Thursday October 5th 2017

Today was a repeat of yesterday weather wise. The mercury or rather the electronic temperature readout topped out in the mid to upper 90s. It wasn’t a good day for outside activity, but I did take a short walk on one of the trails this afternoon.

View of the deep blue waters of Lake Pleasant under the cloudless sky.

I booked this campground for two reasons. I thought it was close enough to civilization that I could get some shopping done. I’ve been putting off buying a few things until I’m in a good area. It turns out I’m further away from big shopping areas than I thought and my new plans put me in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks where I already know the stores. All this adds up to it being unlikely that I will do any significant shopping while I’m here.

View of the dam and marina from the Discovery Center at Lake Pleasant Regional Park. The saguaro cactus is a big old specimen.

The second reason for picking this location is for the hiking and nature viewing opportunities at this recreation area. The extra few degrees above normal temperature are making that difficult. Today I made an attempt to get out and explore the park despite the heat. I loaded up with sun screen and water before setting out. I climbed the hill to the Discovery Center which overlooks the lake and the dam. From there I started on the Roadrunner trail which follows the shore of the lake. None of the vegetation was very tall or dense making shade nonexistent. The heat wasn’t a problem and the sun screen was doing its job on the exposed skin, but I started to feel the sun on my back. I’m guessing that my shirt was thin enough to allow the sun to come right through. Not taking any chances, I cut the hike short and returned to the air conditioning in my RV. I don’t need a sunburn.

The views of the lake were impressive. The water was deep blue, the sky was light blue and the mountainous shore separating the two was a combination of white and brown. A perfect contrast. There weren’t many boaters on the lake today. I only saw one water skier behind a boat. This weekend should be different. The campground is starting to fill up. I understand Arizona does celebrate Columbus day on Monday making this a long weekend.