On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
I would like to have another OTR First Timers Week in August, only this time we’ll go with Baud’s suggestion and call it On the Road Virgins Week.
If you haven’t taken the plunge and submitted photos to On the Road yet, step right up!
Just be sure that you write out your descriptions in Word (or something) and paste them into the form – it’s only happened twice, but on the off chance that something goes wrong with the form, then you have only lost 5 minutes of your time doing the copy & paste.
When our National Park plans crashed and burned because of COVID closures, we looked for another way to spend the month of April. California, Utah, and New Mexico closed their state parks, but Arizona kept them open and kept the campgrounds open, too. We ended up visiting 7 of the 16 that had camping facilities. It wasn’t the trip we’d planned, but it worked out okay nonetheless. Other than Florida, we’d never spent so much time in a single state and we got to see a lot of the variety, from deserts, to the Colorado River, to mountains.
Arizona doesn’t like such a good destination now (mid-June).
View of the Catalina Mountains from our campsite.
Superstition Mountain (with Brittlebush, and Teddybear Cholla in the foreground)
This is a view of Picacho Peak through the back window of the trailer. The park was fairly empty because there were no water hookups, due to the wells being low. We filled up the freshwater tank before we arrived. Having the campground less occupied made it good for social distancing though.
The highlight of the park is a trail to the top of the peak listed as Difficult: “The route is steep and twisting with steel cables anchored in the rock where the surface is bare. Gloves are strongly recommended.” Nope, didn’t want to do that. In lieu of that we biked around the park and watched the sunsets.
River Island is one of several state parks on the Colorado. This one is below Parker Dam. The picture is of the boat launch ramp and the Colorado River. It was the smallest one we stayed in – it was just the boat launch and campground, basically. The volcanic rock hills that surrounded the park were pretty impressive.
The landscape here was as austere as anything we’d seen. There’s none of the diversity of cactus and other plants we saw earlier. Just an endless vista of sand and scrub. The park is here to protect the ruins of seven Homolovi settlements that date back about 700 years. There were 1,200 to 2,000 rooms in the larger of the two accessible sites. This picture was taken at the smaller site.
What a difference 85 miles makes! We moved out of the Painted Desert and into the cooler, higher Mogollon Plateau. The campsite was in the middle of a Ponderosa Pine forest. The park also has a little bit of riparian area next to the lake, and areas of meadow and pygmy woodlands. It’s definitely more diverse than Homolovi.
Fool Hollow Lake
This is Lyman Lake with the White Mountains in the distance. We were back out of the mountains to the plateau, and back into arid country. The lake is a reservoir on the Little Colorado River with the main attraction being “no size restrictions on boats”. It also includes a small petroglyph site.
BigJimSlade
Nice shots – thanks for posting! The back window of the trailer shot looks like something on TV :-)
I forgot to add, in the tradition of old Eschaton: FRIST! (Sorry, but I’m never first!)
Dmbeaster
Arizona has many beautiful landscapes of all types.
rikyrah
May I ask what kind of RV?
Travel trailer?
5th wheel?
Driveable?
Class A or C?
How long was the RV?
Are you habitual RV folks?
frosty
@rikyrah: Hi there!
It’s a travel trailer, pull behind, not a 5th wheel. It’s in the first Fool Hollow picture. We tow it with a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Not a motorhome, not driveable, so Class A/C doesn’t apply.
It’s 27 ft hitch to bumper, about a 24 ft body, and yes, we’re habitual RV folks. We bought my in-law’s Coleman popup in the 90s, upgraded to a bigger one in 2004 and took it on a 5-week cross-country trip with our kids. Along with other vacations.
The first “hard-sided” trailer was a 17-ft hybrid (one fold out bunk) in 2015 which proved to be too small. My wife took that one on a 10-week solo cross-country trip. I joined her for 2 weeks of it.
We got a bigger one a couple years later, then traded for this one last year because it had a better layout. I think (hope) we’re done buying trailers now. :-)
I have friends with vacation homes. This is ours – I like it because when I go to my vacation house I get a different view every time. It’s also nice having the same bed every night and not dealing with schlepping your stuff in and out of hotels.
Long answer, sorry ’bout that.
Wag
nice photos!
@BigJimSlade: That “Frist” dyes you, and tells me you were a regular on a blog. Was it Wonkette where that was a thing? Can’t remember.
rikyrah
@frosty:
Thanks.
I have become a little obsessed with RV’s. Never been in one, but think about it a lot.
frosty
@rikyrah: You should go to an RV show and wander around. The dealers tend to bring the big expensive stuff but you can find smaller ones too. We go to Hershey almost every year.
It’s fun to walk into a $250,000 motorhome and see how tacky the decor is in some of them.
