Little Desert Rangers plans 2026

 Little Rangers need to get their kits out at least once a month. They need to explore outside, learn valuable skills like tracking, stamina, waking at dawn, building fires, watching the stars....they need SKILLS and they are only going to get said skills by going out and roughing it in the wilderness.

Alas, one skill for a ranger mom trapped in the valley of the Sun, is to reserve campsites far in advance. 6-5 months in advance....

If we were really cool, we'd figure out how to make camp in the site-less wilderness...preferably under bracken where the Crebain of Dunland cannot sight us....but we aren't at that awesome yet. So we'll stick with reserved sites, until our skills are much much better. Dispersed Camping is far far more epic. This year, research dispersed camping and how it works, also scout out places for dispersed camping near our favorite sites.

UPDATE:  IT seems that contrary to my impression, Payson is actually COOLER than Sedona in the summer....So next year we are going to check Payson first for June, July, Aug. Sedona is more for April, May, Sept

UPDATE UPDATE: Driving up towards Heber from Payson gives you 2000+ ft of elevation, and its a little cooler, at the cost of 20 more min driving.

UPDATE: [I need to reserve the Spring reservations by Nov/Dec, and Summer reservations by Feb/March]

October and March really focus on my own little piece of earth, gardening, etc.

Remember...

Little Rangers need to go a'ranging...

But in the desert that means being a Dawn Ranger. Waking to stars and chasing the twilights.

Phoenix in the summer is unbearable. Unless you chase the twilights. Live in the dawn and the dusks. Hide from the sun from 8am to 6pm. This handy reference helps, showing dawn times in the year.

HO WE WE ARE GOING TO DO IT:

1. Adventures from 5am to 8am....it starts to look beautiful 40 min before sunrise so  from 4:40 when sunrise is technically 5:20. 
2. Kids must learn to speak in whispers and travel quietly like real rangers when around Birdwatchers and Fishermen.
3. Load up to go home by 8am  
4. Siesta/Quiet Book Time at 11-2pm
5. Got the America the Beautiful Pass. So we need to use it at least 12 times to make it retroactively worth it.
6. If staying outside after 8am---Hats, sunscreen, water-bottles 

Dawn Adventures---Weekday

• Get the kids up at 4am. Get your pass here
• Granite Reef Recreation area, wild horses at dawn. Go on a weekday, once a week. 
• ?Pebble Beach
• ?Hidden Valley/Fat Man's pass/South Mouuntain? [no water, just desert. Only right at dawn]
• ?Sears-Kay Ruin (Hohokam)
• Check out more on Alltrails....

Day Trips with Daddy. [ very Early Saturday mornings]

• Daddy's Work. The little gardens around ASU. 6/7/8am there are no students up yet on Saturdays, We have the world to ourselves. It is beautiful.
• Water Wheel Falls Park. Aim to be there from 6-10. [starts filling up at 9] So need to get up at 4am and start driving. Then come home at 9:30/10 when its getting really hot and crowded, and the UV index soars. Come home, eat, and have a siesta
• ?Canyon Lake @ 5am [ 1 hr away. Acacia Recreation Site]
• ?Lake Saguaro @ 5am [42 min away]
• ?Granite Reef @ 5am [fishers?  23 min, L202 at dawn]

Evenings in the Twilights

6-8pm you can go outside, if you are wet.... The sun is down, but it has exhausted itself in pumping its heat into the earth. Here we are constrained by Daddy having a day job. So either we frolic off without him, or we drag an exhausted man out into the heat for adventures after a long day at work.... 

-I think maybe the best option here is enjoy dusk together as a family, in the backyard, in some sort of water games. And save the family adventures with Daddy, on weekend camping trips. 

Weekend Camping Trips ---once a month

Feb --Really this is time to get the summer garden started. AZ Desert dawn hikes, Stay in Lost Dutchman campsite. 

• Lost Dutchman for Isaiah, to hear the coyotes
• Feb-March I really focus on my own little piece of earth, gardening, etc. 
• October/Nov is put the winter garden in. 
• February/March is put the summer garden in. 
• July--Sept you kinda pull the plug on the garden [grow yams and basil?], focus on keeping the trees alive

March--AZ Desert dawn hikes Stay home and focus on yardwork etc.

April -- AZ Rim-country/Sedona Oak Creek--- AZ desert Dawn Hikes 

• THE MINE Morenci, AZ
• Yavapai, White Spar (Prescott) is open [but terrible bathrooms] not alot of trees 
• Sedona/Oak Creek stuff is Open
• [too hot to camp in AZ desert]
• [Mingus Mountain and Mogollan Campground and Aspen AZ not open till May]
• Maybe....Payson IS ALL FF IN APRIL [Christopher Creek] and Ponderosea (AZ)... kinda cold
•  Houston Mesa [Payson near Water Wheel, Flowing Springs] are FF in April...  kinda cold

May --  Prescott, Payson, Sedona/Oak Creek stuff is Open  (Payson is open)

