After a day of travel, it’s refreshing for body and spirit to have a beautiful view and a peaceful night’s sleep. A convenient hiking trail makes it all the better. Otherwise, we’re walking circles around the campground trying to get in a bit of exercise after a day on the road. Lyman Lake State Park, in east central Arizona, was the perfect stop on our route north from Silver City, New Mexico.
A Very Sweet Campground
At only 177 miles from Silver City, we had time for a last stroll through town before heading out. We didn’t have high expectations for the campground. For some reason, a neighbor at our RV park in Silver City told us that Lyman Lake wasn’t anything special. Apparently his criteria are different than ours.
We arrived at Lyman Lake State Park to find a pretty little campground with spacious, immaculate sites, and gorgeous views of the lake. It was quiet, peaceful, and the night skies are wonderfully dark. With no big cities nearby, great swaths of stars are visible.
Campsites at Lyman Lake State Park
Best of all, there’s a wonderful hiking trail within walking distance of the campground. The trail wends along the lake and around picturesque rock formations, with hundreds of ancient petroglyphs pecked into the rocks. We’ve seen lots of petroglyphs in our travels, but it’s always a thrill to search for the rock art left behind by native peoples thousands of years ago, and to try to decipher the meaning of the ancient graffiti.
Click on any photo for a larger image
We hiked a couple of miles of trails in the late afternoon, and again in the morning before leaving. Should you be traveling this way, we highly recommend this sweet little campground and the hiking trails.
About The Campground
Lyman Lake State Park is situated on the shores of a 1500-acre reservoir at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The sites are lovely, each with an individual ramada for shade. Nice bathrooms and showers, terrible to nonexistent Verizon (no big deal for one night, right?). If you head to the day use area to hike the trail, you’ll have excellent Verizon coverage and all of your emails will arrive in one big deluge. Water/electric sites are $28, non-hookup sites are $20.
Looks like an oasis- can’t wait to check it out & the Silver City’s campground. Stay cool wherever you guys are:-)
Bettina
Bettina, somehow we’ve managed to escape the heat wave—and we’ll soon be on Lopez Island, where it’s always cool. :-) Hope you guys are staying cool, too!
Looks like another wonderful campsite. I really like the ramadas. Hope you are heading out of the heat coming next week, we are!
It’s a really pretty spot, Pam. The ramadas definitely add to the ambience. We’re out of the Southwest, just in time, it seems!
Looks like a lovely little park. We will certainly keep this one in mind if we should find ourselves near St. Johns. We always go out of our way to visit areas with ancient rock art. We are finally hitting the road on Sunday…yippy!
Oh yay, you’ll soon be off on another adventure! I hope you’ll be writing about your travels, LuAnn. This was the first place we’ve been where we’ve seen rock art on horizontal surfaces.
Very nice! I love it when a park turns out to be better than you’d hoped for!
It was a nice surprise, Lisa. As you know, there’s no way to really know what a park is like until you go there—that’s why I appreciate so much the reviews of other travelers.
What a great gem of a park…neat sites, lake, and a terrific hiking trail! Isn’t it amazing how an overnight stay can sometimes feel like several days! Getting in early in afternoon allows a lot of time to explore. You found some beautiful petroglyphs:)
So true, Pam—I love the shorter travel days that allow us time to explore. As you said, even an overnight can feel like a couple of days when there’s an opportunity for an afternoon and morning hike.
A park with an access to a trail is high on my books although hiking is now out of the question for me for a while.
People do have different opinion on a park depending on what they need or expect. Had you listened to the person, you would have missed this little gem.
ML, we actually let that person influence us a bit—we extended our stay in Silver City by one day and cut our visit to Lyman Lake short by a day. But we’re really happy we spent one night there! It’s really a lovely little park.
I would love to see what he would recommend as a good park to stay… might be interesting
Ha! No kidding! I should have asked him what he considers a “good” park. That would have given me some helpful information. :-)
Well I sure don’t know why he would say this wasn’t a great park. All those petroglyphs alone put it way high up for me and water and hikes. And very nice sites. Good grief what does he want? Full Hook Ups and a pool and games I suppose. You’ve done it again in finding a great place. I’d have been wanting to stay more than one night here. Our one nighters are usually seriously just an overnight at some cheap PPA park. Nothing like this. Great pictures!
Thanks, Sherry. :-) We were really happy with this sweet little park. I’m not sure how long we would stay here, but a couple of nights would be nice. I don’t mind PPA parks if there’s at least a place to walk. I think we’ll end up with more of those when we travel up the East Coast.
Don’t you just love being surprised by a park – in a positive way?! Love the glyphs and the trails looks very nice as well. Great pic of Eric in the clouds.
Yes, surprised in a GOOD way is great, Jodee! I don’t like those “other” kinds of surprises. I liked that photo of Eric in the clouds, too. :-)
After a day of driving, it feels so good to just walk and listen to the birds and feel the breeze.
I’m so much happier when we’re in a beautiful place at the end of the day, Debbie. We’re willing to go a bit out of our way to make that happen.
Those petroglyphs look pretty darn cool! Thanks for the tip, if we’re in the area, we definitely need to try it out. I’m sure Opie (if allowed) would enjoy the walk too.
Kathie, I think pets on leash are allowed on the trails—so Opie would be a happy camper. It’s a lovely park! He could go swimming, too. :-)
This place looks pretty cool! Have to add it to our bucket list.
It’s a great little spot, Brenda. Definitely put it on your list to visit in your beautiful new Casita. :-)