Monday, January 9, 2012 (McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Fountain Hills, AZ)

Today is our last day here at McDowell Mountain...we are moving to Usery Mountain Regional Park in east Mesa tomorrow...so we are not going far; probably about a 45 minute drive.  We had wanted to check out Saguaro Lake since arriving in this area...it is further north on highway 87 past Fort McDowell (Eagle View RV Resort/Casino)...so we thought we would do that today before we headed further south to Mesa tomorrow.

We headed out just before 11:00 and after putting Serena (our GPS) into car-mode (it’s a trucker’s GPS), she found a shorter route through Fountain Hills over to highway 87.  After going about 8 miles north on highway 87, we turned off and headed east to Saguaro del Norte Recreation Site...a further 4 miles.  Saguaro Lake is a reservoir created by the construction of the Stewart Mountain Dam...it`s very scenic as you drive down to lake....

The recreation area is in the Tonto National Forest and being a national park, there are fees to park...not enter, only to park.  You must have a parking pass...and would you believe, they don’t sell them there!  Parking Passes are available “in town”...okay...what “town” are we talking about?  Fountain Hills? Mesa? Apache Junction?   Sheesh!!  We had packed a lunch and thought it would be nice to offload the boat and take it out for a spin...so much for that idea.

We stopped at one of the fishing piers and got out to walk down and take some pictures....

At the end of the parking lot, we decided to park the truck and take our lunch to one of the lake front picnic tables (we wouldn’t be long and besides there weren’t that many people around). 

The exit took us up the hillside to more parking...this must be a pretty busy place in the summer.  We stopped and Steve took more pictures...

This picture has the dam in the background...

We stopped at Safeway in Fountain Hills on our way home to pick up some groceries...gee, I should have gone to the pharmacist and shown him the nice bruise on my arm!  Once home, I put the groceries away while Steve started packing things outside in preparation for leaving tomorrow morning.  We were concerned that we might have trouble hitching up the trailer to the truck due to the incline so as soon as I finished putting the groceries away we decided to give it a try.  We had no problem...so we are good to go in the morning.

We still had a little firewood left so as the sun got lower in the sky and it cooled off, Steve got a campfire going. 

Last night when Steve was talking to his sister on the phone we had an awesome moonrise over the mountains, so tonight he wanted to set up his camera on the tripod for a telephoto shot.  Well unfortunately we didn’t have a repeat performance.

While we were sitting by the fire, a couple stopped by asking us about the truck.  Joan and Graham are from Comox, BC (on Vancouver Island)...and usually spend anywhere from two to four months down here every winter.  We invited them to join us for a beer around the fire and we enjoyed a nice chat with them...until the fire died down and it got very chilly.  After handshakes and bids for safe travels, they were on their way and we headed inside.

We have an appointment to take the trailer back into RV Traders tomorrow morning at 10:00 on our way to Usery Mountain Regional Park.  The day we set up here the hot water tank started  to make strange noises (sounds like an electric kettle heating up in the wall) when on electric so we thought we had better get that checked out...always something...sheesh!  Might as well also get them to install the fireplace light socket since Steve never got around to doing himself.  He was going to do it so that we wouldn’t have to hall the rig back when the backordered parts came in.