Buckskin Mountain State Park, Parker, AZ

Buckskin Mountain State Park, Parker, AZ is on the Colorado River, a bit south of Lake Havasu.  Gorgeous view of the river and a good view of California on the other bank.    We got in here midday and did a lot of walking around the campground.  Met a couple with a British Cream Golden Retriever and had a nice chat with them.
This is a very popular park.  We had to make reservations for tonight on one site and move tomorrow to another site for the next 3 nights.  It's the only way we could get in.
There are a few miles of hiking trails here that we'll check out while we're here.
It was a short 115 mile drive over here from Alamo Lake.  There is a jeep road that's only 33 miles but it wasn't good for hauling a camper.

Alamo Lake State Park

Tuesday 2/26
Alamo Lake State Park is a remote reservoir in western Arizona 30 miles north of Wenden.    Remote enough that there is no cell coverage, no WiFi, no internet except when I stumble upon a "phone booth" where I get a rare connection.   

It is a beautiful place with great scenic views.  Someday I'll be able to post photos.  

We are here for two nights so we can get in some hiking.   Trails are burro trails that they have marked with cairns.  There are no official trails.   It makes for slightly rugged hiking but no problem.   It is primarily a boaters park focusing on the Lake.

Wed 2/27

We took a 3 mile hike in the hills overlooking Alamo Lake this morning.  Got some fine views.  It was a pleasant 50 degrees when we started out.  Now it's 

and we're sitting in the rockers at camp thinking about what to do (if anything much) this afternoon. 

The Air Force uses this area daily.  It has been fun watching them at times.   Three fighters in dogfight practice, once I could see the afterburner flame as one climbed away.  Cool sight at 20000' at the edge of the clouds.  

Tue photos:

Wed photos:

The day after Winter Range

Still here at Ben Avery Shooting Facility.  Took several hours to pack up; get the cowboy stuff into the front of the truck bed and the travel stuff into the camper.  It was nice to take a leisurely approach to it on a beautiful sunny day.  Carlene did the laundry while I was working on that.  Went shopping for some food and made reservations for the next few days at some places to the west of here.  Topped off with a nice sunset.
There are only 3 campers here, plus 4 more that belong to WR Board members.  Just about deserted.
And we finally got the VT Reg plates for the truck this afternoon.  Whew.  What a task that has been. 

Last day of Winter Range

First thing this morning was the Top 16 Shootoff.  Those 16 shooters who had the highest scores met for a one-on-one shootoff.  This does not impact the scores or placing in any categories, rather it is for show and bragging rights.  Whistling Tom is a 17 year old Canadian who was on my posse along with his father.  His mother hung out and watched.  He won the men's competition and came within a half second of beating the women's winner, Holy Terror, a many-time world champion.  That was a lot of fun to watch.

The awards ceremony was long but still interesting.  Most of my New England friends won something.  I was amazed to get 9th place Frontiersman!  I have placed better shooting left handed with a bum shoulder than I did the last 2 years running my A game!  There is no accounting for competition; who comes and how we all do in the cold rain.

The campground has thinned out a lot.  2/3 have already left.  We will probably be here another night.  The license plates are due for delivery here by 3 PM tomorrow.  Unless we come u with a plan to go somewhere not too far away we'll just stay here.

Dry camping area this morning

Shoot off photos

Inside the main tent, awards ceremony

The Frontiersman winners

Winter Range 3, SOOOO much better!

It was finally a dry, sunny day.  So what if it was a bit cool.  The mountains beyond us are still snowy.  Our posse shot late wave at 2 PM so we had plenty of time to wander among the vendors and visit with some people.  I dropped off a couple guns to be worked on by one of the fine gunsmiths here.  We sat in the sun by the camper for a little while too.
This was a great posse.  One of the easiest Posse Marshall jobs I've had.  They all pitched in with no prodding from me at all.
The four stages went quite quickly and then Winter Range was all done. 
Another nice dinner of various BBQ items tonight with the costume contest winners presented afterwards.  Sorry, no photos of that.  I tried it last year but the lighting is not adequate in the tent.  Everything I took last year was blurry so I didn't bother this year.
Tomorrow is the Top Gun shootoff and then the awards ceremony.  The top 16 men and 16 women compete head to head for bragging rights.

Some of you have mentioned the barefoot woman.  That's Half-a-Hand Henri, a Vermonter who now lives in the mountains of NM.  She has always run around barefoot, even in the winter.  This is no problem for her.

It's drying out!