Alamo Lake State Park in Wenden, Arizona May 2

We left Kartchner Caverns State Park late in the morning on Thursday, May 2, 2024 and drove 185 miles northwest for a one-night stop at a Cracker Barrel in Goodyear, Arizona just outside of Phoenix on our way to Alamo Lake State Park. As you know, we love our stops at Cracker Barrel.

Cracker Barrel Unclothed

This is how it usually goes for us when we stop at a Cracker Barrel. We always call ahead a few days beforehand to be sure they allow overnight stays. When we arrive we come into the store and let the front cashier person know we are staying overnight in our RV and confirm we’re in the right part of the parking lot. Then we sit down to have dinner.

Well, we had a first for us at this Cracker Barrel. We sat down for dinner and the waitress took our order. Then, a young man approached our table, identified himself as the manager on duty and said they were happy to have us stay overnight. He stated it was a safe part of town but that they also have the parking lot under camera surveillance for added safety. Then he said they wanted to make three requests of us during our stay:

Please don’t leave garbage in parking lot (We never do)
Please clean up after our dog if we have one (We always do)
Please remain clothed while outside the RV. (Huh???)

He said, “I know…that last one should go without saying, but we’ve had to add it to our list” so I guess they’ve had some nudists stay overnight and I’ll bet THAT was fun to see on the surveillance cameras, lol!

Alamo Lake State Park

We left the next morning after breakfast for a 121 mile drive to Alamo Lake State Park in Wenden, Arizona. This park is really out in the “boonies” since it is actually 37 miles away from the town of Wenden, Arizona. Alamo Lake is surrounded by desert mountains and the usual cacti, wildflowers and brush you would expect of a desert. There is also an abundance of wildlife including woodpeckers making their nest in cactus, foxes, coyotes, mule deer and… wild burros!

Yes, wild burros! You can’t imagine how excited Cindy was to see the wild burros. She would laugh every time we heard one or more of them braying and “hee hawing”, snapping multitudes of photos every time we saw them. We saw them on our hikes and around our campsite, and would be serenaded by them at dusk and dawn. Here are some interesting fact about burros in North America.

Alamo Lake is also one of the state’s best bass fishing locations and a popular site for OHV’s (Off Highway Vehicles). I would say most of the campers we saw during our stay were either fisherman or OHV enthusiasts. Surprisingly, the OHV’s were not as noisy as I expected them to be.

Hiking and Stargazing

But, since Cindy and I are neither fishermen nor OHV enthusiasts, the bulk of our activities during our stay consisted of hiking trails and up to overlooks in the park. But, one other advantage to being “out in the boonies” is that the lack of any nearby city lights make stargazing an especially enjoyable way to spend part of your evening.

Our site was a pull-through on asphalt that was fairly level. We had water and electric on site and a dump station on the way out of our loop. The only real downside to our site location was that we were a mere 150 feet from the fish-cleaning station. It wasn’t that it was smelly (I actually never smelled any fish smells because they have a very modern system for disposing of the fish heads, scales and entrails) but that it was always busy in the early morning and late evening. I don’t mean to generalize, but fishermen usually drink and drinking loosens their tongues and raises the volume of the voices.

All in all this was a nice place to camp. We mostly hiked around the park. Cindy read and did her tatting while I read and did some writing. Mostly quiet (except for the wild burro concertos) and we enjoyed our time here.

Oh! We also saw a hummingbird. I never really thought about hummingbirds being out in the desert, but they are! No photos or videos, unfortunately, but we were thrilled when one showed up around us as we were hiking down a mountain.

Next, it’s “Viva Las Vegas, Baby” time as we head for Boulder Beach Campground in Boulder City, Nevada outside of Las Vegas.

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