RV Trips South : Fountain Hills, Arizona McDowell Mountain Park

Days 21-28, Saturday to Monday, February 11-19, McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Fountain Hills, AZ

When we reserved this site #36 last August, it was the last site available! All these campsites are nice spots in the desert! Kate and Bob were here for a couple of nights, and Kate and Linda went on a hike on a trail out of the campground.

Our campsite at McDowell Mountain

Is the Raven warning us about the storm?

View toward Fountain Hills

Kate with McDowell Mountain in the background.

Linda and McDowell Mountain, with a Compass Barrel cactus leaning toward the southwest.

Ellie and Dave also arrived, and the ladies went down to Fountain Hills and had lunch at the pub near Fountain Park, enjoying the fountain that goes off every hour for 15 minutes (unless there is too much wind.)

The ladies enjoying a great chicken quesadilla!

The fountain at Fountain Hills Park

McDowell Mountain sunset

Jim likes the mountain biking here, covered every trail in the park during the time we were here! Linda came down with a cold, took it easy for a couple of days in the middle of the week to get well. Linda mainly rides on the paved road down to the end of the park, then back up the hill.

Jim and Dave went mountain biking. Linda and Ellie went walking on the North Trail, a nature trail with many of the plants identified. Every year I come down to Arizona I do learn a few more of the flowers, bushes, trees, and cactus, also birds!

Packrat nests on the North Trail

Wild Cucumber, green with this rainy winter!

A wild and crazy saguaro

Ellie, meditating on the view.

Another McDowell sunset

Dave and Ellie are using Jim’s old motor home, the Ambassador, and it felt like old home week to have dinner with them in the Ambassador!

Ellie looks pleased with her entertaining comments!

Delicious meal with pork loin, asparagus, green beans

We took the kayaks up to Saguaro Lake and had some nice water, great weather. Jim got a great picture of an eagle!! When he emailed it to his daughter Julie, she asked him what website he had found it on! On the way back we drove along the Salt River, as we planned to spend the next weekend at a BLM spot there. Lucky we checked it out, as they no longer allow overnight camping at this spot.

Natural bridge

Tourist paddleboat on Saguaro Lake

Jim paddling up the lake. Notice monkey head rock formation!

Hooded merganser and Goldeye!

Light through the grasses.

Jim's great eagle picture

We rode our bikes on some of the mountain trails at the park, rode to the site of the old Pemberton Ranch and saw the Pemberton Pond. The trail was not too bad – Linda walked through some of the sandy washes.

Jim at Pemberton Pond

We ended up spending Friday and Saturday nights in the overflow area at McDowell, in a rainstorm. The camping area kind of looked like a wash, but we were OK, did not get flooded. Linda walked up the hill near the campsite to get a shot of the overflow area. No hookups, but Jim has solar panels on the roof and we have all the comforts of home, pretty much. (No air conditioning, electric heater, or microwave oven, but it is easy to live without those!) We have a gas oven in the Bounder, so I made some oatmeal, craisin, chocolate chip cookies!