Labor Day 2008 Camping Trip

Labor Day weekend in Arizona can be pretty crazy since there are thousands of motorists fleeing to the cooler parts of the state. My family and I camped just a few feet below a small little town outside of Payson, Arizona called Whispering Pines. Not sure of the population, but I can say it is pretty secluded little place. For the most part the weather was beautiful but other moments of the day we fled for shelter from the rain. It was a muddy weekend. One exciting part of the trip was early Saturday morning maybe around 5 am, what I knew was an elk call while others had no clue what that noise was but knew that it was so loud it woke almost everyone up at camp. I jumped up and put my shoes on and walked down the road a bit and looked up on the mountain ridge and saw about 5 cows (female Elk) and one Bull (male elk). What a big rack he had. I am not sure if it was a just a good morning for my new friend or he was just happy to be around all them girls. None the less, what a great site to see. For the rest of the time we were there, we did not hear or see any other animals except birds. That may be because so many other campers came in on Saturday and it was pretty noisy by then. For the rest of the time on Saturday, we just kicked it around camp and then on Sunday we drove to Railroad Tunnel Tr. and Colonel Devin Trail. The Railroad Tunnel Tr. is a hike we plan on going to tomorrow. I will post some pictures when I return. On Monday on the way out to head home, we stopped at some old Indian Ruins called Shoofly Village Ruins in Tonto National Forest. Not a whole lot to see since the ruins are pretty much broken down and only ground rocks exists where there were once massive dwellings. If anyone is interested in learning more about anything on this post let me know and I will make sure and post it for you.