October 7-13, 2012 - Overgaard, AZ



We left Chama Sunday morning and drove all day across northern New Mexico and into Arizona.  We are staying at the White Mountain RV Resort which is in the White Mountains between Show Low and Overgaard, AZ.  There are a lot of elk in the area and we have enjoyed hearing them bugle every night.   The elk have even been in the park at night as we have found their tracks when we walk the dogs.  We are in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest where in 2002 the Rodeo-Chediski fire burned a very large area (our campground host told us he though it burned 2 million acres).  Consequently, the area all around the campground has very few large trees and many areas where there are no trees.  We are at an elevation of 6500 feet so the days are cool and the evenings are quite chilly.


We mostly relaxed the week we spent here but we did take a couple of scenic drives.  One day we did a circle drive from Show Low to Springerville where we circled southeast to Greer, Pinetop and Lakeside before returning to Show Low. We also passed Sunrise Park Resort, one of Arizona’s two ski areas.   The drive was beautiful and the trees around Greer were in full fall color.  

Another day we drove the Rim Road which follows the Mogollon Rim (pronounced “muggy-own”).  The Mogollon Rim is the southern end of the Colorado Plateau and forms a 200 mile long boundary between the high country and the desert with 2,000 ft high rock facings.  The Rim Road is 120 miles long but because we did a couple of side trips, we only traveled about 30 miles of it.



We stopped at several overlooks where the views were breathtaking.  We also hiked on the Rim Trail but didn’t hike far as Rex’s ankle is still sore.  Nancy did not get too close to the edge with as it is 2,000 ft to the bottom!








We took a 4-wheel drive side road that took us to more beautiful overlooks from the rim.  We ate our picnic lunch in this beautiful spot where you can see more of the rim in the distance.







We took another side road to Knoll Lake, a beautiful small mountain lake.  We think we will come back here another year and kayak this lake.


This is a beautiful area and we have enjoyed our stay.  We know we will come back to this area again to do more exploring.








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