09:56 pm - Lost and Found

I tried to get to East Clear Creek today but I didn't make it, or at least didn't find it. It looked close enough on the map, as things are often want to do, but I forget sometimes how freakin' big this state is and I did not start this little sojourn early enough. I found West Clear Creek and saw lots of signs with things about Clear Creek on them but no sign of East Clear Creek. It was supposed to be about a half hour north of Strawberry off of Arizona state route 87 and I was in that general area but nada... and there was nothing there, no place to even ask directions, just the middle of nowhere. The only map I had with me was the low res one I got from Alamo which was fairly useless. My Arizona gazetteer that was here at the house seems to have disappeared and the directions I had were just something quick I got off of the net before heading up there. It took a lot longer than expected just to get there and I needed to be back in Flag for dinner so I didn't have a lot of time for hunting around. If I had more time I would have just gone back to Strawberry and asked for directions there but that would have taken an hour I didn't have.

So it was a nice drive anyway, very pretty area, and someplace I want to go back and explore some more, perhaps when Robin and I are out in September. I ended up coming back to Flagstaff via a different route since backtracking would have taken to long. I ended up going north and coming back through Winslow and ended up "Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona". I saw the sign for Standin' On The Corner Park and could not resist.

The scenery change coming down out of the mountains into Winslow has to be some of the most dramatic anywhere. In the space of 30 miles it goes from a lush Ponderosa pine forest, to a pinyon/juniper woodland, to desert scrub, to savannah and finally to desert. It was weird but in an eerily beautiful way.

I checked my maps and it looks like tomorrow?s hike is more like 14 miles. That's still doable though so I am going to go for it.