Green Camp - Camp Verde

Nov 6 - 13/16   Sunny Weather in Camp Verde - 82, 82, 81, 78, 77, 76, 78 Nights 54, 54, 52, 52, 51, 52, 53.  Cannot ask for better weather at over 3,100 feet and November.    We motored south from Page past Flagstaff and dropped into the Verde Valley.  Four years ago we stopped here in the spring and had a snow storm one night.   We remember!  Forecast looks better this time, and everything does look green in the distance.  Verde in spanish means green.  For the week we are camped out at a very nice RV Park called Distant Drums.  The RV park has especially nice sites around the edges that are pull in's for motorhomes.   That way you get the view out your front window! On our way for a ride we stopped in historic downtown Camp Verde at a collectors antique store and tack shop. 

Cowboy Corners - everything you need to get on a horse

Camp Verde has some history to it.  In the mid 1800's the newly moved in Anglo settlers, miners, farmers were at war with the already established Tonto - Apache and Yavapai Indians.  The military was called in to keep the order and a Fort was built here; and to the east in Fort Apache and to the west in Prescott.  Infantry troops built a wagon road connecting the three forts so supplies could move between them along the Mogollon Rim.  Mogollon is pronounced "muggy-own".    (I know... no matter how I sound it out I don't see how it is muggy-own).  But there you have it.
We decided to ride out along much of the now paved wagon trail that takes you through the Rim Country.  Almost to the town of Payson we came across Tonto Natural Bridge.  It is known to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world.....  Wow sounds like something we should go see.   Good thing we are on the motorcycle as there is a 14% grade down into the valley to enter into the park area.  The bridge can be seen from four viewpoints and you can hike to the bottom and walk under it.  The rocky bridge is 183 feet high, 400 feet long and 150 feet at its widest point.  Story has it that a prospector stumbled upon the bridge in 1877 while being chased by the Apaches.  He hid in the tunnel for 3 days.  After he was safe he laid squatters rights to the land and built a lodge and brought his family from Scotland to live here.  What a shock the landscape must have been for them!

Tonto State Park Natural Bridge

In Payson we grabbed some lunch at the airport diner...  Crosswinds!  While having lunch you can watch the small planes come and go and the view of the Rim Country is right at your table side.