Day 26

We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast at Hotel Sandi before we checked out at 10am. Our destination was Sedona area. There was a campground that we wanted to stay at called Oak Creek Canyon, but we knew we were pressing our luck. You had to make reservations 3 days in advance, and only 1/4 of the sites were available by reservation. The rest were first come, first serve. We passed through Sedona (which was super beautiful, but very crowded) and headed deeper into the canyon. The temperature dropped into the 80's. It didn't take us long to figure out that we weren't going to find a camp spot. Everything was full, and all the day use spots were filled with people. Even if we could have found a spot, it wouldn't have been the kind of camping we would have liked. We pushed North towards Flagstaff. We could see really dark clouds in the distance and knew it meant rain. We headed into the Mormon Lakes area of the Coconino National Forest. The temp dropped into the 60's and we got a few sprinkles of rain. Every campground we came to was also full. Mormon Lake was beautiful, but for fishing only. The last campground in the area was called Ashurst Lake & Forked Pines campgrounds. We literally found the best spot left. There were 3 total spots, but only one was very private, beautiful views, easy access to the lake and close to the bathrooms. We lucked out finally. Our elevation is 7000 feet and there are NO bugs. Texas camping was nice, but the bugs were crazy! It is very peaceful here and cows freely roam around us. Pictures to come later.