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At River Island State Park I heard favorable comments from several campers about Alamo Lake. It was not on my itinary but my vacation plans were flexible. I made an online reservation and was able to secure one of the last sites available for a few days.
Alamo lake is remote by Arizona standards; it is 40 miles from the main highway, gas stations, food stores, etc. The park is centered around a long and wide flood control lake blocked by an earthen Army Corps of Engineer's dam on the west outlet. Water levels fluctuate widely so camp sites are higher and away from the shoreline. The lake is known for some of the best bass fishing in Arizona and attracts many weekend boaters. The water was chocolate brown and cold when I visited.
Artillery Peak at 3,213 feet dominates the northern shore. |
Turkey Vultures are common in the park. One is drying his feathers after fishing. |
In the morning I decided to explore the park. I walked down to the high water boat launching site and wandered around a rocky peninsula. Ducks were feeding in the shallow water that was protected by reeds. Turkey vultures were searching for food and drying their feathers while perched on a picnic table. Wild Burro poop, which looks like horse poop, was everywhere. It littered the paved roads as well. I never did see a burro though. Fishermen in boats plied the many inlets along the shore in hopes of catching bass. Speedboats churned up a wake as they sped across the wide, brown lake. The sun was just starting to warm the cool morning air.
Alamo Lake is a major bird migration rest area. |
Fishermen try their luck on the lake. |
Many still water inlets dot the shoreline. |
View of the lake from the west end. |
A thoughtfully designed network of trails leads from the boat ramp parking lot to campground A. The trail ascends a few bluffs that offer spectacular views of the lake. Brilliant wildflowers lined sections of the trail and spread down to the mirrored surface inlets. Thousands of yellow poppies were just opening their petals after a cold night. Vultures circled overhead. Small animal tracks from night roaming dotted open patches of sand. Bird songs rolled across the still morning landscape. Rattle snakes were just waking up from winter and left swirls in the soft, crumbly clay.
Turkey Vulture riding thermal updrafts. |
Still waters are great for fishing. |
Mature Saguaro cacti line the trail. |
Lake view hiking trails map. |
The 970 foot Alamo Lake earthen dam sits 283 feet above the original stream bed. Normally the lake covers about 500 acres with water. During peak flood times the lake can cover up to 13,300 acres. The lake drainage basin is 4,770 square miles which explains why the lake can rise so quickly. Lake levels have risen as much as three feet per hour and up to 20 feet in 24 hours. The top of the dam is not a spillway; the spillway is 50 feet lower and to the right.
Lake view from the dam lookout point. |
Alamo Lake Dam information. |
Wayside is a desert outpost about five miles from Alamo Lake State park. It has the only gas pump available to the public for 35 miles and the prices reflect that. I was charged $3.98 a gallon for regular and was limited to 10 gallons. In town the price was $2.66 a gallon. Ice is the same price as Walmart but the bag is five pounds, not ten pounds. Ice is the same price at the park; $3.00 for a five pound bag. The only public Wifi is available here; none is available at the park. Wayside Wifi is not reliable. In two visits I was only able to get online once and it was slow. Wayside also has a bar, a restaurant, and a tourist store with tee shirts, mugs, etc. They host an RV park for folks who usually winter here. The summers are almost unbearable, even for locals.
The dirt road to Wayside is wide and smooth. |
Free camping on BLM land. |
Alamo Lake State Park draws both trailer/motor home and tent campers. The park has five campgrounds; A, B, C, D and E. A, B and C are developed with paved roads, water and some sites have electricity. The sites are dated; they are small, back-in and populated with desert scrub plants. D and E campgrounds are more spacious but lack shade, electricity and do not even have flush toilets. Just a few construction site style port-a-pottys are available for toilets. D and E have dusty, dirt roads for campsite access.
C is the best campground for RV's and has water, electricity, flush toilets and showers. Some sites are pull-in but many are still back-in. The sites are also small and cramped. Campground A has showers and flush toilets but the sites are small and used mostly by tent campers with boat trailers. B is mixed. Some sites have electricity and water for RV's. Many do not. All of the sites are small and back-in style. People with 40 foot trailers often have their truck's nose in the road when parked. The lakeside sites offer a nice view; not much can be seen from the roadside sites. Campgrounds A and B straddle the main road to the lake and traffic can get heavy. The rest room in the B campground I used was archaic, smelled bad and had a door that needed a body slam to open. I had to get water from an outside spigot that was four inches above the ground.
