Point of Rocks Campground
Photographer Rich Charpentier
©Bert Gildart: Here’s a quick quiz for all you political junkies and current event followers. At the moment Janie and I are in the same town in the Southwest that John McCain appeared today, April 5, 2008.
So, where in the world are Bert and Janie?
OK, you got it, we’re in Prescott, Arizona, and today, McCain will make a speech from the steps of the courthouse–not far from a bar in which Doc Holiday, Big Nose Kate and Wyatt Earp once hung out.
The courthouse steps are the same ones from which the Arizona senator announced his intention to run against George Bush in the Republican primary almost eight years ago. I’d enjoy hearing McCain, but I dislike huge crowds so this is one political gathering we will miss.
POINT OF ROCKS
Instead, we will join Rich Charpentier and his friend, Sadira, on a 40 minute drive from Prescott to Jerome, once an old mining town, but now a touristy village that makes money interpreting its past. Rich is a photographer and a good one at that, and we’re delighted they’re taking a little time off to further explore this part of the country Rich has decided to call home.
If you like fairly large cities, Prescott is, in fact, a wonderful place to call home. We’re camped at the moment at Point of Rocks Campground, which is the same one in which Rich parks his Airstream.
From the campground, he can strike out on a short hike and within ten minutes be perched on a huge “point of rocks” overlooking Watson Lake. He often makes the hike about the time of sunset, enjoying the incredible panoramic view this spot provides. That’s what we did the night we arrived, and along the way, he pointed out a tree he said has become a focal point for many of his photographs.
Surrounded by beauty
Because I, too, thought it a nice subject, I was appreciative of all the experience Rich has acquired in the area, and delighted he’d take time and share that knowledge with me.
FRIENDLY BOBCAT
In the other direction sun was settling over the rocks which surround Watson Lake, and I had to remind myself that we were but a few minutes hike from our trailer.
On the way back from the overlook, we searched for a bobcat that Rich said he sees on a regular basis. The feline often sits on a huge rock scanning the woods that surround Rich’s trailer. Rich thinks it’s there because of a family of quail and says that when his path crosses that of the bobcat it simply sits and peers at him, “but only when I don’t have my camera with me,” he jokes.
Sunset over Watson Lake
That, we concluded was a good reason for making a few more hikes to Point of Rocks–but with our cameras.
Note: To carry on with the idea of posting a blog from this time last year, I offer the following: Spring Awakening .
