Road Trip to Greer

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves

James Barrie


The trip to Greer in the White Mountains was great. It really showcased the wonderful variety of landscape, flora and fauna of Arizona. It is amazing what elevation and rivers will do to change your surroundings dramatically.

We ended up going in two cars as the car we hired wasn't big enough for three dogs and three adults with food, warm clothes and dog beds. So there was plenty of room for all of us and we were pretty comfortable which was just as well as we ended up doing a lot of driving.

We managed to get away pretty close to schedule at 10.30 am on Sunday and headed north east to Payson, Show Low and then onto Greer. As soon as we achieve an elevation of around 3,000ft the Saguaro cacti disappear, they don't seem to like the higher altitude. Junipers then start to appear before the pines take over. We stopped for refreshments at Payson and Mack had managed to throw up into one of Jonathan's shoes. It is good Jonathan has a big shoe size as it pretty well all fitted in there and none on the carpet. Gave us a good laugh.

We arrived at the cabin at Greer and although the cabin itself was very nice it was right next to the road and had no fencing, not good for three large dogs. Fortunately there was another cabin available. It was perfect, very spacious yet cosy, two big bedrooms, large lounge area big enough for 3 adults and 3 big dogs. The 1/2 acre (guesstimate) was fully fenced so the dogs could go in and out at will. We were surrounded by pine trees and a few aspen with their golden autumn colours catching the sun. there were other cabins around but nothing too close. Heavenly. Not long after arrival I saw a lovely Blue Jay, with an orange seed in its mouth, just outside the cabin.

I was feeling pretty good, just getting tired. Paula and Glen went for a walk the first evening and spotted some deer.
Glen and I went for a walk the next morning through the pine trees, they smelled wonderful. We then went for breakfast at Greer Lodge. This is a lovely log building with restaurant views of a delightful little valley with golden aspen on the hillsides between the dark green pines. There is a little river running close by and ponds where people were fly fishing. the waitress was singing along with the country western tunes playing in the background, very cheery. After eating half of my half stack of blueberry pancakes (definitely not on the anti cancer menu but hey it fluffed me up) we went for a drove 5 minutes up the road, spotted some deer on the way and had a little walk along the river. Dogs were ecstatic, the sun was sparkling on the water and the air was fresh and brisk.

We went back to the cabin, packed a lunch and headed off down the dirt roads through lovely forests and grassy meadows till we came to a lake where we thought we would try to fish for trout. It was very windy and quite cold but very beautiful. We had fun with our fishing attempts but didn't catch a thing. I was sort of glad as I didn't want to have to deal with killing the fish. We went fishing in Safeways at Springerville instead and got some beautiful trout there. The drive to Springerville was very scenic and by the time we were heading back to the cabin it was late afternoon and perfect for spotting Elk and deer. We had a look at Big Lake just before we went to Springerville and again on the way back. A stunning shimmering expanse of sparkling blue water surrounded by pale brown grasses and forest covered hills. Paula and I were in the front car and closer to Greer we saw a doe with a fawn which swiftly darted into the trees. the afternoon sun on the grassy meadows and the aspen was gorgeous. Closer to the cabin we saw a big male elk walking along just above the road. They are really large deer, magnificent antlers on the older bucks.

Next day we again packed lunch and headed for Alpine. We ended up having lunch at a beautiful camp spot folded in amongst pine and Aspen covered hills and with a lovely grassy meadow. Again the wind was a bit chilly but the sun was shining, so no complaints. We had camped on that spot in 2001 and had very nice memories of that time as well as making new ones.

We drove mostly along quiet dirt roads, crossing the occasional river and enjoying the beautiful forests. Later in the day we spotted two large horned sheep. It was a ewe with a rather large lamb so their horns were actually not that big but they were very beautiful and surprisingly not that shy. We manage to get a really good look at them for about 15 minutes. Closer to Greer we spotted a whole herd of Elk. One large antlered buck and some small bucks as well as females with young. After a while, and with us trying to get a bit closer, the females and young all darted into the forest but 5 males ran across the grassy plain, first just a short distance and then continued far into the distance. We also got a spectacular sunset to finish off a perfect day.

The last day, after checking out of the cabin, we spent quite a bit of time walking and sitting by a little river that was a fork of the Little Colorado River. Very pretty. I saw an American Dipper which is a little grey bird that actually swims in the running water catching insects. It does not have webbed feet but uses its wings to swim, a delight to watch. We ended up having lunch by the water before heading back home via Show Low and Payson. Just before Payson we has a short stop at another lake the name of which escapes me. It was quite different to the other lakes we had seen in that it had pine trees coming right down to the waters edge instead of the grassy plains.

We got home very tired but happy. Paula and Jonathan did an enormous amount of driving and I spent more than the usual amount of time up and about. I even had sore thigh muscles from walking - excellent. It has not been smooth sailing since. apart from being extremely exhausted over several days after our return I have also had some severe bouts of recurrent gastritis. Combination of lethargy, pain and side effects of pain relief it has been a tough few days. Feeling somewhat better again today. The difficulties reminded me of the saying I put in a previous blog entry "....and this too shall pass". It did and it will again no doubt.

Surviving and thriving.

Linda