Buckeye, AZ

We stopped in Buckeye on our way to Yuma, only spending 3 nights here.  Before we arrived, we had four different couples that had arranged to meet with us, so no time to meet with many others we would have liked to see.  Each time we are in the area, we try to meet with a few that we haven't seen for awhile.

Tuesday night we met with our good friends, Cheryl and Les, Cheryl being a previous neighbor in the Puyallup area.

On Wednesday, were met Dick and Helen, work friends for lunch in old downtown Scottsdale, then mid afternoon we met with one of my CA&P SM coworkers, Peter and Blenda who just retired and moved back into the Phoenix area.  At 6:00, we met Kim and Pat for dinner.  Kim and I worked together back in the Data Processing days in Salem and we had not seen each other for about 17 years, so it was great to catch up with Kim and Pat at the Wild Horse Pass Casino.

Kim and Pat recommended that we go and see the lights in Mesa at the Mormon Temple, so on our way home, we drove by there and it was definitely worth our time - the grounds were beautiful.  These pictures don't do the lights and color justice, but may give you a little hint of what it looked like.

We then spent a quiet New Years Eve in the RV park, and left on New Years Day for Yuma, where we will spend the month of January.

Cottonwood, Arizona

We traveled from Willow Beach to Cottonwood to our membership Thousand Trails park between Camp Verde and Cottonwood.  As we were driving we both were glad that we waited two extra days as there was snow from Kingman until we got about 40 miles south of Flagstaff.  All on the side of the roads, but we could see where they had plowed the roads.   Arizona got very creative with their Highway Dept. Reader Boards - "Trust the Force, But Always Buckle Up".

Once we got to Cottonwood, we still had a couple of cold nights, about 23 degrees at the coldest, but the days were bright and sunny and ranged about 50 - 65 degrees, but we had some beautiful sunsets.

First day there we saw 4 Javelina's walking through the camp.  We later spotted deer in the park.

We also got our first "real" haircuts since mid-August.  I did cut Craig's hair once with clippers on our trip and it didn't turn out too bad, but he didn't hesitate at all getting his hair done by a professional!

We enjoyed our sightseeing outings to the wineries in the area.  There are so many, but we went to those we hadn't visited on our last trip through the area, except for two of our favorites.  We really like Burning Tree in old historic downtown Cottonwood and Alcantera, which is located right outside of the Thousand Trails park.

Alcantara

We also visited three additional ones:  AZ Stronghold Vineyards, Javelina Leap and Oak Creek.

We spent one day in Prescott, visiting the downtown area to include Whiskey Row.  The town has some of the best preserved examples of 19th century American architecture in the Southwest.  The town was founded in 1864 in an effort to secure the area's mineral riches for the Union forces during the Civil War.

Besides some of the old buildings, they had multiple murals.  This one is by the library, and is called "Beyond Words" which is a journey of thought, portraying 6000 years of world knowledge.  Besides the murals, the town had two different world timelines that were quite interesting.

Capitol building in the background.  

Palace Hotel 

Famous Bird Cage Saloon on Whiskey Row

Jersey Lilly Saloon, another famous spot.

We attended various Christmas celebrations in the park with other members;  Christmas Caroling, Candlelight Christmas Eve Service and social and a Christmas potluck on Christmas Day with entertainment and lots of food for the 60+ attendees.

We took one day and drove out to the Montezuma Castle Natl. Monument and the Montezuma Wells.   The Castle dates back around 1100-1300 and stands in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley.  It is 5 stories with about 45 rooms.

The well is a natural limestone sinkhole, fed by springs, with small dwellings build into the sides around the well that range from one-room houses to large pueblos.  Between 1125 and 1400 about 100-150 people lived here.

We also drove by the worlds largest Kokopelli.  According to Wikipedia: Kokopelli is a fertility deity, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who has been venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. Like most fertility deities, Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture. He is also a trickster god and represents the spirit of music.               

Worlds' Largest Kokopelli

After 12 days, we drove into Buckeye which is SW of Phoenix on Dec. 28.

Willow Beach, AZ

On Tuesday we arrived at the Willow Beach Marina & RV Park.  We are on the Colorado River about 20 miles south of the Hoover Dam.  The RV park is up on the hill and has 29 sites.  Even though there is no grass around, we have really enjoyed the view around us.  We were going to stay one week and then move onto Williams, AZ but the weather in Williams was getting really cold at night, so we decided to stay here for two weeks and then drive onto Cottonwood, AZ.  We do have WiFi through the park's satellite system but no phone service or WiFi service of our own.

A cold front came in on Monday, the day before we planned to leave and dumped snow in Kingman, Williams and Flagstaff so we delayed our stay by two more days and left on Dec. 17.

We so enjoyed the wildlife around the park.  We had to fill our Hummingbird feeder every day or so as we had so many at the feeder.  Also, we had about 50-60 birds around our site using the bird bath, bird feeder and water fountain.  We had quail visiting every day and in the morning we even had a coyote in the site.  Most of the time we could only hear them or see them in the hills.

On Thursday, we went and took the Hoover Dam tour:

To stay here in the park for two weeks, we had to move to another site for the second week so our view is a little different.

Valley of Fire State Park:

Railroad Historic Trail, just named a Historic Trail in 2015 with beautiful views of Lake Mead and five different tunnels on the 2 1/2 mile trail (one way) that we walked:

In 1931 30 miles of railroad was built from Boulder City to Hoover Dam to help support the building of the dam.  The railway was used sporadically used until 1961.  The tunnels and trail were nominated in 1984 to be on the National Register of Historic Places.  Two of the tunnels had been burned, but restored.  The tunnels are 25 feet in diameter.

Kayaking on the Colorado River.  The first day we went north towards Hoover Dam and then the next day we went south.

Duck leading the way down the river.  

We enjoyed the camp host, and people camping around us.  We loved the warm sun in the afternoons, but this place does get a little wind and one night we had to put the satellite down and pull in two slides as we were getting 55 - 60 mph gusts.