BigJimSlade
@Wag: dooo-o-o-o-d(ette?)!!! – I said eschaton right there! Atrios’ place. Yeah, I blame W. I needed blogs to get me through the incomprehensible dumb-shittery of our country. I never would’ve guessed that stupid gas bag from 80s NYC would pollute the white house. I mean, WTF? Shame on his voters, big-time.
But yeah, I go all the way back, liberal blog-wise. A shout out to MWO! That’s mediawhoresonline which chronicled the media’s utter lameness in very pithy language. Not quite Bartcop level, but close. And Altercation (by Eric Alterman) with a Friday post from Charles Pierce! And before Kevin Drum was at Mother Jones, before he was at Washington Monthly, but he was Calpundit. And a couple who have passed on… sigh. Oh, the other things I could’ve done with my time if I didn’t care about all this (but, of course, it’s worth caring about!)
Help me out here – anyone else want to go down memory (hole) lane and give a shout out the old blog palaces
And yes, Frist, is a play on bad typing, and shouting out “First,” but also calling out that asshole Bill Frist.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@frosty: My parents got a trailer after my dad retired, we took one big trip in the western US and then he had his heart issues and limited our trips to the west coast until he passed. It was nice having a familiar home where ever you ended up for the night.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@BigJimSlade: Altercation was my gateway blog. I remember when Kevin was Calpundit, I was kind of sad he went national. Of course there was the News Blog.
Suzanne
I love seeing these pictures of my former home. It will always be home.
Maybe I’ll become a snowbird.
CaseyL
@rikyrah: Me too! I toyed with the idea of becoming a full time RVer after seeing some videos online. I gave up the idea for many reasons (chiefly, I am not at all mechanically handy) but would love to someday get one for week-long vacations.
Depending on how obsessed you really want to be, head on over to YouTube and do a search for RV Living.
It’s a huge subculture with many sub-sub cultures: Burning Man alums and old hippies (who tend to live and travel in campervans, “schoolies” – i.e, converted buses – and other DIY contraptions) retirees, young nomads, and regular ol’ middle class types. The more mainstream tend to be well-off to very well-off.
It’s very terribly white, but more POC are trying the RV life as well.
Wag
@BigJimSlade: I blame W as well, along with Raygun and Nixon.
piratedan
Catalina State Park is indeed beautiful, will have to see how well it recovers post the Bighorn Fire and monsoon season.
Picacho Peak is noted for a small Civil War skirmish and for the peak that does sit out by its lonesome in the landscape. I’ve never hiked it (crappy knees) but have been told in the Springtime its a great hike for those up to it.
Glad you got up to the rim country to see the beautiful forests up there, the drive from Payson to Springerville is one of the best in the state as you go from high mountain desert to evergreen forest to high mountain meadows, it is spectacular and the rise from 5k to roughly 10k is done well as you blow thru small towns (Pinetop and Show Low) and national forests.
Arizona is something of a wonder, you have sandy deserts, high and low plateaus, river canyons, red rock country, cactus laden landscapes and small pristine riparian areas. You have wineries to cattle ranches and a system of high mountain lakes and caves and caverns. There’s a lot to see and do here and slowly we’re changing the political landscape here as well.
Drop me a line if you need some help figuring out what to do and see here in my adoptive state. Many of us AZ jackals are happy to help.
frosty
@BigJimSlade: I think my first two blogs were GOS and TPM. I read the Atlantic ones pretty regularly, too: Fallows, Coates, and Sullivan. Wonkette, when Ana Maria Cox wrote it. Non-political blogs were The Oil Drum (peak oil) which closed and the Archdruid Report by John Michael Greer (closed).
These days I only read this one, TPM, and Wonkette.
joel hanes
When I was a kid, my folks subscribed for a few years to Arizona Highways, a large-format picture magazine (physically bigger than LIFE magazine) with nature photos that made Arizona look like a paradise.
frosty
@Suzanne: After a couple of months of winter you’ll really appreciate an Arizona vacation!
Auntie Anne
@BigJimSlade: And there was Tbogg’s original blog, home of basset blogging, Steve Gilliard’s brilliant blog ( F—- the F——— Yankees), Melanie’s Beyond the Beltway, the original Pandagon, and loads of others. The one that best captures the taste of those early days for me is First Draft and Athenae.
frosty
@piratedan: We took part of the Scenic Drive from Show Low south to Globe, but just to the Salt River and back. I got some great pix of Cedar Canyon and Salt River Canyon, but WG and I figured 8 posts was plenty.
There are also some drives along the Mogollon Rim I would like to take but they’ll be in the future some time. I’ve got an itinerary to sort of repeat our planned trip next year. The AZ segment is ABQ to Petrified Forest, then to the Colorado River for an overnight, then west. So it will be a much shorter visit.
You’re right about how diverse the state is. We had no idea until we were “stuck” there for a month. I’m glad it worked out that way.
Wag
@frosty: I read all of those, plus the Atlantic. It’s fun to read David Frum and see him try and justify his hatred of Trump. There are a bunch of good writers at The Atlantic that o enjof, and a few who infuriate me.
