Last summer we had reservations to go to Fools Hollow State Park in Show Low, Arizona after leaving Ruidoso, NM. However, due to some brake failures after heading down a mile and a half of 8% grade with the trailer brakes not fully engaging after some repairs that had been done several weeks before – we had to cancel our first attempt to visit this state park. We had selected an unusual buddy site as our spot for the four nights we were going to be there. Coming in to Show Low had us heading in to the mountains which if you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time you probably know we have a special affinity for the mountains.
Show Low is a cute little town with an interesting history. In the early days 2 settlers who were neighbors worried about their land growing too close together and getting too crowded. They decided that they would have a card game and whoever won a game of Seven-Up – as they dealt the last hand it was decided whoever showed the lowest card (Show Low) they would win and stay and the other would leave for other areas. The low card was a 2 of clubs which has lead to the main street in town being called “Deuce of Clubs”. Apparently they still use this method today when there is a run off for the mayor – essentially whichever draws the “deuce of clubs” is then proclaimed the mayor for the next term. (credit to: https://arizonaoddities.com/2009/07/how-did-show-low-get-its-name/ for the information on the town name).
Fools Hollow State Park is just outside of town and is a very pretty campground. They have a small lake – although you can tell the drought that is so prevalent in the west is definitely affecting using the water for boating and such. Many of their sites (not all though) are buddy sites – one side is longer and with full hookups the other side shorter and does not have sewer. It seems like a great way to camp with friends and family – we had the longer full hook up spot and our neighbors in the other part were very nice – even offered to carry our trash one evening on their way to the dumpster as well. They had probably more park hosts than any other campground we’ve been to – although I think park hosting there would be really nice it’s a pretty park with lots of trees and decent space between the spots.
While camping there we grilled some foods as we’ve been doing so much more of these days and even filmed a video for our YouTube page. If you haven’t found us on YouTube yet we’ve got plans for more videos to come (I’m learning to use some editing software to put these videos together).
GnomadicLife 