Camping at Big Lake

[kurthzone]

On Thursday the 22nd of May 2003, my daughters (Briana, Candice, Sarah and Emily) and I loaded up the Buick and headed out of the Valley of the Sun up to the cool temperatures at Big Lake, located in a valley below Mt. Baldy. Mt Baldy is the second highest mountain in Arizona. Baldy and the area around it just happens to be my favorite area in the State, or maybe the world for that matter. My parents used to take me there when I was quite young and I've been going to the area ever since. It's certainly not the vegetation type, terrain and climate folks associate with Arizona. I don't do a lot of car camping, but wanted to do something that all of the girls would enjoy to some degree. I think they had a good time. Temperatures ranged from low forties to mid seventies and Sunday morning we got hit with a noisy early morning thunderstorm, which woke us up around 4 and kind of scared the girls. We saw three mule deer and a coyote that looked more like a wolf (very thick coat and well fed). On Saturday Candice and I did a 13 miler up the West Baldy Trail #94 and back. That trip log to follow. Here are some photos of our car camping adventure:

http://www.extremezone.com/~kurth/BigLakeCamping/
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;o)>

[evenstar]

Glad you had a good time; looks like you were also bug free you lucky dog!
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John Richardson and Richie Rich, El Perro de Playero
http://members.tripod.com/~evenstar/index.html
http://www.arizonahikers.com
When the Man waked up he said, "What is Wild Dog doing here?" And the Woman said, "His name is not Wild Dog anymore, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always. Take him with you when you go hunting."
--Rudyard Kipling, from Just So Stories, 1902

[kurthzone]