As promised, here is a short video of our campsite at Alamo Lake State Park, AZ

Hit the arrow to play...

We had a coyote right outside the bedroom window in our camper...I grabbed the phone and got a short recording!...turned it into a video...Listen below!

Hit the arrow to play...

Tomorrow we will break camp here and head to White Tank Mountain Regional Park in the mountains west of Phoenix..a short hop of about 123 miles.  Weather is expected to be sunny and warmer...highs near 70.  We will take the route onto I-10...sometimes it can be very busy!

Will report from White Tank soon!

We have been here at Alamo Lake State Park, AZ since December 26th.  The weather has been quite chilly (for AZ!) with daytime highs in the 50s to low 60s and some overnight lows into the 30s.  Most of our days here have been partly cloudy with wind under 10.

(Click photos for a larger view)  

(Click colored links for more info)

View out our back window

Alamo Lake State Park is way out in the middle of the AZ outback...internet connection here is very poor, even with our WEBOOST. But using it we went from nothing to being able to stream Netflix!

WEBOOST Antenna

There are some fearsome bugs here...The Tarantula Hawk Wasp...a spider wasp  that preys on tarantula spiders. They are one of the largest parasitic wasps, using their sting to paralyze their prey before dragging it to a brood nest as living food; a single egg is laid on the prey, hatching to a larva which eats the still-living prey.

Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the sting is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes. One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream".  This one is a big female (I read you can tell by the curled antenna, I wasn't going to pick it up and check!)..nearly 2 inches long.  Only the females can sting...but why mess with them and take a chance?!?!?

The Palo Verde tree next to our campsite was attractive to them for some reason.  Counted 9 on it at one time.  They didn't bother us but it's still un-nerving when they fly close by you on their way to look for a spider!

The peak in the photo below is Artillery Peak.  The whole area in the photo is the weathered remains of an ancient shield volcano.  The peak is what's left of the original lava conduit.  The contours of the original volcano are marked by the red lines.  Over the eons erosion by wind and rain has reduced it to what we see today.  The peak is the solidified "plug" of the lava conduit....Click the photo... 

The area around artillery peak has vast resources of manganese, one of the largest deposits in the country.  Also found in this area are good deposits of uranium and also some gold.

Tomorrow we will be shooting some Drone videos....Watch for them soon!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

We arrived here at Alamo Lake State Park, AZ on December 26th.  The weather has been quite chilly (for AZ) with daytime highs in the 50s to low 60s and some overnight lows into the 30s.  Most days have been overcast with periods of sunshine ...winds under 10.

Internet connection is very poor here, even with our WEBOOST...It took almost 5 minutes to upload this post with just the one photo above.  Without the WEBOOST we would have no connectivity all.

Tomorrow we will be moving on to White Tank Mountain Park, AZ...in the mountains just west of Phoenix.  About 123 miles.  Beautiful place...at night you can look down over the city lights of Phoenix and during the day the F-35 Lightning fighter jets are coming and going to Luke AFB nearby.  For a real show we drive down and park at the end of the runway and the departing jets come right over us with full afterburner...What a rush!

Anyway once we arrive and get set up we will have fast internet again.  We have video, audio and photos of our time here at Alamo Lake and we will post those!

                       HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here's hoping your Christmas was a great one!

Tomorrow morning we leave the Kofa KO-OP Escapee Park outside of Yuma, AZ and head to Alamo Lake State Park, AZ. The distance is 162 miles...  

Heavy rain is expected after about 11 AM tomorrow, so we will try to get going early and miss it.  There are some crossings that may flood on the way from Wenden, AZ to the lake and we don't want to do any water crossings!

Alamo Lake State Park is way out in the middle of the AZ outback...Not too sure if we will have any internet access out there.  It was very spotty out there last year, but we have improved equipment so it just may work!

Tuesday, Dec 24, Christmas Eve!...  Another nice day today! 

This evening there were luminaries set up throughout the park!  Most of the folks walked around all of the roads in the park singing Christmas Carols...A nice guy had a table in the walkway, serving Bailies Irish Cream....dangerously tasty!

After they served cookies and hot chocolate in the clubhouse...everyone is so warm and welcoming here!  We could easily live here!

Later we went home...It was so warm we were able to recline outside for awhile.

Wishing you all a Wonderful Christmas!  <<<<Click!