Woods Canyon Lake

           Driving to Woods Canyon Lake for the day was always an exciting thing to do when we were up at the cabin.  The lake is one of the biggest natural lakes in Arizona, right on top of the rim, surrounded by a dense forest of tall ponderosa pines, firs, oaks and aspen trees.  People in the Valley love to take the three hour drive up to Woods Canyon lake during the summer just to get out of the heat, and many people bring their tents and trailers and spend the week in the campgrounds. 

            From the cabin it only took us about an hour to drive over the dirt road, and then another half hour to drive up on top of the rim to the lake.  Sometimes family would drive up from the Valley to meet us there for the afternoon.

            One day we met Aunt Ejvor’s family at Woods Canyon Lake.  It was extra fun for us to spend the day with them.  Tina was my best friend, and Richard and Keith were close to the same age and had fun together.  Aunt Ejvor had older children, too, and we thought they were so cool!  We shuffled kids around on the drive back down the rim so friends could ride with each other.  Linda and I got to ride ride in Aunt Ejvor's car, with Tina.  Her big sister Clara was our oldest cousin, an almost grown up teenager!  She sat in the front seat of their station wagon, and we were really impressed when she stuck her bare feet out of the window, letting the wind whip around them and through the car, cooling us all down. 

            A few days later, when we were on our way home from the cabin, Linda and I tried to do the same thing, but Mom told us to get our feet inside the car right now!  It sure didn't seem fair.  How come Clara could get away with it, but us kids couldn't? .

            A few years later we met Aunt Amy and her family at the lake for another summer picnic.  They were renting a cabin in Pine for a week, a small vacation town on the other side of Payson.  We spent an enjoyable morning picnicking and fishing, but a big storm rolled in early in the afternoon, so we had to call it a day.  It rained on us hard all the way down the rim, and by the time we reached the turn off to the cabin the road was slick and muddy.  Dad and Uncle Joe pulled both cars into the pull off on the side of the road and talked to each other through the windows, while the rain pelted down us.  Dad was worried about the road into the cabin, with this much rain it would be nearly impossible to drive over the slick spots.  Aunt Amy and Uncle Joe invited us to stay with them in their cabin at Pine, but we hadn't brought any clothes or food, other than what we packed for the picnic, and Mom didn't want to be a bother.  Dad kept thinking the storm would let up soon, but after another half hour of pounding rain he finally told Mom we'd better not chance it.  We thought it was way exciting to get to follow Aunt Amy and Uncle Joe to Pine and stay with them for the night. 

             We didn’t have pajamas or tooth brushes, but we borrowed old t-shirts from our older cousins.  Mom and Aunt Amy ran into the grocery store in Payson and bought stuff for our dinner, and we had a fun evening visiting and playing games with everybody.  When it was time for bed we made beds on the floor of their A-frame cabin.  We had never seen a cabin like that before.  There seemed to be no side walls, just a very steep roof that reached all the way to the ground and came together high above the cabin in a peak. 

             In the morning Dad and Uncle Joe made breakfast for everyone while we took a walk to see what their woods looked like.  It was pretty, but not nearly as beautiful as our creek and woods at the cabin.  It seemed kind of hard to say good by after spending so much time together, and kind of lonely in the car ride back to the cabin, but the road had dried out enough for us to get by without slipping and sliding off the side, and we were happy to finally get home to our own clothes, our own toothbrushes, and our own cabin.