Those stupid Californians building home in a forest.

[TravelinMan]

... Then I wish I could live in some alpine cabin in Payson (beautiful town).

I grew up in Scottsdale and my folks built a little one-room summer cabin near Payson on the Upper East Verde River. I still have wonderful memories of going there in the summer to escape the desert heat. Scottsdale also suffered its occasional Haboob and they weren't fun. Dust devils were very common but benign.

Payson has been very proactive with their water supply. In addition to their progressive water management in town with their wells and lakes to replenish the aquifer they just completed a pipeline from the C.C. Cragin reservoir on the Rim for additional water supply. Town managers come from all over the West to study their system.

Have you also visited Sedona with it's beatiful red earth? ... I asked and they said that Californians during the 1980's exodus had bought up the houses and jacked up the prices for late comers.

Sedona is very picturesque but overcrowded now like you alluded to mainly because of folks from California. A great place to visit but maybe not so great to live full-time.

When you went to Payson did you visit Zane Grey's cabin where he wrote some novels? When I went I wanted to visit it but said ''next time''. Well, the years went by and the forest around Payson had a big forest fire and it consumed the cabin. It was rebuilt, but it's not the ''real thing'' so I am no longer interested.

I did visit the original Zane Grey cabin but it was not protected and vandal/tourists had written their names all over it. But I did see the original and have read many of the books he wrote while staying at that cabin.

 

[Catlady]

@TravelinMan - I just LOVE Payson. One of the things that pleased me and surprised me was that I don't think I saw a single piece of trash along the streets. BUT, what I loved the most was how cool it was there. I'm one of those people that perspire excessively, yet I was able to walk to a restaurant three blocks away without getting a single bead of sweat. That afternoon, when I drove down to the valley it was HOT.