My wife and I took a mini-vacation up to the Mollogon Rim in central Arizona to escape the heat in the valley this last weekend.  We have lived in Arizona for almost 20 years and had never ventured much past Payson so this trip was to check out some of the stuff around Strawberry and then on Saturday we were going to meet some friends and go on a hike in the Clear Creek Wilderness area.

Strawberry Arizona is just under 2 hours from my house and sits at the base of the Mollogon rim.  The town itself is roughly 6000 feet above sea level and the rim towers another 1400 or so feet above that which means when it is 105 degrees in Phoenix the rim is in the 80's with nighttime temperatures dropping into the lower 50's. 

We rented a cabin in Strawberry for Thursday night.  I was hoping to find a nice base for some winter snow runs  and this place seemed to fit the bill with each cabin equipped with a wood burning stove.  We tried the local Italian place for dinner and the pizza was excellent.

After a good breakfast in Pine (about 3 miles south of Strawberry) we headed up the rim to scout out a camping spot along FR 300 which runs along the rim for over 40 miles.  We also planned on running FR 300 to Knoll Lake.

One of the many spots that make for great photos along the rim road.

There are also a ton of side trips possible along FR 300 like this 90 year old cabin that was used as a fire watch station back.  We ate lunch here and enjoyed some leftovers heated up on the engine.

Further down the rim road.

7494 Feet.

Knoll Lake.  As you can imagine at this elevation the water was a little chilly.

Heading back down the rim road we witnessed the clouds start to build, darken and then dump rain and hail on us before they moved down into the valley below.

That night we tried out the Mexican restaurant in Pine with great results. We arrived back at our chosen campsite along FR218 just before dark and setup camp.  These shots were taken on Saturday morning and show the great view at this location.

We met up with Pat and Erin on Saturday morning and after a good breakfast at the Strawberry lodge we headed up towards Clint's Well to find the Clear Creek Trailhead.  Once we left Forest Highway 3 we had to navigate about 9 miles of dirt road which took a while since Pat was driving his dually/cab over camper.  Next time we will leave the motor homes near the freeway.

The Maxwell trail takes you down into the Clear Creek Wilderness Area and it starts out with a steep 600 foot decent.

Some of the views on the way down.

Once in the canyon you could go either up or downstream.  The trails here are heavily overgrown and hard to find at times.

You also had to be on the alert for spiders and caterpillars.

We had some lunch near one of the larger pools downstream where we entered the canyon.

Heading back to the Maxwell trail and the climb out of the canyon.

Heading back up and out of the canyon.

We spent one more night along FR300 before heading home early Sunday morning to rescue Grandma from our son.