Northern Arizona pine country - Part 2

So back on the road once again. So far a wonderful trip and a fantastic ride with some amazing weather. Did I mention it was super cool? Well just in case, it the weather was awesome!

I'm heading southish down Lake Mary Road. The next area is going to be Mormon Lake. I've been to Mormon Lake many times. Never been to the Too Broke for Sturgis rally tho. It's at the end of July. Mormon Lake is a dry lake bed and I have yet to see any water on it. Maybe mud but no water. There are basically 2 ways into the area. Its basically a several mile loop that is connected to Lake Mary Road. I've never been on the north side of this road so decided I would try it. Its a nice little (slow speed limit) road with lots of curves and great scenery.

Just as I'm getting close to the main lodge I see this cool looking building. Although I passed it the first time and was thinking I needed to turn back. So I found a little turn off and turned back around.

There was a guy inside it and noticed I had pulled up. We greeted each other. I think he's a town worker, but didn't bother him.

I also saw this neat little historical marker. Arizona really does have quite a bit of history and much more than a native even knows about.

On the other side of these little finds, the dry lake bed was there. Its a wide open area, so I decided to take some nature shots.

Is that water I see in the distance?

Hey look mom, no hands. Ok ok, maybe I wasn't riding but I'll be damned if there wasn't a little water up close too. I know its only a puddle, but still! This is the most I've ever seen here.

My stop on the road was longer than expected, but I was enjoying myself. Taking in the fresh smelling air and scent of the pines. Even tho you don't really see any in these few pictures, they were all around. Just not on the lake bed. The weather still very good at this point and cloud formations were starting to appear. I decided I've stopped long enough its time to mosey along.

After a few minutes I saw another clearing on both sides of the road. There was a private gated road, so I used this as a pull off to take a few more photos but this time used my Blackberry so that I did not have to go thru all the trouble of pulling the camera out for only a couples shots. I was also posting to Facebook & Twitter. And although I did not have a data signal at this point, I knew I soon would at the lodge.

I saw this neat cloud formation.

So I decided to take a shot with my bike. This was the first photograph that I sent to Twitter & Facebook. Facebook seemed to send items much better then thru e-mail to TwitPic.

Starting the scoot back up as I am almost to the Mormon Lake area finally. It was still before 10am and I already had made such progress on my trip. I was in no hurry at all, but my time was going great. Besides I was getting hungry and had a craving for a salad. I knew I could eat the lodge restaurant and really couldn't wait to get there. The hostess sat me at my table but mentioned breakfast. Breakfast? Are you kidding me, I've been up since very early. I'm ready for lunch! I didn't ask anyone and just figured they were ONLY serving breakfast. This is a small small small town after all. Did I mention how small it was? Its a tiny, itty bitty, quaint little town. So breakfast it is! For $9 including my coffee I got a very large plate of food (2 eggs, some fruit, bacon and a HUGE pile of fried potatoes. I did get a good laugh from a sign they had hanging just above my head in the isle. Remember this is a dry lake bed =)

After breakfast while I was paying for my meal at the front, I was talking to the same hostess that sat me down about the Too Broke for Sturgis rally. She was very nice and said looked forward to seeing me there. Very nice woman, I should have had someone taken a picture of us. I need to step outside my boundaries more and get other to take pictures with me on my trips. It would get them involved with my ride and make for some great conversation. Shortly after I decided it was time to hit the road once more.

With the scoot facing the way it was, the trip back to Lake Mary Road is very short. Although I once drove by a cool old wagon they have right before you get into the town. I've taken many pictures of it before, so I did no such thing this time around. Once I turned back onto Lake Mary Road I was really enjoying the ride with no traffic. There was an occasional cage or 2 that passed going the opposite way as me but that was it. I came to this long straight away with a good size clearing on both sides of the road. Figured I really didn't need to take any more photos right now....however as I was almost half way thru it I see an elk on the left side of the road. I was still a little bit from it. This was on the road side of the fence. As I get closer I notice this was a mom elk and her baby. She really wasn't all that big. I've seen only a handful of elk in person and they are usually much larger animals. Even so she just stared at me and didn't move. There was nowhere to pull over. I just wanted a quick stop for some photos. The shoulder was very small so it was even difficult to pull to the side. Well what the hell. Not much traffic. I pull to the side right near the elk, the whole time the mom is really eyeing me. Could just tell she was not very happy at all, more so that I actually stopped. I had my Blackberry in my vest so I pulled it out turned my head and boom, she already jumped the fence. Her baby had was still trying to figure out how to get over it. This allowed me enough time to take a couple photographs of the mom while I was still seated on my bike. When I zoom with my Blackberry as I did, it makes the pic smaller. No vehicle came from behind me during this time.