Windy and Cold Indian Point

Neither one of us wanted to repeat our Coyote Ugly Camping experience so we started looking for a place to camp earlier the next day. We were at a bit of a disadvantage since our Delorme Gazeteer couldn’t keep up with the little dirt roads that criss cross over the creek feeding the Roosevelt Lake. We were thrilled to find a sweet campground on the northern tip of the Lake called Indian Point. Archie had to wade across the creek on his way to the campground.

Wading Tonto Creek

We had just settled in for the night and got our hamburgers grilled when we had a visit from a couple of good ol’ boys from Punkin Center (yep–couldn’t get quite far enough away). They were cruising around in their three-tone pickup truck looking for snakes to shoot. (I kid you not.) I secretly named them Drunk Guy and Big Guy.  They decided we could be their entertainment and proceeded to fill us in on all the local happenings. Like apologizing for the cold and windy weather. And letting us know the best food in town was at the Punkin Center Café (might I had here that it is the ONLY food in town). And like how when Big Guy ran away from home at 14 he got a job picking cherries on Flathead Lake and gee he really missed Montana but not the weather but hell it was colder in Arizona now than on Flathead Lake–*spit, chuckle, spit again*.

After our evening entertainment went off in search for snakes we settled in and enjoyed our time there. The highlight of this stop, for me, was the Arizona State University archaeology study site for an indigenous people they called the Salado Indians. Flat dirt pyramid mounds have been studied and are preserved near the campground. Pottery shards as well as tools and weapons were found during excavations during recent drought (due to low lake levels). When the lake was formed via dam in 1903 the government wasn’t very interested in preserving our indigenous people’s stories. Now they are and it is a delight to see the study taking place. I walked along the ruins and tried to imagine how they cooked, where they did their laundry and washed their hair, and how their social hierarchy worked.

It’s fun to escape every once in a while to a simpler time.