7/03 Undeveloped Camping near Lake Mary (Flagstaff, AZ)

[theksmith 5,778]

Some friends and I went camping up near Lake Mary (near Flagstaff, AZ) back on 7/03 through 7/05. The original plan was to drive into Flag for the 4th-O-July fireworks on Saturday night, but we got lazy and stayed at camp! A great time was had by all, and even took the Jeep our for some muddin' after a storm.

 

Read on for location details and the full story....

 

 

 

 

We ussually go up near the Mogollon rim, but at the time, the Coconino National Forest was the closet land where there weren't any camp-fire restrictions... and you have to have a campfire - so up towards flag we went!

 

I had gone up to scout out a location a couple of weeks prior as we had several people to accommodate in cars and non-4x4 vehicles, yet we wanted to get as remote as possible... a difficult combination. After checking out several of the forest roads north of the Lake Mary area, I settled on some offshoots of the road to Ashurst Lake (more of a pond really!).

 

GPS: N 35* 01.206', W 111* 26.723'

 

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%2B35+01.206,+-111+26.723&sll=35.021351,-111.446385&sspn=0.02186,0.042872&ie=UTF8&ll=35.019734,-111.443768&spn=0.021861,0.042872&t=h&z=15

 

Directions: Take I-17 north to the last exit before Flagstaff, Lake Mary Road. Continue East on Lake Mary Road till just past Lake Mary, and there will be a road on the Left (East) labeled "To Ashurst Lake". Take this road and just after you pass a large curve, take the first rough dirt road on the Right (South) till it's end... Camp!

 

The weather was 78* highs, and 50* lows... perfect. There were some isolated storms, one lasted a couple hours and was an insane downpour... we all just headed for the tents and took an afternoon nap. The storm was on the first day, so by the time we packed up everything was nice and dry again.

 

 

We took the 17 up, but you could also come in a back way from Payson if you like curvier roads and scenic drives:

 

 

 

My friends and thier pop-up:

 

 

 

Another friend and his VW Rabbit and Coleman Fossil Creek Tent. I actually gave him that tent after using it for a couple years and he's now had it a few years and still no leaks or problems... great cheap little 3-man shelter:

 

 

 

a little pano of the camp site:

 

 

 

we ate healthy on this particular trip

 

 

 

 

 

well we did get in some campfire-roasted corn:

 

 

 

\/ continued below \/

[theksmith 5,778]

after the crazy storm was over, i just couldn't resist gettin' the Jeep muddy:

 

 

 

We meandered through some forest roads and actually ended up at a gas station off the I-40 just east of Flagstaff and just directly south of the Cinders. Then we followed a different road back south and ended up on Lake Mary road again just west of our campsite's road a few miles. No crazy rock-crawling or anything, but there are plenty of forest roads to explore in this area and the temps in the summer are so appealing to us Phoenix peeps.

 

Here's some more mud action, in video form that my friend took with his new iPhone 3GS:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJCWTgILvsA

 

 

Campfires, kids, and some evening relaxin':

 

 

 

 

 

Didn't get a chance to wash the Grand Cherokee for a couple days, so the baked on Flagstaff mud ended up costing me over $60 at the car wash to get it all off:

 

 

 

 

Here are some final other pics my friend took with his new iPhone:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it! Thanks for looking! I definitely recommend the location for a summer get away, it was not too crowded and pretty easy to get remote even for low-clearance vehicles.

 

All pictures were taken using my trusty little Panasonic DMC-TZ5 or with the iPhone 3GS.

[GRUNT 111]

Hey K, great pics. Kudos on getting that beautiful rig muddy! It will probably make George cringe when he sees it.

 

BTW - Were the cheese puffs soaked in the Malibu? Is that why the bottle is empty?

[aimee 2]

BTW - Where the cheese puffs soaked in the Malibu? Is that why the bottle is empty?

 

 

How else were we gonna get the kids to sleep??