Busy Day!

Man does it feel like we did a weeks full of exploring in one day! Felt like a relatively successful one as well!

Who knew that parts of Arizona were stunningly beautiful??! Quite a surprise to us. Temperatures consistently 75° to 85° during the summer. Some light - moderately heavy snowfall, that quickly melts in winter. Lots of potential. Unfortunately, as expected, not a lot of river or lake availability.

Here’s a rundown of our discoveries. We started the day in Show Low and slowly traveled west/northwest throughout the day:

Show Low: Nice landscape. Nice little town. Too remote.

Heber: Landscape getting more forested. Super cute local businesses. Good vibe. Nice people. Still too remote.

Now we started driving through serious mountain areas. So pretty! We couldn’t believe it was Arizona!

Payson: Ok, this will be an easy one for those of you in California to understand. Think South Lake Tahoe, but minus the gazillion tourists and the gorgeous lake. Enjoyed a great breakfast for lunch at a tiny café with a big sign across the front window that said, “We love our law enforcement and military veterans!” Super friendly people. House prices are a bit high for being so remote.

Prescott: In love!!! The landscape and surrounding area have all the best bits. The downtown proper has that old frontier mountain town vibe. Lots of fun food/bev options. To the west there are rolling hills with more open meadows. And just north of town there are cool red rock and granite formations for hiking. There are two tiny reservoirs on the edge of town. One we could paddleboard in, but neither one of them have water clean enough to swim in. There are a couple of tiny lake options… But they would be a bit of a drive. Still thinking about this one.

Decided to skip Sedona because we would love it and not be able to afford it. Besides, even less water!

We are staying in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. I much prefer these over Walmart because they feel safer to me. Not here! We are usually one of 2 - 6 campers parked in the back lot. This lot is jammed full of everything from ginormous motorhomes to Honda Civic‘s full of pillows and blankets. Sometimes I’m glad John has his nug!Read more