Thursday, November 13
Crazy weird drive to Desert Oasis Campground in McNeal Arizona. We dawdled around instead of leaving early because we thought it was only a 2-hour drive and we couldn’t check in before 2 pm. So we ended up leaving at about 12 and arriving at about 2:20 or so. No one was there when we arrived, but I called the phone number provided and got a call back almost immediately. They’d left our site number and info, so we were all set and could proceed to hook up.
The crazy weird part of the drive is that we ended up going right through both Tombstone and Bisbee, and after that we went up up up in elevation to over 5000 feet! It was really cool and rugged country out there, although I didn’t think to take a single picture. Dummy.
Unexpected tunnel!
When we arrived at the park I almost immediately saw quail. I didn’t have the binocs but I think they were scaled quail, the ones with the little fluffy white topknots. I noted at the time: will see for sure tomorrow. Famous last words, those.
The original plan for the afternoon was to go see the Sandhill Cranes at the Wildlife Refuge, but since we were going to have steaks/fish cooked on the grill for dinner, I chose to skip it until the next day. I hoped that wasn’t a mistake; at the time of writing this, that remains to be seen. So instead Molly and I took a longish walk around the campground on the “nature trail.”
The quotes in “nature trail” are to indicate that it’s not exactly what people usually think of for a nature trail. There is nothing special to see and no informative signs to tell you what you’d be seeing if the plant hadn’t died or the animal wasn’t asleep for the day. But instead what we saw was a nice little walking path cleared through the desert scrub. A few birds—I saw Phainopepla and mockingbirds, plus a lot of house Finches.
REVIEW: Desert Oasis Campground McNeal AZ site 22 $162.30 / 3 = $54
Paradise in the draw
This is a lovely little campground in the middle of the desert/brushland, in between mountain ranges to the east and west and even north although you can’t see those well. The campground comes closer to being a “resort” than a lot of places that call themselves resorts. The full hookup sites are very long, not too awfully close together, and laid out nicely. In a row, of course, with neighbors on either side, but still it doesn’t feel crowded at all. Probably because there are only two or three rows of sites with open desert all around.
We had no big issues with the water, electricity or sewer. The water faucet wouldn’t shut off completely, but once we had it hooked up that wasn’t our problem. There was no one in the office when we arrived, but they had printed out our paperwork and a map, and left them in a mailbox for us. When I called the phone number written on their office wall I got a quick call back. The owner was very, very nice and helpful.
There’s no playground, but there’s a clubhouse and a big common area with a fire ring. No fire rings at the sites and I can’t say I blame them—it’s too risky in this sort of brushy country—but they allowed us to use our charcoal grill. There are picnic tables for each site; a little paint peeling but usable. The site surface was gravel and the ground all around hard desert floor or gravel. With a few nice plantings of cholla, mesquite, and the like.
All around the campground was a well-marked walking path that they called a nature trail. Not exactly what I call a nature trail, but it was an excellent place for giving the dogs a nice long walk.
There weren’t too many people there on a weekend at the middle of November—it was maybe one-quarter full. And it was very quiet and peaceful. The owner requests that guests keep their outdoor porch lights turned off once they’ve gone inside, so star gazing would have been awesome if it hadn’t been cloudy. There’s no really bright lights nearby although the town (McNeal?) over to the east is kind of sparkly in the night.
Great place! I’ll be back
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