TRAVEL DAY
From: Sunny Flat Campground, Portal, AZ.
To: Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area, McNeal, AZ.
Day 95 – It was 32 degrees this morning, rather than in the 20’s, and it was warming up rapidly because we had sunlight earlier in our campsite. Hmm….do we really want to leave now that it’s getting warmer? Unfortunately, yes, because it’s Friday of a holiday weekend and we have no reservations anywhere (no phone or internet signal; how do you make a reservation?). There’s supposed to be bad weather here tomorrow. We need to find another place to stay, at least for Friday and Saturday nights.
The next place we wanted to visit was located on the other side of this mountain range, Chiricahua National Monument. There is a national park campground there, but it’s booked solid weekends in advance. So we got out the trusty DeLorme Map Book for Arizona, and planned where to go next from a map! Fancy that. You CAN function without the internet, barely. LOL.
Our destination for Friday & Saturday night would be a private park (there was no other alternative close to the National Monument – and this park was only ½ hour away). Sandy’s Restaurant & RV Park was located in a tiny town called Sunizona. There was no dump station at Sunny Flat Campground, so we had to travel with partially-full tanks, something we don’t like to do. We planned to dump our tanks and fill with fresh water at Sandy’s.
We departed at 10:25 a.m. Some clouds had moved in. It was 47 degrees with low wind, when I backed the Honda out of the campsite and ran into a big rock. Crunch. I am really lousy at backing up. No harm done, it was the bottom of the bicycle rack. But my day didn’t start out well. When we stopped a couple of miles down the road to attach the Honda to the RV, there was an amazing Sycamore tree, the biggest I’d ever seen. Once I took pictures of it, my day got better. Grin.
The route from Sunny Flat to Sandy’s varied in topography, road conditions, and scenery. There were mountains on both sides of the road originally as we traveled towards I-10. The road was rough at times. Once getting on the 10 and heading west, we crossed into Arizona from New Mexico. We encountered lots of big trucks and the wind picked up. There were less mountains and more flat lands. We amused ourselves by making fun of some of the road signs. The towns were small, pecans appeared to be the predominant crop. We passed turn-offs for ghost towns. There was one beside the interstate. It, sadly, didn’t look much different than the tiny towns that were still “alive”.
The Chiricahua Mountains were south of us, on our left. We turned south on Route 191. We were approaching the turn-offs to the Chiricahua National Monument. We continued south and east until reaching the tiny town of Sunizona. Sandy’s Restaurant and RV Park were busy. When we checked in at the restaurant to see if we could get a spot for two nights, we noticed that everyone was mask-less. Arizona doesn’t conform to the masking rules like New Mexico? We will see.
Sandy’s Restaurant and RV Park were fully booked. Sandy said that people made reservations one year in advance for the National Monument. We assumed that her park took up the overflow. It was 12:45 p.m. It was past lunch time. We figured it would be rude to park in her restaurant parking lot to make and eat our lunches in the RV, so we got back on Route 191 south and continued on.
At 1:30 p.m. we reached the next possibility for camping. When we were camping at Chupadero, NM, the man parked next to us recommended Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area in McNeal, AZ. He said that every year they traveled in the winter from Colorado to Arizona, and one of the camping stops they always make is at Whitewater. Sandhill Cranes are the main draw.
This was not a National Wildlife Refuge, nor was it an official campground. Off a dirt road southwest of the small town of McNeal, an area had been set aside by the Arizona Fish and Game people for the migratory birds to stopover. The familiar sound of Sandhill Cranes flying over greeted us when we arrived. Camping was allowed for free, with no amenities (no water, no dump station, no electricity) in a space near the entrance to a parking lot where people could view the Cranes and other wildlife from a distance. It was very crowded with continual cars driving in to see the Cranes. The camping area consisted of places to pull-off and park your vehicle, between the entrance and the parking lot for the birdwatchers. It was almost full. We squeezed into a place near the entrance and disconnected the Honda. It had to be parked elsewhere. It was so busy, and so tight, that we couldn’t pull out all our slides. The bedroom slide couldn’t be let out because a vehicle might hit it coming into the Wildlife Area. Meanwhile, Sandhill Cranes continued to fly over, and more people arrived to see them.
It was late and we were hungry; the cats needed a break. We made lunch and they got their break. As we watched the cars go by, and the RVs, Trailers, and Vans circle around hoping for a spot to park, we knew this wasn’t a good place to stopover for two nights. Plus, we had very little fresh water in our tank. None was available here.
There had been a sign upon entry that said that overflow camping was available one mile down the road. We took the Honda and drove the very rough road to find this camping possibility. There were only three trailers parked in the space which could house only six or seven. Since it was not at the entrance to the Wildlife Area, but off to the side of it, there wasn’t any constant traffic circling through, yet the Cranes were continually flying over on their route to and from the water (Whitewater Draw) and the adjacent fields. Yeah, this was more our speed!
We went back, packed the RV up, left our campsite at the busy entrance to the Sandhill Crane “Circus” and drove one mile over to the quiet side. It was 2:50 p.m. Long day but we were happy with our decision. Within seconds of us vacating our spot, another RV pulled in and took it.
We’d been up close and personal with many Cranes recently. Just hearing them fly over with their calls was good enough and no traffic. We unpacked and set up camp at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area Overflow Camping. It was 65 degrees, mostly cloudy, and windy.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will spend the day driving back to the Chiricahua National Monument and rock formations. We’ll have to leave here in only two nights because we need to dump tanks and get fresh water. We have more to see in this area once we’ve seen the Monument and rocks.