Well, brand spanking new NX-250'S arrive on Saturday. Get home about 10 pm and I'm way too exhausted from work to set anything up. My wife, daughter, son and I depart about 9 am on Sunday, bound for the White Mountains in eastern AZ. It's the kids first night hammock camping and they are using our Yukon Outfitters six month old hammocks and brand new matching tarps. Got to love Woot! Our destination is KP Cienaga, a free campground off the beaten path just south of Hannagan Meadow. Just a toilet, 5 tables and fire rings. An hour away from the campground outside Show Low AZ, the skies open up with the most intense hailstorm I've ever witnessed. We waited on the side of the road for nearly 45 minutes until the visibility improved enough to drive.
OK, looked like the wife and I will be setting up our gear in the rain. That is an entirely new experience for us. After a couple mistakes in site selection we were able to get everything up enough to keep us warm and dry. It was a miracle because it stormed hard again immediately after that. We hopped in our hammocks and listened to the rain all night long. It was pretty cool, especially after the auspicious start. Didn't see another soul at this place. My kind of camping! With the kids in tow, my wife has "a safety in numbers" mentality. Yep, she's a mom.
Wife and I made some changes to our rigs in the morning to limit exposure and we were ready for a hike. Played games with the kids and had s'mores after dinner with intermittent rain, then we all hopped in our hammocks for another comfy, cozy night.
We packed up on day three and headed to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Monuments. Our destination for this evening was Lockett Meadow in the San Francisco Peaks just north of Flagstaff AZ. Found a great hanging site in the Aspens and Ponderosa pines of this little used campground. It's $12.00 per night and the setting is quite magnificent. Great weather and very few campers make this another gem of a campground. Highly recommended.
Day four saw us at Sunset Crater and Waputki National Monuments. The kids were done with this National Park nonsense so a trip to the lava tubes south of Flagstaff was in order. The highlight of their trip! Back to the campground for a very windy but comfortable night sleep. We packed up in the morning and returned to the sweltering heat in Phoenix. A great time was had by all and I can't wait to get back out there.
The Clark NX-250'S performed beautifully! My wife installed the whoopies before we left and aside from the poor hang on the first night, it was a very easy learning curve for us. The kids loved the Yukon's and everyone agreed it was the most comfortable camping trip ever. The only negative was that Clark sent the XL tarps instead of the Vertex ones as we paid for. The XL tarps are on the way back to Clark as I type for the exchange. Great customer service. Our Z-Liner under quilts were very easy to install and worked great as soon as I corrected a draft issue on the first night. I used a fleece blanket and my wife used a couple of down throws for top insulation. The kids had our Q-core air pads and down sleeping bags. No complaints! It was a wonderful trip. Special thanks to Preston at Clark for getting us our gear before the deadline! I'll follow up with some pics as soon as I figure out how.
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