After doing laundry at the clean and convenient laundromat at Rancho Sedona RV park, we traveled on to the Dead Horse Ranch State Park where we have a three-day reservation, all at the same site this time.

Park’s name story

The story of the name of this park is that a family was touring different ranches in the area, looking to purchase one. When they asked their kids which was their favorite, the kids said the one with the dead horse. Apparently there was, in fact, a dead horse in the field of one of the ranches. The family purchased the land, named it Dead Horse Ranch, and later sold the land to the state for a park with the caveat that the name remain.

Historic Hickey Ditch and Three Lagoons

From our campsite in the Quail Loop, we took an afternoon stroll to the three lagoons in the park. These were built in 2002 and are stocked with fish, with many people fishing as we walked on the trail around them. These lagoons store water from the historic Hickey Ditch which is a flume that took water from the Verde River for agriculture starting in 1874. The water now provides habitat for wildlife and recreation for park visitors.

Tony talked with the neighboring camp maintenance couple and learned that these nice temperatures in the upper 60s/low 70s in the day are unusual this early in the year. They said they are having to mow grass that is not typically on their job list yet.

Coconino National Forest

For our second hike in this park we walked up Roadrunner Road past the other campgrounds to the Raptor Hill trail that headed up into the national forest. One hiker paused on her way down to point out Tuzigoot National Monument which is visible from these slopes. She suggested we visit, so that is now on our list before we leave. This was meant to be just an evening stroll, but it turned into a regular four-plus mile hike. It happens.

For a late reservation, we were fortunate to book three nights in a row in the same campsite which was right across from the bathhouse. Just got lucky:)