After a nearly 10 year sabbatical I decided I wanted to go camping again. There’s a big ‘ol long story about how I’m finding my authenticity and all that jazz so if you want to hear that story comment below.
But I bought some new camping gear and headed out Earth Day Weekend 2022 to the Upper Tonto Creek campground. I found it earlier in the month when I tried hiking Horton Springs. Here’s the first mistake I made.
The area up on the Mogollon Rim is beautiful and staring to become one of my favorite destinations. Have you been camping on the Mogollon Rim? If so, where do you go?
My first mistake was I didn’t research the weather ON the rim, just down in Payson so I was met with an unexpected storm that had me shivering and not sleeping the whole first night.
But it gets busy at the developed campgrounds and my second mistake was going camping on a Friday without reservations. This was the last open spot at this campground so I was stuck between two noisy camps that both had crying babies/toddlers.
Overall it was a beautiful experience and I was glad to be out in nature, listening to the wind in the trees. I even saw some Stellar Jays and took two short hikes on two really cool trails.
Outside of all that natural beauty, iit was DEFINITElY a learning experience. Taking a little more time to do a detailed weather search, especially around the specific area I’m camping and researching the location and proximity to other camps around me are two mistakes I’ll be avoiding in the future. Tell me, what’s something camping taught you recently?