When I was a kid, we went camping a few times in the hottest part of summer, up to Riggs Flat lake on Mt. Graham. At 11,000 feet, you’d still find snow in the shady areas all summer past Labor Day. I recall the drive from Phoenix, nearly 3 hours just to Safford 160 miles away. The last 30 miles up the mountain took another 3 hours back then. Mount Graham was my favorite place, I’d go fishing in the creek below the dam and find pools with great fishing that overlooked the desert floor more than 8,000 feet below as the stream followed steep switchbacks.

Here we are 50+ years later camping at Roper Lake State Park at the foothills of Mt. Graham. I need to take the Jeep up there before I’ll dare tale the Motorhome up there, especially not knowing road conditions this early in the year. We are here for a campout with Sons of the American Legion, hopefully there’s time to get away from events to take a trip up the mountain.

Luckily the weather is running 75-85 degrees this week so conditions here at Roper Lake are just awesome, so are the views across the lake, desert and snowy peaks. There’s a mix of campsites with and without hookups. Safford is less than 10 miles, went there to get sugar and syrup “we” forgot to load, came back with a “few” extra things we didn’t need…