Alamo Lake attracts many people with 4 Wheelers, single piston off-road vehicles. Folks drive them everywhere and the whining engine noise can get annoying.
Pitch a tent for free for two weeks. |
Brown's Crossing road at Alamo Lake State park. |
Some folks camp for free next to Alamo State Park. According to federal regulations people may camp on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within 100 feet of any road, for free. If you pick up a copy of Delorme's Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer you can easily locate BLM land and their road network. Parts of Wickenburg and Brown's Crossing road run over BLM land. Wickenburg road is wide and fairly smooth. It passes Wayside and dead ends near Alamo Lake. Brown's Crossing is a little bumpier and in the dry season crosses the streams that feed Lake Alamo. 4 wheel drive is recommended for Brown's Crossing road. In March of 2019 it was under several feet of water.
One of my vacation delights is reading wonderful books that I never seem to have time for back home in Emigrant. Books enrich my life, especially as I get older. I am 63, have a few degrees and the good fortune to have traveled widely. Books often build upon previous knowledge and take me to places I have been, but during much different times. I traveled to Renaissance Florence with Brunelleschi when I finished Brunelleschi's Dome while camping at Willow Beach. I first saw the dome in the early 1980's when I went to a international bicycle show in Milan. I added a few days to my business trip to experience, year by year, the architecture and culture of Italy.
Then I started to read Island of the Lost by Joan Druett. She wrote a dramatic accounting of two ship wrecked crews stranded on the same island at the same time. Wrecked at opposite ends of a large, cold and wet island south of New Zealand in the late 1800's the lost crews had two very different experiences. One turned to cannibalism while the other worked together as a team and read the Bible every night. Guess which crew fared the best?
Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King. |
Island of the Lost by Joan Druett. |
At River Island park I opened Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale. This was written as the last of a four book series in 1964. It chronicles the auto journey of Edwin and his wife Nellie from San Diego to Maine and back home to the northwest hills of Connecticut from December 21st to March 21st. Mr Teale is an accomplished writer and has a knack for ferreting out eccentric people and events. He is a naturalist and most of the places he visits are rural. Nellie and Edwin love birds and used the journey to expand their lifetime "Birds Seen" lists. They visited a deer park deep in the Maine woods, a sugar shack in New Hampshire, ancient burial mounds in Ohio and a long list of bird sanctuaries all the way to California. The details are amazing and now I have several more places on my "To Visit" list.
In 2001, 2002 and 2003 I visited Poland, toured the country and learned a great deal about their history and culture. I was inspired by a remarkable Polish woman, Patrycja Zielinska (Hoffman), who used to work for me at Branford Bike in Branford, Connecticut. Patrycja was admirable in many ways; her attitude towards life, her work ethic and her wonderful disposition. She was born on the 4th of July in a small town in Poland and emigrated to America with her family when she was seven years old. I wanted to visit that town and understand the history and culture she was born into. In 2001 when I reached Krakow I was introduced to the Spielberg movie Schindler's List. We visited the Jewish Ghetto, the synagogue and a few sites depicted in the movie. I finally watched the movie several years later. The next book on my reading agenda was based on the list of people Otto Schindler saved from the Nazis. Titled Schindler's Legacy and written by Elinor Brecher it is a collection of biographies of Polish Jewish survivors and their experiences from before the war to 1994.
The surviving Polish Jews were incredible individuals. They were strong, smart, hard working people who were committed to their families and faith. They survived death camps, Nazi savagery and after the war, Polish anti-semitism. Many emigrated to America where they worked diligently to build new lives and families. They were people who lost everything but their will to survive. They rebuilt, were successful and in many different ways dealt with the injustice and suffering inflicted upon them. Very few claimed victim hood or looked for handouts. They were amazing people with incredible courage.
Currently I am reading Why Read The Classics? by Italo Calvino. It is a persuasive introduction to classic writings starting with Homer. I am enjoying it immensely.
Schindler's Legacy by Elinor Brecher. |
Why Read The Classics? by Italo Calvino. |
On March 18th I packed my trailer and headed for some "boondocking" in the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge south of Quartzite, Arizona. My first stop was Parker so I could do laundry and check my e-mail at the 16th Street Laundrytime laundromat near Circle K. They have a solid Wifi connection that I made good use of while my laundry was in the washer and then dryer. Next I headed for Walmart to for supplies and food. Then it was off to KOFA and I arrived safely about an hour before sunset.
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Tim's Life Main Table of Contents |
Travel Table of Contents |
Page 4 KOFA and Organ Pipe Cactus Monument |
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