Dispersed Camping in Tonto National Forest

This site is on FR405 off of HWY 260 in Arizona – just down the road from Payson.  The access road is well-maintained.  There are probably 30 campsites here, with maybe half of them accessible to large RVs.  There are quite a few sites that are accessible only by 4×4.  On Saturday afternoon some people set up a speaker and started blasting music we could hear from a quarter mile away.  It seemed to fill the whole forest.  They partied for the day and were gone by nightfall.  We stayed here for a week before heading into town for supplies and dumping tanks, then back out to a different site in Tonto National Forest.  Annie T. Dog is enjoying the shit out of the camping lifestyle.  She sleeps out in the sun all day and goes for occasional walks to sniff out the squirrels.  It’s nice being able to light a campfire here.

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It’s Just a Ride

The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” And we … kill those people.
— Bill Hicks