I decided I needed to get away for a while, to explore, take in new surroundings. I’ve been in the desert for most of the winter and I was getting antsy to get back on the road and experience something new...
I packed my stuff, ran my errands, and headed north towards Prescott AZ. My friend who just moved there would be needing help around the first of the month, so I thought I might find a new campsite in the area to enjoy until then. What I didn’t figure on was the poor phone data connections and a cold snap. I had a couple of areas in mind around the towns of Wickenburg and Congress, but when I stopped to check out the sites, I had a strong phone signal but zero data connection, so I moved on north to Prescott...
After checking out several campgrounds in the area, I settled into the Prescott Basin Dispersed Camping Area - Maripai Rd. The dirt roads coming into the campground are very rough, and get worse the further back you go. I took the challenge though and made my way back to campsite seven. I actually dragged the rear bumper a bit on the drive in and I never had that happen before. The site is situated on top of the ridge, the views are beautiful, and I had a good phone and data connection. I leveled the van and setup for the night...
The site had a lot of trash strewn about, so I grabbed my gloves, a large trash bag, and collected most of the big stuff around the area. After that I snapped a few pics and started working on some supper. The next morning I was sitting on my stool in the rear of the van getting my coffee going when a park ranger appeared out my back windows. I signaled him to go to the side doors and I popped out to see what was going on. We chatted for a minute then he pointed towards the rear of van. The garbage bag of trash I had collected the night before had been torn open and scattered. I apologized and explained that it was trash I had picked up at the site. He was really nice and helped me to pick it all up. I asked him if it was possible for him to take the bag of trash since I had no place to store it away from wildlife, and he said he would and threw it in the back of his truck. He took a moment to remind me of the seven day limit for camping, told me the campsite looked really good and thanked me for picking up the site and told me to enjoy my stay as he got in his truck and left...
The next morning, as I was again sitting in the back of the van preparing breakfast, something caught my eye out the back windows, a group of deer were browsing nearby. My phone was close by, I grabbed it and tried to take pictures, but there had been a few rain showers overnight which combined with the dust that was already on the windows, pretty much limited my view. The phone would only focus on the dirty window, not the deer just beyond. I didn’t think I had time to grab my camera so I was just enjoying the view. Then some of them started moving closer, and I could see there were even more coming behind them. I quietly moved forward in the van, grabbed my camera bag, swapped lenses, and got back in position. There were a lot of evergreen oaks around me with a few acorns still intact and plenty of low growing leafy plants, they stayed around for quite a while, which gave me the opportunity to snap some pics. In all there were probably fifteen deer that passed by. The does we’re out front, the one buck I saw was warily staying in the shadows so I never got a clear shot to photograph him...
This place is so beautiful, the mountains in the distance, the pines, junipers, and oaks, huge outcrops of mossy boulders, just a park-like setting, this is one of my favs. I’ll have to leave here earlier than anticipated due to a cold snap coming through in the next day or two, but it was well worth the trip...
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