Just another night in Arizona.

While not a travel photo (unless you count me walking from my living room to my driveway traveling), it was a damn pretty Arizona sunset this evening and photo worthy.

--Rob

Thought the moon looked pretty. I was on my way to taking Diane out to her birthday dinner with camera in hand.

--Rob

Silence at the springs

I enjoy traveling with my family so much that sometimes I forget how much I also love traveling alone. It’s such a decadent treat.

Lately I’ve been craving silence and solitude in a huge way. The way I craved liverwurst when I was pregnant. (I know, right?) So I hopped into my car and headed up into the Tonto National Forest near the Mogollon Rim. In an hour and a half, I can go from beige desert spiked with saguaro cacti to lush pine forests.

Rim country is amazing. The Mogollon (pronounced “mo-guh-yon”) Rim is an escarpment (a big word for a big cliff) that stretches across the state of Arizona. The land at the bottom of the rim is about 4,000-5,000 feet, and it rises in an instant to about 7,000 feet. It’s an understatement to say that the views of the Rim and from the Rim are spectacular.


There is a hike just outside of Payson called Horton Springs Trail. At the top of the trail (about 3.5 miles with a 1,000-foot climb) there is a spring that feeds Horton Creek. I have hiked along this trail many times, but never, over the course of about 16 years, reached the springs. This was due to various reasons—weather, young child in tow, whatever. I decided that this weekend I would finish the hike already and see the springs.

Take a hike with me...

Christopher Creek

I spent the first two weeks of August every year for 15 years looking at this creek just off the football field of Camp Tontozona. The team no longer goes there but there were some nice views to be had.

--Rob

Important travel lesson learned the hard way #1: Do your research

When I was a carefree young graduate student, the thought of planning a trip in advance seemed ridiculously square. It went against the whole free-spirited aura I was trying to cultivate. As a result, I had lots of bad travel experiences. On the upside, bad travel experiences make for good stories. So sit back and let me squeeze you a bit of lemonade from the lemons life has handed me.

My husband, Rob, used to travel to Payson, Arizona for 10 days every August for work. Most years I would drive up there for a weekend and get a hotel room nearby. I would spend the days hiking the utterly gorgeous Mogollon Rim country, and spend the evenings hanging out with my sweetie.

One year, way back when I was in grad school, I invited my friend Kris to accompany me on this journey. We made the hour-and-a-half drive up from Tempe, spent the afternoon hiking, and met up with Rob when he was finished with work. We all drove into town, figuring we’d just pop in to one of the many motels along Payson’s main drag and get a room for the night.

Wrong.