Last year we, along with Ben and Marie and boys, and Crystal and Evan and their girls, all applied for Christmas tree permits. We went to Payson and cut down some decent trees. Well, ok they were a little Charlie Brownish, but it was a good time. So we applied again this year for tags and the Hales joined us again to go Christmas tree hunting.
This year we drew out of Prescott National Forest. It is about a 2 hour drive, or less, from home. We headed out early Saturday morning after a quick breakfast at Sonic. The U.S. Forest Service was nice enough to give us this great detailed map. Actually I have seen 3 yr olds draw better maps than these guys do. But none the less I was an Eagle scout who had earned his Merritt badge in compasses and map reading, so I thought no problem.
By noon we had covered a couple miles on dirt roads, but saw only Arizona cacti. No pines to be found. After a stop for lunch we headed out to the "recommended cutting area" on our map. Mind you there really is no way to tell where the heck you are by this map. After 3 hours of driving all we had spotted was a few antelope and some pinon trees. Another hour drive took us over to Jerome, an old mining town on the edge of a mountain. On the way back to Prescott, we stopped in an area called potato patch which yielded only a few great photos.
After a long day with no luck we headed back to Prescott to check into the hotel and get some dinner. Sunday we went out again to look for trees. We traveled through the Lynx Lake area and Prescott National Forest which was beautiful. The leaves were finishing changing colors and the weather was just right.
After 2 hours on dirt roads and lots of short off road hikes, we finally found a couple of beautiful trees. By the time we had found them we were 20 miles out of Prescott. We hoped we could continue on the dirt road we were on and it would take us to a town that would lead to paved roads. After another hour of driving we met up with some guys on ATVs. We stopped them and asked if we were close to a town or if we should turn back. They told us we were about half way to a town called Crown King. They said it had a restaurant, bar and store there. They also told us we could get to a main highway from there. We decided that since we had come this far we might as well continue and check out Crown King. Another hour and a half on dirt roads with a top speed of 20 MPH and this is what we found:
Crown King Arizona, population 165. That is the general store in the back ground. They do have a restaurant, but it is only open until 4pm on Sundays. So we settled for hot dogs and chips from the store. The lady behind the counter told us they have about 300 homes there and 9 kids in their school. She also informed us we had about another hour on dirt roads before getting to pavement. Not something any of us wanted to hear after being on the dirt roads all day. The women in the group had waited several hours for a bathroom. Unfortunately Crown King only had public port-o-potties. They were so bad that they decided to pop a squat behind a tree several miles down the road.
Needless to say we finally made it back to the interstate. Total time in the forest: around 7 hours. Total miles covered on dirt roads: only about 70. All in all in was a great adventure and a fun time. But I think next year we are going to a "cut your own" tree farm.
2 comments:
That story makes the $50 price tag on a Christmas tree not sound so bad after all. What an adventure!
Crown King! The Mountain Rescue team did a training up there a couple years ago. We camped in the National Forest and ate/drank at the saloon on Saturday night. We were all hung over and hurting big time doing rope rescue training in the heat the next day - still it was a blast though. Did you play horseshoes out back?
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