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| View from Camelback |
During our first stay in Tucson, we enjoyed the Blackett's Ridge Trail, part of Supina County system, and the Bridal Wreath Falls Trail, in an outer section of the Saguaro National Park.
Tucson has quite a few breweries, and during this week we visited Black Rock Brewers, Harbottle Brewing, and Copper Mine Brewing. We were able to meet a high school friend of mine and take in a round of golf at Randolph Dell Urich Public Course.
We woke up on our last day at Cactus Canyon to about 3" of SNOW! We had to shovel off the slide outs to get going that day! We then drove just over two hours (the snow has already melted, but the interstate still had 'CAUTION: Winter driving conditions' posted) to our next stop, Blue Star at Lost Dutchman, in Apache Junction. This was another 55+ park, one of the few in the area that would allow reservations for stays less than a month. This park did not have a lot going on - most people were holed up in their RVs since the weather was unusually cool most of the time we were there. VERY small spots, and not much of a view.
While in Apache Junction we hiked Wind Cave Trail in Usery Mountain Regional park, Wedding Cake Hill via Lost Goldmine Trail, and Tim finished Camelback (he started it in 2020, but turned around when he realized that I was waiting near the bottom). The Mesa and Tempe areas have a great selection of breweries! We visited Desert Monks Brewing Company, Lochiel Brewing, and Four Peaks Brewing, an amazing find! We also were able to visit our friends staying at a park in the area, complete with a golf course nestled in between the lots. Well, kind of a golf course. The longest hole was about 120 yards. Wonderful practice for the short game!
Our next stop was Lake Pleasant Regional Park just north of Phoenix. This was our second time there, and we enjoyed the trails and view of the lake. We took a short drive north to Wickenburg, the team roping capital of the world, with arenas like Rancho Rio, Simpson Ranch and others hosting Wickenburg events such as public roping and barrel racing competitions. We were also close enough to Peoria, and took in a Spring Training game. One of our son's high school teammates is in the Mariners' organization, and we actually got to see him in the dugout!
Lake Pleasant was our last scheduled stop, and our plan was to head north to Sedona if the weather looked nice. Since it was supposed to snow in the coming week, we decided to head back to the Apache Junction area to check out another 55+ park. I was able to get a few nights at Superstition Sunrise, a very nicely appointed park with friendly residents. We enjoyed the large hot tub, pickelball courts, and they have softball fields on site! We liked it so much we almost thought this was our long term place for 2024!
Sadly, we could only get three nights, and so we returned to Tucson, this time to check out Voyager RV Resort and Hotel. This was the first place that we were excited about staying longer, and are looking to stay at least a month in 2024. They have a very active pickelball community, a lot of great classes to take, a golf course on site, and a massive hot tub. We also took advantage of the many bike trails in the area, played another round of golf with my high school friend, and visited one more brewery, Firetruck Brewing.
We headed east across New Mexico, into southern Texas, stopping in Van Horne for a night. There was not much there but we did take a short walk and enjoyed a drink, shared a snack and a delightful conversation with a local at the historic Hotel El Captain. The next day we parked at Tim's sister's place in west central Texas for a few days' rest, some laundry, and to winterize the RV before heading north.
We made just two stops on the way back, in Wichita, KS and Ames, IA, both requiring hotel stays. We like to revisit places we've stayed and feel confident in not only the hotel, but room to safely park the RV as well as a place to grab a bite to eat. In Wichita that was not a problem, however for the location we stayed at in Ames the dining options were limited. We felt lucky that we were able to get an Uber to The Mucky Duck Pub, a funky dining place with a British twist. However, our luck ran out as there were no Ubers for our return, and we ended up walking about three miles back to the hotel in breezy conditions. Lesson learned. Maybe the Dairy Queen down the road would have been good enough. Nah.
Find out what other lessons we learned in our Winter 2023 Wrap Up post.
Have you wintered in the Tucson or Phoenix areas? Leave your comments below! Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
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