I love AZ 288 out of Miami, AZ. It’s a spot I return to every couple of years. And 2021 was no exception. I returned to the same campsite I occupied a couple of years ago…and suffered the same excruciating fear that I went through last time I came here. The “road” to the site crosses benches of sharp rock. They hammer my tires, and I scrape bottom several times getting up and down. Really, this is another site I have no business being in at all. But the view! The view! Risks must be taken in service to the view.

I don’t think I’ll come to this particular site again. It’s just too nerve-wracking. There are others (I found them on my trike) that have equally good views and are somewhat less punishing on the tires. I couldn’t get to any of them in the RV because the road in was too uneven and the curves too sharp, but I can get there in my new rig.

I barely got out of this spot because even my normal 1,000 point turn was inadequate to handle the large boulders that crowded my way when trying to turn around at the top of the “road”. I scraped a couple of times but thankfully no holes.

Frustratingly, the light was difficult and I’m not sure I really captured how glorious the view of Lake Roosevelt was, so I snapped a cactus flower to make up for it.

Lake Roosevelt from campsite on AZ 288. There’s a fire back there somewhere south of Miami generating smoke.

Bluff after bluff…there are some great campsites on some of those bluffs. If you can get there.

We all love cactus flowers, right? They were in bloom when I camped near Miami.

Miami/Globe/AZ 288