Finally!

 We left Amarillo under sunny skies and sloppy roads.   Our Jeep is unrecognizable under it's covering of road grime and cinder scum.      We made one overnight stop in Albuquerque (with a propane fill) and then one in Holbrook, AZ.  

near Gallup, NM

spooky Halloween moon in Holbrook

This morning we left Holbrook and took a different route to our final destination of Usery Mountain Regional Park outside Phoenix.     Instead of using interstates, as we usually do, we decided to drive diagonally south on smaller roads (77 to 377 to 277 to 260 to 87 to Bush Highway) to cut off quite a few miles.    We'd never taken this route before and were unsure of what we'd encounter.

Most of the way was on two lane roads through Arizona's high desert.   Not much shoulder but quite a few pull-outs along the way.    Once through the town of Heber we began to encounter pine forests and hilly terrain.

Driving through the mountains south of Payson was hard.   Route 87 is a fine road, four lane mostly, but it was slogging up long grades, then down long grades, etc. etc. for the entire drive.     We passed through miles of recent burn damage along the way.

We felt like we were home as we turned onto the Bush Highway and headed toward Mesa.  This is a road we've driven many times and it's scenery never disappoints (although today we didn't see any of the wild horses that roam the area).

heading down to the Salt River

Once through the entry gates, we quickly settled into our site and went outside to enjoy a nice warm happy hour.   Dave was grinning from ear to ear.    He was finally thawed out!

 

our happy hour view

Dave's bare feet make a perfect headrest