Returned from Houston Mesa CG Payson, AZ

[AZsix]

We returned this afternoon from two nights in "Rim Country" north of Phoenix in Payson, AZ.

We arrived early Friday afternoon at the Houston Mesa CG. We had our site reserved and paid for so all we had to do was drive to it and set up. After we set up it rained for a little. Not too hard and it didn't last long.

After waiting out the rain and seeing some breaks in the clouds, it was time to go exploring. The day before we left they had a piece in the newspaper about sites along Houston Mesa Rd which just happened to be the road the cg was on. The day we left the same paper did a piece of 5 great swimming holes and one of them happened to be the one listed in the previous days article. All of this was a good omen in my mind. We asked the camp host about "Water Wheel" and he told us exactly how to get there. We then made the short 10 minute of so drive. There was one other car there that left just as we arrived so we had the place to ourselves. It's a short hike (40 yards or so) from the parking area to the shore of the East Verde River. The water was surprisingly warm and filled with crayfish. The kids went wading in getting a little wet and catching crayfish. They were having fun but it was getting close to dinner time. On the way back we spotted about a dozen elk on the side of the road. We stopped to get a better look and the though I didn't see him the kids all saw a bull with huge antlers. Dinner at the kids request was spaghetti and then it was time for a campfire. I bought two bundles of wood on the way there. The seemed dry but unknown to us they had rain almost the entire day and night preceding out visit. Try as I might I couldn't get that wood to burn the way it should have. I did manage to get it going well enough to roast a bag of marshmallows.

We had beautiful sleeping weather that night though it was very moist. It had cleared up nicely but everything was wet and with the moisture in the air things inside had a tendency to get a little damp.

Saturday it was more exploring. A few years earlier we had taken a drive to Christopher Creek was was about 32 miles east of where we were. The kids had a great time and had asked to go back. We packed a lunch and off we went. We found the forest road leading to the creek, parked and hiked on down to the creek. The water was much lower than it was the first time we had visited. I think we had gone earlier in the year and snow melt was still a factor. The water was cold and the kids said that once your feet went numb it didn't feel so bad. After and hour or so we went back to the car, had lunch and headed back to the cg. After a brief stop at the pup the kids all wanted to go back to the spot we had gone to the day before. Being Saturday there were about 8 other cars there when we arrived. The sun was out and it was warmer than the day before so the kids wasted no time in getting in the water. The river drops off pretty deep in parts and they did find a rock in the river that they could jump off of. They again caught crayfish and some small fish along with having a great time swimming. Being monsoon season here in AZ the dark clouds started rolling in and we thought it was a good time to get back to camp.  A stop at DQ in town for some ice cream and we made it back to camp just before the skies opened up. Man did it pour! This was our first time in the rain with the pup so my eyes scoured the pup for leaks. I'm happy to report that there weren't any. I found that since it was raining and we had to stay inside it was a good time for a nap. About 5:30 it stopped allowing me to use the grill and cook up that nights dinner of steak. Dinner was great and after that I was bound and determined, despite the ridicule the previous night from my entire family about my fire starting skills, to make another fire. I had just slightly better luck than the night before but by that time everyone was in bed. My wife called to me as she was getting ready for bed. She asked me what I was doing and I told her that I was trying to get the fire going. She asked, "Why, everyone's in bed?" I told her that at this point I was like Clark Griswold. The mere fact that Wally World was closed wasn't about to stop him from having a good time and I was determined to get that fire going one way or the other. I had learned the night before that pouring tiki torch oil on the logs didn't do much once the oil burnt off so I decided against it for this night. I had a slight sense of accomplishment from this nights effort.

This morning (Sunday) it was butterscotch, chocolate chip and plain pancakes for breakfast along with the rest of the bacon.

The mornings up there were great. Sitting there sipping my coffee, smelling the pine trees combined with the after rain smell was pure heaven.

The one glitch on the trip was that our toilet stopped working. It had done that during our Grand Canyon trip but after a few hours it starting working again. There must be a lose wire in there somewhere so I'll have to investigate that before the next trip. Seeing that they had bathrooms at the CG this wasn't a problem.

It was a great weekend and a fantastic trip.

For pictures go to http://picasaweb.google.com/sixinaz/HoustonMesaCG

I will write a review of the cg and put that in the "West" section.