Springtime at Lake Roosevelt, AZ

We started the spring season by heading to Lake Roosevelt, which is northeast of the Phoenix area. We spent some time here last year and really liked it. We were going to go directly to Bermuda Flats, a dispersed camping area right on the water but alas it is Spring Break time and it was wall to wall RVs.

Bermuda Flats

We checked out a number of other spots including Bachelor Cove where Savannah got a bunch of large round stickers in her fur and so that would be a no even if it wasn't already crowded. We decided on Cholla Campground, which like all the places in this area are first come first serve. We got a nice site with a large sitting area. Cholla Campground is a forest service campground with around 200 sites that all have shaded ramadas. You don't pay at the campgrounds or dispersed camp areas. Instead you buy Tonto Passes, which are 6 dollars(3 dollars for us seniors) per vehicle per day which is good for camping and day use. We had stopped at the visitor center before going to the campground. No hookups but water and dump are available two days a week in the campground and 2 days across the road. The sites are big and lots of vegetation between the sites. I put our chairs next to the picnic table which is under the ramada and was able to get shade all day just moving my chair a few feet.

 The pictures above are taken from my recliner in my nice shady spot. I spent a lot of time just reading and enjoying the great weather and views while listening to the numerous types of birds in the area including a family of quails that quickly walked in the area in front of where I was sitting.
Some of the sites have water views of the lake but they of course were taken. We did take several walks on a trail that overlooked the water.

Oh by the way, this campground is the largest all solar powered campground in the US.
Below are a few pictures I had fun with and an untouched typical beautiful Arizona sunset.

One day we took a drive up a road across the street from the campground to get some nice views from higher up. Lots of great desert flowers. It is spring time for sure.

You can see Cholla Campground in the picture below.

The next post will include a change of scenery as we take a drive to Payson and the Mogollon Rim and a move to Bermuda Flats.
Stay tuned.

Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan

We left Indiana and made our way north to Nichigan. We have a long Holiday weekend coming up and so I had done some research to find somewhere with first come first serve spots so we could snag a spot before the weekend. Platte River Campground is a national forest campground up near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshosre. All the reservable sites are taken for the weekend but they have a loop with first come first serve. It is aways up and so we ended up doing two overnight spots on our way there. One of the reasons didn't want to drive more than a few hours was that Joe started feeling bad on Saturday with a cough and what ended up being a cold and I followed a few days later. Oh bummer, our first cold in over 4 years. Anyway, Tuesday we pulled into Platte River Campground, a lovely wooded area in the lower pennisula of Michigan in the southern are of Sleeping Bear Dunes. It is within walking distance of the Platte River and within a few miles of Lake Michigan.

Looking out our window

Lots of hiking, biking and boating available in this area. Of course, we are not feeling well and so didn't do much more than walks around the campground. No tv this week and so lots of reading on our kindles, plus we did have internet.

We did take a drive on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in the Sleeping Bear Dunes area.  You first drive through a covered bridge which was basically built for sightseers to enjoy and take a photo, which I did.

We drove by Glen Lake. Actually there are two Glen Lakes separated by a causeway. Big Glen Lake is up to 130 feet deep in places and Little Glen Lake only 12 feet deep.

There are a number of lookouts to take in the views.

The Sand Dunes are of course, part of the big draw.The road goes by the Dunes area, then through a beech and  maple tree forest, by Lake Michigan and by more dunes.

We did take a short walk to take in more views. The bluff goes down to the water's edge. It is a hard walk back to any who walk down to the water.

The water colors are amazing.

It's a little hard to see the iconic landform that gave this place its name as the sleeping bear form has been eroded by winds or the years. 

A nice day in Michigan. We had mostly nice days with a little rain one day. We did some shopping in Grand Traverse.
When we got here we had just signed up for one day and the next morning Joe went to sign up for a few more days. We wanted to check out another forest campground. We haven't adjusted to Eastern Time and have been sleeping in until 10 or 11 in the morning. We almost lost our spot. Joe had let a woman go before him into the office and he heard her try to sign up for our spot as they had already removed our tag. Joe said that is my spot and we are signing up for more days, which he was able to do. That was close. We would have been able to get another spot but would have had to pack up, bring in the slides,etc. A pain to move a few sites over. Later that day, we stopped on our way back to the campground and signed up through the weekend until Tuesday. We had a nice week and are both on the mend from our colds. Hopefully we will get onto the water on our further adventures in Michigan.