And finally, after a long, dry winter, it snowed!  It snowed and it snowed and it snowed!  What a glorious sight it was, even if it did put a damper on our weekend plans...

Our plan for the weekend of March 11-12 was to return to Cave Creek to do another backpacking trip - this time, with our new, warmer sleeping bags.  When we heard about the winter storm that was due to hit Arizona on Saturday, though, we decided that we just didn't want to be that miserable; it's one thing to hike in the rain, but if we were just going to be stuck in a tent all day...well, that wasn't going to be any fun at all.  Instead, we stayed home on Saturday and opted to do a snow play day on Sunday.

And it was a good thing that we did, too!  The winter storm was so strong and cold that it snowed as low as 2,000 feet in elevation!  There was even a couple of inches of snow in Seven Springs!  We would have inadvertently been snow-camping.

On Sunday morning, we awoke to a spectacular sight; there was snow on every mountain range that surrounded the Valley of the Sun: the Superstitions, the Mazatzals, Four Peaks, and so on.  It was so beautiful that we couldn't wait to get out and play in it.

Problem was...we had to get there first...easier said than done...

Instead of going to the usual place - the Wing Mountain Snow Play Area in Flagstaff - we decided instead to go try out the new snow play area on the Mogollon Rim, at the junction of SR 87 and SR 260, about ten miles north of Strawberry.  We had seen that area a dozen times but had never been there while it was covered with snow, but we could only imagine that it must be a fun place to do some sledding.

To get there, we drove through Fountain Hills and turned north onto SR 87 - the Beeline Highway.  What we should have done, though, was check the news and the traffic reports before we hit the road; as soon as we reached the Bush Highway, we reached a blockade.  The highway was closed, as it had not yet been plowed.  We weren't going any further than that.

Although we were forced to turn around, we weren't completely defeated; there was still more than one way to get to the Mogollon Rim!  There was always the long way there, via I-17 and SR 260 East.

The good news was, I-17 (being a major interstate) had already been plowed, and it was open to through traffic.  There was always the risk that SR 260 was going to be closed when we got there; and if that was the case, we could always go with Plan C: Flagstaff.

As soon as we merged onto I-17, we were treated to more beautiful, snowy scenery.  The Bradshaw Mountains - like all of the eastern mountain ranges we had seen earlier - were completely covered in snow.  The further north we drove, the more snow we saw.  The Sunset Point Rest Area was completely blanketed in snow, as was Cordes Junction and Camp Verde.  It was wonderful!

We exited at Camp Verde and stopped for lunch at the Quizno's just off of the highway.  Then, we started heading east, through the snow, on SR 260...just as it started snowing again...

At about the halfway mark between I-17 and SR 87, on SR 260, John pulled off onto the side of the road and said, "Okay, everyone out!"  True, we had not yet reached the snow play area, but we had found a nice pull-out where we could get out and play around in the fresh snow. 

And that is just what we did!  We giggled, we threw snowballs at each other, and we caught snowflakes on our tongues.  Most of all, we were grateful to have it!  The drought had been very brutal to our beautiful state, so to have a winter with no snow would have been just devastating.  Imagine the forest fires, the bark beetle infestations, the forest closures...

We stayed at that pull-out for about thirty minutes then continued on our way, towards the snow play area on SR 87.  By that time, the snow was starting to fall harder and harder, and we were nearly in white-out conditions on the road.  John slowed to about forty miles an hour, just because he couldn't see more than ten feet in front of him.

At long last, we arrived at the snow play area, at the junction of the two highways.  Unlike Wing Mountain (which, we were sure, was probably packed with people), there were only a few cars parked there.  That meant that we didn't have to compete with a hundred other people to sled down the hills or even just to make a snow angel on the ground. 

Of course, by that time, the snow was falling hard and it was bitter-cold outside.  We made maybe one or two runs with the sled before Mary said, "Daddy, I don't want to do that anymore."

We stuck around at the snow play area for about thirty minutes, until it was just too cold to play anymore and Mary's knit gloves were soaking wet.  With that, we jumped back into the 4Runner, turned on the heat, and headed down the mountain, towards Phoenix.

Although we had not been able to drive north on SR 87, due to the snowfall, it remained to be seen whether or not we could get home via the Beeline.  The highway appeared to have been plowed, despite the fresh snow that was falling on it, and there weren't any signs indicating that the road was closed.  That said, we took our chances and headed south on SR 87, hoping that we wouldn't be turned around and sent back.

Fortunately, that was not the case.  By the time we started down the highway, all of the road closures had been lifted, and we were free to return to Phoenix along SR 87.  As we arrived in Payson, the snow had stopped falling, and we were free to enjoy the beautiful wintry scenery all the way home...

It was, of course, a glorious sight...

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