A Drive to Payson, AZ

Jeane and Steve left for Montana today and we are sad, we will miss them. We had never been to Payson, AZ or to Camp Verde so we packed a picnic and headed out about 10am with the Jazzy dog. We had a great day, beautiful scenery, some strange weather, ice cream and each other's company. The road to Payson is a four lane highway up the mountain, the peaks are spectacular and at first are covered with low green greasewood bushes and saguaro cactus. As you climb higher, the scenery changes to cedar and evergreens and snow--yes we found snow up on that mountain.

After getting all the way to Camp Verde which is on I17 north of Phoenix, we started back toward Scottsdale. The clouds got heavier and heavier, there was thunder and lightening and then it began to rain/sleet/hail/and snow! I just had to take this photo of the windshield with the buildup of snow.

As we were driving along, I spotted a herd of elk in the trees, Michael stopped quickly and I jumped out to take a photo, not the greatest photo but you can still tell he is a huge bull elk!!

This is the view from one of the pullouts as we came down the mountain and back into Scottsdale--these mountains are huge and very rugged.
We had heard really good things about McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills--they allow 14 days of consecutive camping and have water and electric hookups. It is a very popular park and there are usually several rigs in the overflow lot waiting for a site. Since we were so close, we drove out for a look--we think we will visit there again, large sites and awesome views. We overheard some people talking as we were taking Jazz for a short walk, they were pointing out the green spire in the distance--that is a fountain of green water for St. Patrick's Day located in Fountain Hills which was four miles from where I was standing taking the photo. I have a good camera but not that good--that is one huge fountain of water!

What a great day!