Gisele and I drove up to the Mogollon Rim for a couple of days this week and spent some time with Richard and Dianna. It was a great, though short, trip.
We arrived Sunday evening (after making a couple of wrong turns…), and enjoyed a nice barbecued dinner at R&D’s house. We spent the night in a “cabin” at the Happy Jack Lodge, about 10 miles away from the Ranger Station where R&D are staying. The cabin was very nice, more like a triplex with a kitchen, bedroom and living room. More room than we needed, but that’s OK.
The next day is when the excitement happened. We rented a four-seat ATV and explored over 100 miles of the Rim country, mostly staying on graded dirt roads but a couple of times we ventured onto trails where anything less than an ATV would have gotten stuck. Richard spends his days driving around on the roads, so even though we had an iPad with maps, we didn’t really need it. He knew where we were all the time.
Occasionally we passed Forest Service trucks, and Richard would wave them down and (surprise!) he always knew the driver, and would have a short chat with them. Those are the people he works with.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade of ponderosa pines on the bank of Knoll lake. A picture taken about 15 minutes later would have shown us all stretched out taking naps.
The last adventure before returning the ATV was a visit to a fire tower. This was appropriate since there were a couple of controlled burns going on while we were there. You can see the smoke in this picture taken from the tower. Seeing this, we thought that maybe the burn was no longer “controlled”, but it turned out it was all intentional. The burns made the air a little smoky, but it wasn’t too bad most of the time.
We got back dusty and tired, but it was a lot of fun.
Tired as she was, Dianna cooked a delicious dinner again that evening.
The drive back down into the record heat the next day was a little unwelcome, but it’s always good to get home.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Don // Jul 25, 2014 at 8:47 pm
Well that sounds like fun. Does that Polaris have a license or do you have to keep to the back roads?
2 Richard // Jul 25, 2014 at 10:30 pm
Glad you guys could come visit. Anyone else in the valley, or anywhere else, is welcome to come up and get out of the heat.
Don, it is licensed for use on the highway. We drove it about 20 miles on Highway 87. Ran 55 easily and the rental guy said they would do about 70.
3 Dale // Jul 26, 2014 at 5:31 pm
When we were in Sedona Karen said the next time she visits there she is going to rent an ATV. There were a lot of tourists on them having fun on the back roads.
4 Daryl // Jul 26, 2014 at 5:33 pm
I just wish they were quieter. An electric ATV would be ideal.
5 Donna // Jul 27, 2014 at 8:40 am
Wow, that looks like a lot of fun! Wish I could have gone with you, but work beckoned. 🙁 Plus putting 5 into a 4 passenger ATV would have been a bit cozy. I’d like to drive up there some weekend before the summer is over.
6 Mom // Jul 27, 2014 at 1:29 pm
Beautiful country in which to spend a summer, not like hot old Mesa, which hit 116º one day last week.
7 Dianna // Jul 29, 2014 at 5:14 pm
I so enjoyed having you guys come for a visit!
They were doing back burning on the fires which is what expanded them and caused all the smoke. There was one on the far side of Blue Ridge Reservoir the next day which closed the Reservoir to all but fire personnel ferrying men & supplies to the other side. It was put out within a couple of days (this one was caused by some careless campers).
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