Mess'in Around in the West Desert

The other day I decided that I needed to unwind a little after a hard day of work. I loaded up the family and a couple of guns and headed for the desert. We found a nice quiet place and started shooting. The girls got in the back of the truck and decided to entertain themselves with whatever was available. Myla decided that she was a dancing star and the truck bed was her stage. She danced and danced and acted as if the gun blasts were the base in the music she was dancing to.

Ava was just happy to be outside after a long cold winter and was reveling in the sun. The wind was blowing and she loved to look straight into it and close her eyes. After she got done with that she decided that she was hungry and started eating anything she could find in the truck bed. The buffet included sticks, rocks, an old bottle, some rope, and dirt.

I brought along the old model 94 30-30 just to have some fun. Its an old gun but its still one of my favorites.

This time I even got Cami to shoot it. It took a lot of talking and calling her a pansy but eventually she gave in and shot it. After she shot it she quickly handed the gun back to me and kept saying "never again, never again, never again." I just kept laughing. She was a great sport and did get close to what she was aiming at. Maybe in a year or two she will forget how much it kicks and try it again.

After we were done shooting we drove around the west desert for a while looking for some cool places. We came across a natural arch on a rock out cropping. It wasn't a huge arch but still fun to find way out there in the west desert.

I think I will name it Dragon Fang Arch after the one pointy rock sticking down off the top.

On our way back in we stopped and took a couple of pictures of Timp from across the lake. Later on this summer I will be taking some pictures from Timp back across the lake at this spot.

I took this picture just to show you how high we were up. I was zoomed in as much as the camera would go on this truck and it still looks like a bug.

This was a picture of the drive on the way up. As you can see it gets a little steep. Cami was freaking out that it was too steep but the girls just kept giggling.

Here is a picture of the way back down across the lake pointed down toward Payson.