Lyman Lake SP, AZ - May 2006

Well, I learned a new lesson on our drive to Lyman Lake State Park -- if one has their heart set on camping in the pine forested mountains, one SHOULD NOT drive through a pine forest before arriving at a campground that is set in the high desert.

Gee -- I really had it in my mind that we were going to be camped in the pines since Lyman Lake is at an elevation of 6,000'. When we arrived, I was sorely disappointed to find a dry, dusty campground with hardly a tree, not much in the way of greenery and a lake that was so pathetically low that it was hardly visible from the campground. You can see how low the water level was from this sign that was posted by the swimming area. It says that fishing is not allowed, boating is not allowed and apparently now -- swimming is also out of the question.

Our drive to Lyman Lake took us through some very pretty pine forests and we crested a high pass at Alpine, AZ at an elevation of 8,600'. Driving through the White Mountains, we went up and down and up and down in elevation -- mostly staying in the pines, but once we crossed over the summit at Alpine, we dropped down into a high desert of a valley and the trees disappeared and we were left with sagebrush, rocks and sand......sigh. At least the park had a few trees sprinkled around for a little bit of greenery.

Ok, enough negative stuff -- now I gotta find something nice to say about this park. Well, for one -- right across the road from our campsite was a good-sized, flowering Black Locust tree. It was in full-bloom and was loaded with the sweetest vanilla bean scented blossoms. It was a gorgeous tree and it's heavenly aroma wafted into our RV at night and it was delightful.

Let's see what else.....well, the staff and volunteers at the park were as nice as can be. Ranger Sue stopped by one day during her lunch break and brought her dog Oscar so he could play with Rudy and Scotty. Twice while we were there, we let all three dogs play in the only patch of grass -- right by the office. They loved it and had great fun chasing each other and leaving their pee-mail notes on the bushes for all the other dogs in the park.

Another thing -- the weather was pretty darn nice -- warm, sunny days with deep blue skies, cool nights where keeping the windows open meant putting a blanket on the bed and best of all -- almost zero humidity. We sat outside every day on the very nice, shaded, cement patios and enjoyed a delightful breeze.

OK, here's another plus -- there were several hiking trails including one that went up to the top of a hill and gave us a great view out over the lake. It also had some interesting petroglyphs. The trails were in excellent condition and had some pretty amazing construction. They had a sandy base and were clearly lined with rocks and the best part was that all of the numerous up/down steps were made from individual rocks that were cut and set into place -- that made climbing to the top of this bluff fairly easy.

After spending a few days there, I had a new appreciation for the park -- it actually was a pretty nice campground -- for a desert setting. It had roomy sites (most with views of the water -- or they would have if the lake was full), full hookups (including sewer at some sites), attractive shelters that provided shade over the picnic tables and nice landscaping that will be even better in a few more years. The facilities were new and very clean. So, that said, I still want to go find a mountain campground with a nice spot in the pine trees!

One day we took a drive around the White Mountains and checked out 5 different campgrounds (most of them National Forest types.)This was Hawley Lake and at around 8,200' elevation, it was the highest lake in the region. It's on a Navajo Reservation and you have to get permission to camp there as well as pay a fee. It was by far the prettiest of all the lakes we looked at in the area because it still had lots of water in it and the trees and grass were green. All the other lakes were extremely low and all the grass around them was brown -- even the aspen trees looked dead. Unfortunately, the campground here was not that great -- somewhat run down, deeply rutted dirt roads that made it nearly impossible to get down to the campsites by the lake. We did however, enjoy our stop here to stretch our legs and look at the lovely scenery.