We traveled to Rio Verde RV Park in Cottonwood AZ for a week (12/29 – 1/5/23).  As for the weather – well – we hit it all on this drive – yikes!  Rain, sleet, and then snow made for a white knuckle drive since we were newbies at this.  We sure were elated when we finally arrived at the beautiful RV park!!  We managed to get a nice site that backed right up to the Verde River.  Since we were going to be there over New Year’s, it was the perfect location for day trips to Sedona, Jerome, Tuzigoot National Monument, Montezuma Castle National Monument, and Montezuma Well.  We went to the Ghost King Mine outside of Jerome and did the tour. There were lots of opportunities to hike but the weather wasn’t the best while there – it was COLD and rainy most of the time!  But…we had a fantastic time exploring all around the area and the cute historic district.

Jerome (106) MK

Jerome (40) MK Jerome (45) MK Jerome (54) MK Jerome (58) MK Jerome (70) copy Jerome (78) MK Jerome (129) MK

Sedona (15) MK Sedona (69) MK

From Cottonwood we went to Prescott AZ and stayed at the Pine Lawn Ranch RV Park for a week (1/5 – 1/12).  Got a nice pull through site nestled in the pine trees amongst others who were permanent residents there.  Wow was it COLD – and – we learned our first winter camping lesson.  If it’s going below freezing, make sure you have fresh water in your tank and disconnect the fresh water hose outside. The first morning there we woke up to everything frozen!  Uh oh……okay – calm down – we can do this!!  Get out the manuals and figure out what we’re doing…and we did just that – Whew!  Crisis averted  J 

Big Pig

Prescott is a great little town we had visited many years prior and were excited to get back again.  We spent several days walking around all the shops in the historic area downtown.  We hiked “Thumb Butte” which was absolutely gorgeous at the top.  Little did we know that coming down on the shady side would render lots of packed snow with ice as the topper!  We were glad we had our hiking poles with us – LOL!!  We took a couple of other hikes (ground level) which were much easier but also had beautiful scenery as there are many lakes in the Prescott area.  We had several “visitors” at our camping site.  The area houses several deer families and many Javelinas. 

Thumb Butte (126) MK Thumb Butte (139) MK Thumb Butte (155) MK

On to Lake Alamo State Park near Wenden AZ for a week (1/12 – 1/19).  Very remote but a beautiful area tucked within the surrounding mountains.  Again we lucked out and got a very nice site with a view of the lake.  We’re glad we stocked up on necessities prior to coming as there is NOTHING OUT HERE J  That’s the beauty of it though….you can hear a pin drop most of the time.  We’ve had rain off and on, even a thunderstorm - so the weather hasn’t been the greatest but….it is winter we keeping telling ourselves.  We did a couple of hikes and drove up to the Alamo Dam overlook.  Stunning views!!!!!  The area is filled with wild burros but we’ve yet to see any except for 2 as we were arriving to the park and they were fairly far away – way down in one of the crevices.  Lots of “evidence” they are around though.

Alamo lake (52) MK Alamo lake (81) MK Alamo lake (88) MK Alamo lake (119) MK