Camping above Prescot Arizona Just below the Rim

Once we arrived

Unhooked

and set up

(the new canopy cover is awesome!)

It was the joy of the forest!

Mactotoo, Panda and Pablo were just eager to begin the new adventure.
Unfortunately the went for a swim without asking:)

It does not take long to find the wild life.

Wild things best left wild is the saying I have spoken for many years to the children.

They have little fear of nature just healthy enough to consider the possibilities and judge well.

Just below us was the creek that is feed through mountain springs. We had only 5 camp sites above us.

This is a good thing when you think about the water purity.

Not one moment wasted the water called and they were in ecstasy

a very nice slope down to water easy climbing

This year we finally invested in the new bags for sleeping.

Our old bags were 25 years old or so. They however are under the forest quilts.

They added nice padding and warm too.

It was during the Memorial Day weekend and all the big lead in sales were happening at the sporting good stores.

Half price average so we were able to get the children new bags as well. They are good for down to 40*F. The bags are so thin compared to the old ones. The technology has come a long way.

The kids had the other old bag under the forest quilts with the bags on top.

Few blankets were needed this trip. The new bags really kept the kids warm.

The old bags were shorter than the kids. How they grow in a years time.

a supper over the cold mounds of too much butter :)

In a bag was rice and the season a can of chicken boil and done.

Use of little fuel to cook and more time for me to be off duty.

Dove just got her braces off so the menu

CORN ON THE COB!

Oh how happy she was to have it for the first time in two years.

Our libary visit left hungry eyes for the written page.

Flashlights the perfect invention.

The morning found Dove feeding Daddy Man grapes.

The bacon fried on the outside stove it mounts onto the side of the camper this keeps the oils out of the living space. Two stoves is a real privilege.

Kids in the creek and the Earl Grey Tea in the cup Daddy Man and I set to time together doing a puzzle.

This is a relaxing thing to do. I had asked for one in my prayers and when we went to the Grandparents my MILove said would you like this puzzle. I have tried to not tell them how many times this happens. Me thinks they sometimes wonder if I am making it up. NOPE, true story.

This was a hard puzzle. It never was completed over the week end perhaps a 5th of the way done. Shame was to have to take it apart to leave when it was time to pack up. The puzzle sits on a board of press wood. Wonderful way to do a puzzle it can be easily moved out of the way.

The kids climbed and played on the banks of the creek. This is just on the other side of the water just below us.

Steve took the kids on a hike with climbing involved. 

I love this image of a gentleman brother helping a sister damsel in distress.

The columbine grew wild along the creek side.

Dove was contemplative along the banks of the creek and so beautiful.

Then the Daddy Man showed the kids how to use charcoal to make petrographic images.

This image really struck me time moves on. The father and his son.

We all went for a 3 mile (yes 3 mile, I DID IT) hike.

This on the trail that goes though Arizona. We were center map image or so.

Along the way were two very step grades and I was able to do very well on them. 

Coming down was a bit unpleasant but all in all Steve stood amazed at my tenasity to do so.

I WAS NOT going to be left at base camp!

I was so determined.

This tree is as old as time. Perhaps a 500 year old Alligator Juniper.

The distant view is the Mugion (sp?) Rim, the trail would crest it if we were to continue on the hike a day or two.

All along the trail the forest had been really cleared of dead wood and the trappings lay along side. 

We had never seen the forest left in this manner but as you will see in part two of the trip...a real bad fire spared this area by only a mile or two.

This is the first of the the two mountain springs. The spring head only 200 feet above us.

We all had a taist of the purest water on earth.

This trail can get heavy rains and afternoon storms so high up.

Someone built a lean-to for survival.

We were having such a good hike and there is more of it to come. For now though I will let you imagine the stone structures that we found.