Thursday, April 18, 2013

On the Water at Theodore Roosevelt Lake

We have just spent a week at a great spot right on Roosevelt Lake. After saying good bye to the saguaros and chollas and other cacti and many wildflowers, we made our way north to the lake. We actually drove about 35 miles north of Usery and then back 34 miles to the Lake to get around the Tonto National Forest.

We had checked out the lake on our Apache Trail trip and so pulled into Bermuda Falls, a dispersed camping area right on the shoreline. The only charge is the Tonto Forest passes we bought previously. Six dollars a night for waterfront camping is not too shabby.

Note the snow dusting on one of the hills across the lake in the picture above and the hills in back of us in the picture below.

 

As seems to be the case with us when we stay somewhere at least a week, we got some weather changes. The first days we had beautiful sunny weather. We went out kayaking one of the first days there.

 

Then Joe wanted to try out the sail as we were getting enough wind. The first day he went out there wasn't too much wind but the next few days were pretty good and he had a good time getting use to sailing. I went out with Savannah in our other smaller boat we got when we bought our big sea eagle. I had a nice little paddle.

 

On the weekend we got a pretty good crowd. More boats of all types out on the water and a lot of fishing going on.

 

Wind that is good for sailing also good for kite flying.

 

We had originally bought tonto passes for 5 days but ended up going to a store down the road to get three more days worth as we really liked staying at this lake. As I mentioned wind and of course we got a few days of too much wind and some clouds and cooler weather. In fact, so windy our smaller boat which was up near the motorhome blew into the water and Joe had to drive down to another section of the water where the boat luckily came back to shore. Our plans had been to head to Cottonwood and Sedona area for some boondocking. However, Joe was reading about Canyon de Chelly, which is just a little detour northeast on the way to Lake Powell, which was our next stop. We also have plans to go to Zion. I had checked out staying at the campground, Watchman, which is right in the National Park and it was full to August. However, Joe checked it again later on and someone must have cancelled as there was one spot for four days only May 7th to the 11th and so we reserved it right away. We have been there twice before but stayed outside of the park. We are looking forward to staying right in the park. There is one trail right from the campground that Savannah will be able to go on. We will be taking the shuttle sans the pup for a few hikes in the park. Anyway, we are now staying at Homolui Ruins State Park, near Winslow for a night and onto Canyon de Chelly for further adventures in our awesome country.

Part of our time, unfortunately, has been spent watching the tragic events of the Boston Marathon. How very sad and our hearts go out to the victims and their families. Also to all the first responders and all those who helped and made us proud to be Americans in their response to the assault on our fellow citizens.


 

 

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