Arizona Walk-About

Arizona is a nice place to walk about in the winter. You can do it in the summer, but the higher elevations are nicer. I'll be there for a few days scouting about. One of the places that I plan to go is Payson. I shot my first deer when I was seven years old up on the Mogollon Rim. The photo of this blogger with his scoped .22 rifle (right) was taken shortly after that incident. 

As a result of having lived in the area as a boy, I enjoy returning and re-living some of my own history through a different (much older) set of eyes.

In the winter, Payson gets a lot of snow. In the summer, it's high pine forrest with a few homes. One of the nice things about Arizona is its lack of patent land. Most of the State of Arizona is either Indian reservation or it belongs to the US Department of the interior and it's available for public use. Payson is located in the geographic center of Arizona.

I didn't expect it to snow in May.
Near Payson, AZ - 2 years ago.

Then there were expeditions to
wilderness areas near Payson.

In 1918 author Zane Grey made his first trip to the area surrounding Payson. He returned regularly through 1929, and purchased land near Tonto Creek, including 120 acres (0.49 km2) from Sampson Elam Boles under Myrtle Point. Grey wrote many books about the area that I read as a boy. When you read Grey's novels about cowboys, miners, gunfights and the old west, you will see a lot of Payson in your mind's eye.

The last of the great range wars in the old west took place near Young, Arizona (not far from Payson - in lower elevations). Ranchers each sent away for hired guns to enforce their rights and it ended in a series of bloody shoot-outs that were popularized by dime novels at the time and Hollywood movies much later in history.

I spent a cold night in the rig in the Hell's Gate Wilderness
not far from Payson. Memories of a different year on walk-about