Camping Weekend Two.

Weekend two of camping was a lot more adventurous.  As we decided to go kind of last minute it started off a little rocky it ended with the adventure being worth the pain.

We stopped in Payson for gas and worms and decided since it was late that we should just eat fast food while we drove to the campsite so we could get our tent up before dark.  While I was preoccupied with something very important I’m sure Nate ordered.  20 Chicken McNuggets for our whole family no fries.  Just so you get the huge mistake this was the breakdown.Collin, Kirsten and Zoe each got three nuggets.  Toby five, Tianne 4 Holly 1 Nate 1.

We wanted to camp at one of the Rim lakes they were full.  We then went Black Canyon Lake which is off a dirt road which eventually goes to Heber by this time we figured if the campground was full we would just go sleep at my moms in Snowflake. We ended up finding a place at Black Canyon Lake Campground where it was very cold.  Yes we forgot coats.

Luckily we were still allowed to have campfires.  Which was great blessing as we saw some campgrounds that were not allowing campfires.  Another great thing we had was our tent heater.  Some may say that is kind of cheating the camping system but I LOVE it.  The next morning we noticed that a bear (Nate Says) bit our water jug and we didn’t pack plates or forks and we had pancakes for breakfast in our hands.  It was still freezing but we decided to go fishing anyways at Willow Springs Lake.

It was still freezing when we were there and even colder cause we were by the lake.  I sat on the rocks and took pictures too cold to move while the kids held lines reeled them in at inconvient times and Nate spent his time rehooking and baiting everyones lines.

Thankfully Toby learned a couple weeks ago to bait hooks and was very helpful in baiting Tiannes hook.  She didn’t really want to touch worms and Really wanted to catch a fish.

Unfortunantly she didn’t get her fish to the shore before it broke off and ended up only landing a crawdad.

Zoe and Collin are the only ones that ended up catching fish.  That will have to be another story for another post. We fished for about and hour and a half just to make sure everyone was freezing and not just me.

After eating fast food again in Payson we decided to continue with our great adventure and find the Verde Hot Springs.  We saw the place on the map and set out.  We knew that we would be on another dirt road for awhile but didn’t really know how long or how bad. After about 10 miles on the road we decided maybe we should just stop here at Fossil Springs. Wow this place was really worth the awful road that we had just been driving on and was very fun.  The kids just had to swim and we had for some reason packed our swimsuits so we went swimming. 

We really debated if we should continue to the hot spring not knowing how far we would have to go.  Thanks to all the complaints of kids possibly dieing if we didn’t go we went.  another ten miles on a worse dirt road we found the trail head.  We got out to hike.  Against all we’ve learned about hiking in Arizona we had no idea where to go and no drinks.  Luckily a very nice guy that our kids didn’t scare away offered to show us the way and share his water with our kids.  It was a great place and fun for our kids.

There was no bottom to this pool but the next pool was hotter and the kids could walk around in it.  The people who usually populate places like natural hot springs had heard our kids coming and quickly disappeared into the depths of the caves where we assumed more hot springs may be.