AH! Life in the Forest

We'll get the weather out of the way quickly. Rain has been occurring about every night for the past week (last Saturday, we had about 2.5 inches). Lightening is always a concern with all the tall pines around. One strike did a little damage to the contact station we work in. Temps have cooled down to about 53 degrees at night but the days are very pleasant in the mid to high 70's.

Larry knows first-hand about trees and it's dangers. He was visiting with some of our neighbors outdoors and one of the pine cones fell and conked him on the head. Luckily he had his cap on but he still could feel the hit. Those little suckers pack a wallop when they drop about 150 feet to the ground. Several trees were also uprooted during some of our heavier winds. Their roots are very shallow as they grow tall very quickly. He also knows now not to point out grey squirrels to CoCo as the dog took off literally dragging Larry, who was hanging onto his leash. Larry fell and finally CoCo stopped. A few scrapes, but nothing serious, thank goodness. It could have been a lot worse.

The contact station sustained damage of another kind during Friday night's downpour - one of our late arrivals plowed his motor home into the contact station and moved it about 12" from it's previous location. Two of the Workampers and the area manager, Tom, were inside when the building was hit. No one received any serious injuries, but communication lines and electrical lines had to be repaired. Nothing like a little excitement to keep things going! Our campground was almost full, many of them tenters, so it was a very wet night for them along with the lightening and thunder.

The previous week, one of Arizona's escaped murderers and his female accomplice, were captured in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. They were captured in one of the remote campgrounds. The forest Ranger who spotted them was very, very lucky that neither the man or the woman were anywhere close enough to their tent so they could reach one of their guns or he would have been killed. In fact, the man later boasted that he would have killed the Ranger if he could have reached his gun. Pretty scary. This couple had driven into our campground earlier that day to look at some of our sites. We are all very fortunate that they went on to a more remote area. Everyone is sure glad that they have been apprehended.

We spotted our first elk last week at dusk. The female was about 30 feet behind our unit grazing and didn't even hardly lift her head when I went out to take photos. Unfortunately it was just dark enough that none of the images were very good. Will try to get better photos next time.

Aspen Campground

Welcome to Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Our campground is 7,700 ft. elevation and is on the Mogollon (pronounced Mo go ee on) Rim. It is one of nine campgrounds managed by Recreation Resource Management of America that we work for. About 30,000 visitors a week are in the area, many of whom camp, fish or hike. Aspen Campground, where we work, has 136 campsites, none of which have electric, water or sewer hookups. Water and restrooms are available throughout the campground and a dump station is up the road about 3/4 of a mile. Employees however have full hookups, thank goodness.

The first image shows one of the roads that winds through the forest - AZ #260 west to Payson and Phoenix. The second photo below shows the view from atop the Rim of the area. It is approximately 3,000 ft. to the canyon floor.


We're scouting out some little groves of Aspen trees to take photos of so we can watch the progression of their colors changing as the weather cools down. CoCo thinks he's died and gone to heaven with all the trees around. Boy is he in for a shock when we get to Mesa and all the asphault and concrete at the RV Resort. The dog park will not suffice for him I'm sure.


A large lake is just a quarter mile from where we are and quite a few trout are caught from the bank every day. Boats are allowed but no big motors on the them. Down at one of the marinas close by, there is a nest of Bald Eagles and their 2 fledglings. We haven't been down to view them yet but plan on doing so soon. Maybe we will even get a photo of them.

It is about 8 miles to the closest post office (Forest Lakes) and about 33 miles to Payson for groceries and laundromat. We can go east past Forest Lakes to Heber-Overgaard, about 28 miles for laundry and groceries also, but is a smaller town and the prices are higher. There is a lakeside store on the Lake here but everything is double in price. At least we get our cubed ice and firewood free.

Arizona Destination

We just received confirmation this morning that we have been accepted as camp hosts at the Aspen Campground at the Mogollon Rim in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in northeastern part of Arizona. The elevation is 7,100 ft. so temps will be in the 70's during the daytime and as low as the 40's at night. Sure beats triple digits of Texas & NM right now. The photo below shows one of the nearby lakes in the area.


Can't wait to see all the aspen trees change colors while we are there. Our location is South of Holbrook, AZ and NE of Payson, AZ close to Heber/Overgaard, AZ area. The campground has 136 campsites and is very, very busy with lots of visitors. Our Recreation/Parks Manager assures us that we will be kept very busy, Dee working in the office and Larry working maintenance outside most of the time. Larry probably will work lots harder than I will because the sites must be maintained at all times.

As we get a chance to check out the area, we'll post more photos. Hope to hear from some of you also.