Off to Roosevelt Lake, AZ

After 3 plus weeks we finally hitched up the Jeep and headed west about 20 miles to Ehrenberg Arizona on the Colorado river to try and clean out all the dust from inside and outside of the MH and the Jeep. The tanks are clean and empty and ready to start over again on another venture.

The evening view out the back of our site looking across the river into California we witnessed another beautiful sunset.

Still another look before heading out the next day. We headed to Roosevelt Lake with a two day stop back in Casa Grande to cut the long distance of travel into two days. One of the fun things about this lifestyle is the friends you continually run across on your travels. Fifteen minutes after arriving at Casa Grande, who pulls up next to us but old friends Charlie and Nila. We had a chance to sit and chat before they headed out in the morning.

We pulled out and headed over the mountains, found a great site next to the lake and settled in for another week or two of dry camping with a view to die for. The saguaro in this part of the Tonto National Forest are several hundred years old and are just huge.

The bridge crosses over in front of the dam and Dick thought the arch reflections in the water were significant for a picture but hard to see.

A little out of sequence but a view from our campsite, which Alice described as the "primo" site.

But better still is a view looking from another directions at friends that we get to share more time with. Robbie and Alice and Alice's sister Mary and her husband Bill who we had the pleasure of meeting last year, as well as Steve and Jeanie (not in the picture).

We took a trip down the road today to visit the Tonto National Monument Cliff Dwellings. This is the lower cave with a short 3/4 mile hike up the side of the hill. Being the first up there in the morning it was great to have the site to ourselves.

While small it was still exciting to visit the homes last occupied over 700 years ago. The ancient Salado people were farmers and had to travel a long distance down the mountain to tend their crops.

They probably didn't care but they sure had a fantastic view from their front rooms.

No lake, just a river when these people lived here. Yes, that's Jackie on the trail back down the hill and in the distance if you look closely you can see one of the many campgrounds in this area.

We had to take this shot to give an idea of the size of the saguaro.

The hillside also is covered with most of the desert plants including this cholla with the light making the needles glow. But don't try to touch it--they don't call it "jumping cholla" for nothing!

This little guy is one of the birds that makes it's home in the saguaro.

See if you can figure out what this (in focus) picture is of?

To be continued...

The picture above is the reflections of the stain glass window on the side of Robbie and Alice's RV.