Safford, AZ. March 16-21

                     Early morning walk just past my rig with Hamilton mountains in the distance.

Tuesday, I arrived at the Escapee Boondocking site near Safford.  Actually, the camp is located near Solomon near the Hot Wells Dune area about 8 miles east of Safford.  Trish, a fellow WIN member was     hosting  this event and  I thought it would be fun to join a different group. I met a lot of great people who have been RVing for years,

The festivities started out with a St. Patrick's celebration.  Trish cooked corned beef and cabbage and the rest of us brought side dishes and deserts.

                                                      Trish enjoying St. Patrick's day

                                         For those of you who don't know Trish, this is her rig and all of her toys.  She also has a Harley on the front of the RV.  Its amazing what she pulls out of storage.  She had a huge pot to cook the corn beef and cabbage for over 20 people!

                                         Some of the Boondockers enjoying St. Patrick's day.

Thursday many of us took a drive on the Black Hills By-Way.  This was a well graded dirt road with lots informative signs along the way.  I soon found this group likes to stop frequently.  The By-Way was approximately 20 miles long and it took us 5 hours to go the 20 miles.

                                            Some of the interesting formation along the ride.

                                           The Black are off in the distance and you can see the road on the left.

                               The poppies were in bloom everywhere.  The Moreci Mine is in the distance and I'll be going there in a few days.

We stopped in Clifton for lunch at PJ which is part of the "Salsa" tour.  Later Barb, Joel and I toured the historic district of Clifton which is almost a ghost town.

                                          Beautiful old Catholic Church in Clifton.  The inside had been renovated in a modern day decor so the inside was not interesting at all.  Clifton was the original mining town before the town of Moreci was established.

The next day Mike and Vivian led us on a 4X4 drive which followed the old highway.  The scenery was gorgeous.  The wild flowers are starting to bloom.

                                         We came across this old watering hole.  I wouldn't want to swim in it but the dam on the opposite end was pretty interesting.

                                          On the way back it really started to cloud up.  The clouds are near our camp but look how they left an opening for Mt. Hamilton to show through.

                                
Tomorrow Joel, Barb and I are going to go on the Moreci Mine tour which is about an hours drive north of Safford.