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Clear Creek Campground east of Camp Verde AZ

Camped at Site 9, Clear Creek Campground, Clear Creek AZ, March 14, 2008
Camped at Site 9, Clear Creek Campground, Clear Creek AZ, March 14, 2008

Clear Creek Campground is a small, older, developed campground in the Coconino National Forest off Route 260 a few miles east of Camp Verde AZ.

There's a pin locating this campground on my Google Map of this trip.

Dispersed camping guidelines

Here is a quote from the Dispersed Camping guidelines for Coconino National Forest. Go read the whole page.

Camping-on-your-own Guidelines

THE FOREST BELONGS TO EVERYONE... however, there are some firm guidelines we must all follow out of respect for everyone who owns the Forest, human and animal. You may camp most anywhere on the Coconino National Forest (unless otherwise posted) according to the following guidelines:

  1. Generally, there is a 14-DAY PER MONTH STAY LIMIT (14 days in a 30-day period) on the Coconino National Forest. Please note that there are some exceptions where the limit is less than fourteen days. Establishing residency is against federal regulation.
  2. No camping or campfires on the forest within city limits.
  3. Do not camp on private property unless you have the owner's permission.
  4. No camping within one-fourth mile of a wildlife watering tank/hole. (State Law)
  5. Camp at least one mile from a pay (designated) campground or established (developed) recreation area, or as posted.
  6. Please do not camp in or drive through open meadowland due to the scarring effect it causes.
  7. Down and dead firewood may be gathered around your camping area for use at your campsite but it is illegal to load wood in a vehicle to take out of the Forest without a special permit. (You may not cut standing trees nor can you cut limbs off of standing trees.)
  8. Campfires can cause lasting impacts to the backcountry.
    • Use a lightweight stove for cooking and enjoy a candle lantern for light.
    • Where fires are permitted, use established fire rings, fire pans, or mound fires.
    • Keep fires small. Only use sticks from the ground that can be broken by hand.
    • Burn all wood and coals to ash, put out campfires completely, then scatter cool ashes.
  9. Camp 200 feet from the main roadway, 20 feet from forest road, behind the county or state right-of-way fence.
  10. Always use the pack-in/pack-out method for the disposal of litter to keep your Forest clean.
  11. Please use a digging tool to bury all human and pet waste at least 6 to 7 inches deep.
  12. Pets are welcome in most areas but must be kept leashed at all times.
  13. Always practice "Leave No Trace" Outdoor Ethics.

Clear Creek Campground east of Camp Verde AZ

Nights I've camped here

Wind on the Gangplank

There was almost no soil in that part of the range - just twelve miles' breadth of rough pink rock. "As you go from Chicago west, soil diminishes in thickness and fertility, and when you get to the gangplank and up here on top of the Laramie Range there is virtually none," Love said. "It's had ten million years to develop, and there's none. Why? Wind - that's why. The wind blows away everything smaller than gravel."

Standing in that wind was like standing in river rapids. It was a wind embellished with gusts, but, over all, it was primordially steady: a consistent southwest wind, which had been blowing that way not just through human history but in every age since the creation of the mountains - a record written clearly in wind - scored rock. Trees were widely scattered up there and, where they existed, appeared to be rooted in the rock itself. Their crowns looked like umbrellas that had been turned inside out and were streaming off the trunks downwind. "Wind erosion has tremendous significance in this part of the Rocky Mountain region," Love said, "Even down in Laramie, the trees are tilted. Old-timers used to say that a Wyoming wind gauge was an anvil on a length of chain. When the land was surveyed, the surveyors couldn't keep their tripods steady. They had to work by night or near sunrise. People went insane because of the wind." His mother, in her 1905 journal, said that Old Hanley, passing by the Twin Creek school, would disrupt lessons by making some excuse to step inside and light his pipe. She also described a man who was evidently losing to the wind his struggle to build a cabin:

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