I also really enjoy Jen Rubin at WaPo. She is consistently on fire about where the country is going. I think we may be seeing a John Cole evolution going on is her psyche.
piratedan
@frosty: I can give a big thumbs up to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National park. While the vistas can be stark, the color of the mineral deposits and the petrified wood are somewhat unique and the view and coloration change with the time of day. If you’re into the Petrified Wood scene, I would point you to Jim Grey’s out in Holbrook. Also while you’re on the plateau up there, Meteor Crater is also pretty awe inspiring as a local area extinction event. It’s kind of strange that just another 30 miles from there farther east you run into Flagstaff and high mountain forests again. If you do end up on the rim again, just north of Payson, there’s another local state park that boasts a natural bridge of it’s own. Farther west from there in Jerome, you have another state park that preserves the mining town faithfully from a 100 years ago.
smike
@rikyrah:
While single, I lived in one for a few years and enjoyed it. All the comforts…
Prior to that, I customized the interior of a chevy panel van to facilitate short term, convenient shelter. I used to often go camping, and it was great to drive up to a camp site, pick my view, open the side doors and crank up the tunes, all while watching fellows campers working to get everything together.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@frosty:
Yutsano
@Suzanne: Northern Arizona > Southern Arizona.
BigJimSlade
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Altercation may have been mine, too – I don’t quite recall which was first. But blogrolls ruled for finding new sources!
BigJimSlade
@Wag: Well, Raygun and Nixon certainly have heaps of blame to shoulder, there were no blogs during their time.
BigJimSlade
@frosty: For me its 95% this one and LGM (also, sorry for kinda hijacking your post!)
BigJimSlade
@Auntie Anne: Ahh, Steve Gilliard … sigh. I, too, frequented Pandagon back then.
frosty
@piratedan: Hey, you mentioned Red Rock and I forgot that we’ve got reservations at Dead Horse Ranch State Park outside of Sedona for 5 days, too. I did the Oak Creek Canyon drive once, looking forward to getting back there.
frosty
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep, 5 nights reserved at a private RV site in 29 palms and planning on two nights in A-B as soon as they open up for reservations.
frosty
@Yutsano: I’m really partial to Tucson though. My best friend from college grew up there. And so did Linda Ronstadt. I have a picture of myself in front of Ronstadt’s Hardware!
frosty
@BigJimSlade: No problem! It’s always fun to see where the threads go. I mean, the one on Trump segued into roasted vegetables????
Yutsano
@frosty: I was mostly tweaking Suzanne’s nose there. I have been to both Flagstaff and the Valley of the Sun. I have, however, never been to Tucson. I do need to fix that as a good friend and his family live down there. His mom is a total delight.
Amir Khalid
@frosty:
Doesn’t Linda Ronstadt still live in Tucson?
Amir Khalid
News from Malaysia: former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has been found guilty of seven counts of corruption relating to misappropriation of RM42 million (about US$10 million) from a 1MDB-linked company. Sentencing to come.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@frosty: For a good idea of things to see(that most don’t see) check out this guy’s site(Cali49).
frosty
@Amir Khalid: She moved to LA with the Stone Poneys when she was … 18? Helped invent SoCal country rock. These days she’s somewhere around San Francisco.
I highly recommend the two-part series Laurel Canyon. Also her biopic The Sound of My Voice. Yeah, I’m a huge fan.
suezboo
My go-to blogs began with Sadly, No, Doghouse Riley, alicublog, TBogg and World ‘o Crap. Also Pharyngula on occasion. Now, BJ, Pierce and Edroso fulfil my blog needs. I was never sucked into the Atrios vortex.
Albatrossity
Nice pics! Homolovi, and the other Sin Agua sites, are stark but beautiful places in a stark but beautiful part of the world. I need to get back there again.
Re the other thread on this post, I cut my early blogging teeth on Pharyngula and The Panda’s Thumb, as well as the Panda’s Thumb late-night discussion board After the Bar Closes. That’s where I first used the moniker Albatrossity.
Mo MacArbie
I started out at the GOS, Calpundit, TPM, etc. Sought that great white whale, the “reasonable conservative” at Tacitus and later Obsidian Wings before abandoning the search. Hullaballoo was a mainstay for a bit. The Poor Man and Fafblog to keep me sane (not sure it worked). Unfogged later, and then here.
laura
Steve Gilliard –
Tanta at calculated risk
Jesus’ General
Pandagon
Brad deLong
Thursday night basset blogging at Tbogg’s
Firedoglake – and now just Emptywheel
Erin in Flagstaff
@Yutsano:
As someone who was born in Tucson, grew up in the Phoenix area, and is now living in Flagstaff, I agree with this statement.
Erin in Flagstaff
I remember when DailyKos was a new blog and you didn’t need an account to post a comment.