Our time in Flagstaff has come to an end. One last Matador coffee. An amazing breakfast at La Bellavia. (where we watched a dog, who was hanging out with his three college aged human friends, pick up girls for them, as they faltered and goofed it all up....so funny)
And we are on our way! Headed south east of Flagstaff and eventually into New Mexico and the Gila National Forest.
The landscape changes drastically, from aspens, to pines, to bush to desert. What an amazing route to drive!
We stop at Lyman Lake State Park off 180/191, pop into the sleepy ranger station and gathered information from the youthful couple working there. Ice cream was available in a cooler and we sat on a hot picnic table, while happily slurping up the melting drumstick and ice cream snickers.
A quick hike up to some of the petroglyphs that can be found, overlooking the lake.
The sun was beating down on our shoulders and we had the place to ourselves.
Pretty cool landscape.
After stretching our legs on the hike we hit the highway again, moving from desert to climb back up to the pines and aspens.
We move through the town of Alpine and start looking for a place to stay. There are many forest service roads here to pull off on, but we finally decide on a campground that is closed for the winter.
It's the Luna Lake campground in the Apache Forest and it's quiet and lovely and amazing. We spend an hour walking around the lake and watching a bird dive repeatedly down to the surface of the water in hopes of catching a fish.
I'm still amazed at how far we have come with camping equipment. 26 years ago, I scrimped and saved until I could afford, one by one, a tent, synthetic sleeping bags and a camp stove from, what I considered a very "high end" store, Target. (certainly not water proof and no sleeping pads) Now this little bomb-proof tent from Mountain Hardwear goes everywhere with us, along with our down sleeping bags and fluffy pads that pack down to nothing.
So much downed firewood to be gathered and a lovely flame to warm us through the evening.
Nothing better than sitting together around a campfire.
My new favorite soft beanie. It's a bonus that the hand dyed colors are gorgeous.
On to a great nights sleep, until the two motorcyles (who tried to be quiet, but how quiet can you be on a motorcycle?) and motor home with kids arrived late at night. Should have stayed in the woods off the fs road.......
The good news is, if you have to get up to pee during the night, the sky is filled with stars. The sky here has little light contamination and the stars are vivid and spread like powder. It's worth stumbling around in the dark to see.
Kari Lindner
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