I've been to Horseshoe Lake several times before and always loved the area. I'd even photographed here a coupld times. But this weekend in mid-November was different. The area was full of dove and quail hunters as well as an early winter storm that was the star of the show.

When I heard it might rain, I thought this area would be good. I hadn't explored all the side roads or found the stream crossings I'd heard about. And I'd been checking it all out on Google Earth... so the adventure was on!

This is the first of two stream crossings on the Verde. Even though this first crossing was over 50 yards long, the river was shallow and absent of any current. A piece of cake.

The second crossing had my heart racing. I only crossed after a similar SUV made it look easy. Or sound easy. I didn't actually witness them crossing, but I had heard them and then saw their wet tire tracks on the road. I did have the good sense to put it in 4-wheel drive. But i still got a little squirrely in the deepest part of the 20 yard crossing. It was exhilarating!