Our One Day Get-a-Way to Woods Canyon Lake, Arizona

We decided to get out of town for the day since the temperatures have been soaring to over 110 degrees here in lovely Arizona. Woods Canyon lake is about 2.5 hours northeast of us and a nice short jaunt to a cooler greener Arizona. It is a great place to acclimate our toddler to camping since it has a little bit of everything: hiking, biking, and fishing. We aren't big fisher-people, but hiking and biking we enjoy. Another nice feature of Woods Canyon is a very long paved biking trail that is not on or next to the road, but set off the road by fifteen feet or so. We are unsure of its complete distance but it is at least 5 miles. What we like about this paved trail is we can ride the bike with our toddler on board (iBert fits my husband's bike comfortably)without worrying about getting hit by a car. On this particular trip we decided to set up the tent so Ethan could nap at his regular time -- he really liked this! During our hike we got to get a glimpse of two baby eagle chicks who were nesting off of the lake trail (the trail around the lake is about four miles and it takes about 2.5 hours to traverse). The forest service has the the trail re-routed to avoid the nest and have set up scopes so visitors can see the chicks and their parents.

Our son really enjoyed our little camping and hiking trip and says he wants to go again. Fortunately for us summer is upon us and the thing we like to do best is leave the summer heat behind and head for the cooler country. And there are plenty of camping days left since Arizona summers last until November!