• Cave Spring! in Sedona/Oak Creek stuff is Open(Pine Flatts) [We had a great time at Cave Spring Sedona in May] Manzanita campground?
• Mingus Mountain! 
• Ponderosa AZ ??
• Christopher creek has a little flowing stream in it. See Canyon glorious. 75-90 day, 45-50 at night
• Houston Mesa Campground NEAR Water Wheel Falls (Payson) 
• ??Horton Creek Trail looks cool, someone said "camping througout", is this a Dispersed camping?  UPPER TONTO CREEK CAMPGROUND [if it ever opens again]

June  or the Water Wheel at 4am daytrip plan. [leave for home by 10am]

• EARLY JUNE---
• past Payson towards Heber, up on the rim, elevation 7000 ft higher on the Rim near Woods Canyon Lakes---Sinkhole Campground (7560 ft), Spillway campground(7500 ft), Aspen AZ (7000 ft)Mogollon campground (7700 ft)
• ??Horton Creek Trail looks cool, someone said "camping througout", is this a Dispersed camping? UPPER TONTO CREEK CAMPGROUND [if it ever opens again]
• Houston Mesa Campground (5200 ft) NEAR Water Wheel Falls (Payson) NEAR Flowing Springs (too hot?)
• Maybe Sedona & Oak Creek Canyon Too Hot
• Payson--Christopher Creek [bit too hot only 5640 ft elevation]
• AFTER JUNE 10th---
• Lay low, plan out of state trips and just do the leave-for-Water-Wheel-at-4am routine

July--Mountains or Creeks OR JUST PLAN TO VISIT OUT OF STATE RELATIVES HERE, and do the Water Wheel at 4am daytrip plan. [leave for home by 10am] UPDATE: July is pretty miserable. With the summer solstice, peak UV, and the earth has had a chance to heat up. from June 15--July 20th I wouldn't camp]

• DREAM: THE ROCKIES, GORE CREEK
• EARLY JULY
• Lay low, plan out of state trips and just do the leave-for-Water-Wheel-at-4am routine
• AFTER JULY 20th
• past Payson towards Heber, up on the rim, elevation 7000 ft higher on the Rim near Woods Canyon Lakes---Sinkhole Campground (7560 ft), Spillway campground (7400), Aspen AZ (7000 ft) or Mogollon campground (7700 ft) 
• Houston Mesa Campground NEAR Water Wheel Falls (Payson) NEAR Flowing Springs (too hot?)
• CHRISTOPHER CREEK IN PAYSON (no water in the campsite creek yet, too hot at 5640 ft)
• Maybe Oak Creek Canyon/Sedona [bc of Oak creek. Also Manzanita is COOLER they say, Pine Flats, Bootlegger, Cave Spring], 
• Maybe Mogollon Campground is 2mi from a lake....  Too Hot

Aug--Mountains or Creeks, PAYSON,OR THE ROCKIES GORE CREEK

DREAM: THE ROCKIES, GORE CREEK

CHRISTOPHER CREEK IN PAYSON !!!!!!

Payson-ish Houston Mesa Campground NEAR Water Wheel Falls (Payson) NEAR Flowing Springs

•  Oak Creek Canyon/Sedona... Too Hot 

 

Sept--Mountains or Creeks, PAYSON, OR 2nd half of Oak Creek Canyon/Sedona [Finally Cool Enough!...]

• CHRISTOPHER CREEK IN PAYSON  EARLY SEPTEMBER is PERFECTION
• !!! Houston Mesa Campground NEAR Water Wheel Falls (Payson) NEAR Flowing Springs [fIrst half september 87/57, SECOND HALF OF SEPTEMBER 82/52 sweet spot.

Oct -- Really this is the time to stay home and get the winter garden started. IF you go camping...Prescott, Mingus [may-oct] OR Oak Creek Canyon/Sedona...

• Last chance for Mingus !!!!
• Cave Springs, Sedona
• ??Houston Mesa near water wheel 72/42 range

Nov--Dawntrips Hike the AZ Desert 

• AZ desert dawn hikes,  
• Hidden Valley, 
• Fat Man's pass
• Sears-Kay Ruin (Hohokam)
• Check out Alltrails
• ??Montezuma's well [3 hr drive]
• Pioneer Museum? 
• Lost Dutchman campsite

Dec & Jan--Dawntrips Hike the AZ Desert [Hidden Valley, Pioneer Museum? Fat Man's pass, Sears-Kay Ruin (Hohokam)] Have back-yard fires and toast marshmallows.

So camping season is really May--October 

And how to homestead...when we are in a little quarter-acre lot in a desert, and may move in the near-ish future?

Homestead, but not as the homestead being the goal---as we may need to sell, and later owners destroy it. Plant fruit trees, for the future if owners keep it. And always garden with the kids. Involve my little rangers as much as possible...because its about the memories being forged WITH them, and the skills being forged IN them, and not about the physical garden or home so much. We are traveling, but we can make these way-stations along the way as beautiful as we can. As green as we can. As productive as we can. 

But it should always be about the little Rangers, and not the way-station.

So let's get out there, and go Rangering....