White Mountains

Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Silver City, NM to Show Low, AZ

235.8 miles
Gorgeous blue skies

Thank the heavens, the huge winds of the previous few days were down to a breeze when we started our journey to Show Low. Unfortunately, the park in Show Low wasn’t there!

I put their address into my GPS program, and it showed being in the heart of Show Low – a delightful little town in the White Mountains. But they left off the key “east” in the address in all their brochures. Turns out the Sunset Resorts White Mountain Camperland in Show Low is about 28 miles WEST of town, in the middle of nowhere, near a little post office in Aripine. Where? No satellite TV reception, no internet connection, very poor cell phone reception, and lousy bathroom facilities. But they have terrific water pressure!

Other than that disappointment at the end of the day, the drive was absolutely spectacular!!! Sooz and I agreed that parts of it even reminded us of our trip to Alaska! Right down to the snow on the ground! And the climb in the Apache National Forest – we topped out at 9225 feet! My poor little coach had never worked so hard, towing the Mustang along for the first time on such a ride!!

The wild flowers were beginning to peek out – bright purple and a brilliant red amongst the yellow and white!

Sooz, who is used to mostly white, silver, tan, and beige cars in Hawaii, made a comment on how many red cars and trucks she was seeing. We started to pay attention, and I had to agree, she was right. I would say we saw at least 50% of the vehicles on the drive (not all that many on these roads, but still…) were red! Interesting!!

And rather than bore you with anymore words, I’m just going to put in some pictures of the incredible vistas of our beautiful drive!

Me and my bridges - just can't help myself!

This is the Sun Rise Park ski resort slopes!

After passing thru Show Low, on the way to the RV park, wherever it may be, we entered into the utter devastation of the fire that ravaged the mountains five years ago. The fact that the land is still showing the effects of that huge fire, points again the the drought that has lasted for so very many years now in Arizona. Almost no new growth yet after all this time.

We learned that the White Mountain Camperland had been evacuated, along with all the residents in the area, and the park was used as a staging area for the fire fighters. Doesn't look like much has changed since then!

White Mountain Camperland Park
1876 E. Hwy 260, M.P. 317
Show Low, AZ 85901
928-535-5978