Alpine, Arizona

When we were traveling full-time in the RV, we often found ourselves gravitating towards mountains.  We were very comfortable visiting Colorado, Wyoming, Montana.  Always seemed the higher the mountains, the better our stay. Now our horizons have expanded by visiting Alpine.

The mountains call us - east of Safford, AZ

Twisty curves going into New Mexico

Being fall, the pull of the mountains was great so we planned a little trip to Alpine, Arizona which is 4 miles from the border of New Mexico, in the upper northeast corner of the state.  Elevation was 8000 feet plus at times.  But, oh what  wonderful place!  On our drive home (was just 260 miles away or 5 hours) we said that with Alpine so close, we don't need to gravitate back to Colorado which we were doing the past couple of years.  Now, visit Alpine, get our fix and then plan other kinds of vacations.

Lunch spot - 1 mile from New Mexico

Welcome to Alpine, AZ

Our morning visitors

Big Daddy sniffing the girls

We rented an Airbnb cabin, fully equipped, 2 bedrooms but could sleep 9 people if need, just outside town.  Beautiful weather, we left Tucson in 100 degrees and when we checked in it was 65.  At night it got chilly, for us. to 42.  The colors of the aspen trees just turning gold, the Arizona oaks and the cottonwoods lining the rivers we visited.Tall evergreen trees, pines, but lots of burned stumps and tree skeletons from the Wallo Fire of 2011 which is still the largest wildfire in Arizona history, burning more than 522,000 acres. Eight neighboring communities were evacuated and the regrowth from the fire is slow.  Such a shame.  It started by a campfire that was mis-managed, the 2 men were found guilty and had to pay over $109 million in damage.  We had experienced the burns from our visit to Greer 2 years ago and also visiting Big Lake where we saw some of the burn-out.

She was staring in thru the window at us

Passed these 2, later saw them come to campground

Burned marks from fire, Aspens growing below

Friday morning started before sunrise with elk grazing right in front of us.  I had heard something moving outside the cabin about 2am and woke Dave up and we turned on the outside lights and elk were right by the door, grazing.  They eventually moved away.  But pretty awesome to see. More than 50 elk - we just couldn't keep up with counting.  Bugling, the huge male snorting after the females who ran away from him.  I looked out the back window and 2 elk were standing near the window looking in at us. Peeping Sallies (female).

Lunch spot - so peaceful

Squirrel bugged us - feed me!

Been a long time since I have seen a wooly bear!

We stopped by the Forest Ranger's office Friday morning to get info on where to see and how to get to the East Fork of the Black River, and to the West Fork.  We chose the East Fork for that day.  Oh, so pretty.  Found the river, sat and had lunch by it, and traveled along the dirt road and drifted to Big Lake, a 20 minute ride north.  During the ride we came across big horn sheep grazing along the road.  A truck was stopped and as they went by the man said he lives near 'here and I've never seen so many big horns in one area!' Huh.

Big Horn Sheep

He would not move - stubborn

On or way out of canyon to Big Lake

Short visit to Big Lake, will come back next day

Saturday started the same with seeing elk grazing in the meadow in front of us.  Headed out to visit the West Fork of the Black River, and saw really burned out land - after 13 years still has not regrown.  Eventually we dropped down into the canyon and was about to give up when we saw a man with a fly fishing rod - and said - there's the river, how do we get to it.  About 1/2 mile further we found a nice spot to stop by the river.  And a few minutes later a young woman with 2 small children on an ATV stopped.  I first thought they were going to tell us we were trespassing, but she was bringing the kids to wade in the water.  They were camping not far from where we turned around - the road was getting pretty rough.  We could see the campground but thought, oh well.  She told us that in 2 weeks the area is shut down.  Timing!

More wooly bears

Lunch spot Saturday

Lady and her 2 small children 

Adorable

Crawfish skeleton - reminds me of my youth, catching these

Lunch spot - had 4 ATVers lunching near by

The Goat resting, very dirty

We then spent time at Big Lake, we briefly stopped there the day before, but decided to end the day there, watching folks fish and the boaters/kayakers moving on the water.  

Evidence of trying to get pine trees to grow (protectors)

Fire tower

Big Lake

That night we could hear the elk calling, could see them in the distance, but they did not come close to the cabin.  And in the morning, they were not to be seen. How lucky we saw them the first 2 nights and mornings.  Drive home was relaxing, we said we now can get a quick fix of the mountains which will now open us up to going back to the Pacific Northwest next summer.