To the Mountains

When Phoenicians go to the mountains, we usually head north towards Payson or Flagstaff or Sedona. However, when Matthew's cub scout pack hosted a family campout in the other direction, we thought we'd try it out. There are certainly lots of beautiful mountains outside of Tucson, but we'd never really made it too far past there. We camped in the Whetstones when we went to Kartchner Caverns earlier this year, but we'd never been to Sierra Vista and the Huachuca Mountains. What a treasure!

It took us about three hours and twenty minutes to get to the Reef Townsite Campground, but the last forty-five minutes were intense. We heard the road up the mountain was winding and that trailers were not recommended so we didn't bring the Airstream. What we didn't know was that it was basically a five-mile unpaved, narrow, one-lane, bumpy driveway with intense switchbacks. When we started up Carr Canyon Road, a sign warned it was not recommended for passenger cars, trailers over twelve feet (seems optimistic), or vehicles over twenty feet. Let's just say, this road is for Jeeps.

But we took the Sequoia up it anyway. It did okay, but maybe that's because the four of us were all leaning forward as if we were propelling the truck onward and upward. Some families made it in their minivans, but I can't imagine it was much fun. One guy's Honda Pilot was overheating, so they had to turn off their air conditioner to make it the rest of the way. There were big rocks everywhere, and we were shaking and bouncing the whole way up. Actually the farther we went, the worse it got. Plus there were no guardrails, some cars were coming back down so we had to move over to the cliff side, and the sun was setting. It was anxiety-inducing to say the least. Here are a few photos. With the exception of the one with the spectacular view, they are blurry from so much movement going on in our truck.

Once we made it and said, "What the hell?" to the guy in charge of scheduling this camp (which he seemed to hear a lot of), we set up our tent and gear in the dark and calmed ourselves down. Many more came after us. We were only about the fourth family out of maybe ten or so. One family didn't arrive until just before midnight. 

We were in the group site, so there were tents all around and plenty of boys playing. They had a good time with each other. It was a nice site, just really hard to get to.

After breakfast on Saturday morning, the leaders brought out a crosscut saw so the kids could pretend to be lumberjacks.

Even Elizabeth and I gave it a whirl. I thought we did better than most of the others, by the way.

Next we went on a group hike. We started out on the only hiking trail there, but the leader thought we were on the wrong trail so we turned around and went another way.

We got to a nice vista point.

I was pretty certain those two trails connected so while everyone else went back to camp, Elizabeth and I headed out again. They did connect, and we were the only ones who got to see the whole trail. Girls win again.

After eating a quick, early lunch at camp, we made the trip back down the mountain and another twenty miles to tour the Queen Mine, an old copper mine in quirky Bisbee.

They give you hard hats, safety vests, and a giant light with a battery pack that hangs off a thick leather belt.

We're all ready here!

You ride a train about fifteen hundred feet into the mine.

Benny was our tour guide. He is an old miner and quite the character.

We rode back up the mountain surrounded by threatening skies, but there were just a few sprinkles once we got back to camp. The air sure cooled down, though. The leader then tried showing the boys how to start a fire without a flicker. Then he finally used the flicker.

Dinner was a "pasta dump." Everyone brought a box of pasta and a jar of sauce. They mixed it all together, and we ate. It worked out pretty well.

The rest of the evening we sat around the fire, toasted marshmallows, and then went to bed early. Because that's what you do when you camp. :)

I didn't know what to expect this weekend, but it turned out to be a good experience. We got to spend time out of the heat, drive a rough road four times, see a new part of Arizona that's really pretty, and rough it without the trailer (or flush toilets or sinks or water spigots).