Rex and Nancy's Travels - "ALL WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST" - JRR Tolkein

Monday morning we headed west about 80 miles to Payson, Arizona – a beautiful drive coming down off the Mogollon Rim.   We are staying a few miles south of Payson at the Oxbow Estates RV Park.   It is a nice little park except the sites are very close together.   Luckily there are just a few people here so we don’t have anyone directly on either side of us.   After lunch we drove into Payson to look around and stop at the Visitor Center. Tuesday we packed a lunch and the dogs and took a drive on the Rim Road. This is a section of General Crook Trail, a 250 mile long route that once linked the White Mountains with Camp Verde in the Verde Valley and Fort Whipple near Prescott. Forest Road 300 runs along 70 miles of the route while hugging the edge of the Mogollon Rim.    The Mogollon Rim is 200 miles long and has 1000 ft cliffs – it is where the mountains meet the plains.   The views from the rim are spectacular but, unfortunately...

We had planned on staying another day and hiking in Chaco Canyon but it rained some overnight and in the morning we could see a very large storm coming our way. We did not want to get stuck in this pasture so we hurriedly got things packed up and ready to leave.   We were on the highway only about 5 minutes when the rain hit and it rained on and off for a couple of hours.   We are so glad that we left when we did or we may have been stuck in that pasture for a couple of days.   We are disappointed that we did not get to finish touring all of Chaco Canyon but we will definitely come back.   We drove to Overgaard, Arizona and are staying about 8 miles outside of town in White Mountain Park-Sunrise Resorts.   We plan to stay here for a few days and relax and enjoy the White Mountains.   We have been serenaded to sleep every night by the coyotes and see evidence of elk on our daily dog walks around the resort. The resort is clo...