am sure! ;-)
DeleteLuckily we have lots of knowledgeable readers that we almost always have one that can identify birds, flowers, trees...etc for us, that saves on our internet usage. :-)
I see you have morning heat duty also. One of my jobs on cold morning is to warm the place up before Marsha rolls out of bed....LOL We have a blue flame heater too. Not sure when the last time we used the built in furnace.
ReplyDeleteIt usually just happens that Kevin is awake before I am anyway but yes, when it is this cold I usually hang out in bed just long enough for things to warm up.
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