Living Our Dream

Verde Canyon Railroad

One of the things we like to do is take rides on vintage trains. We have ridden on the 1880 Train in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Grand Canyon Railway, the Durango & Silverton Railroad in Colorado, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway also in Colorado, and the Copper King Express in Montana just last year. The Copper King Express started passenger service in 2006, but was never able to turn a profit. Therefore, they decided to concentrate on hauling freight and made the last passenger run on Nov. 29, 2009.

When our online research turned up the Verde Canyon Railroad that departed from nearby Clarkdale, we thought it sounded interesting and decided to give it a try. There are daily, four-hour, 40-mile round-trip excursions up the canyon to Perkinsville.

The railroad was originally started in 1912 as the Verde Valley Railroad which was a 38-mile branch line from Clarkdale to Drake, AZ, to serve the cement-making operations in Clarkdale and the copper mines in Jerome. You can see Jerome over on the side Cleopatra Hill from various locations in Clarkdale.

Dave Durbano purchased the railroad in 1989-90 and began passenger excursions from Clarkdale to the abandoned town of Perkinsville. Unlike the Copper King Express that traveled through a blighted, mostly industrial area, most of the Verde Canyon route is lined by national forests and wilderness areas.

The train departs at 1:00 PM, and they ask passengers to arrive an hour early. We had plenty of time to kill, and since it was lunch time, we checked out the snack bar. They had a variety of snacks and sandwiches, and we decided to share a southwest turkey panini. It had pepper-jack cheese, spinach and cilantro, and it was delish.

 

In addition to standard coach seating, Verde Canyon Railroad has first-class seating and luxury accommodations in the caboose. We are usually somewhat budget conscious, but this time we opted for first-class seating. First-class cars are set up with couches and high-back upholstered chairs that looked roomier and so much more comfortable than the Pullman seating in coach. Not only that, but first class included a champagne or sparkling cider toast to start the excursion, complimentary bottled water, and hot and cold appetizers along the way. The photo below shows the roomy, comfortable seating in first class.

 

As the excursion started out, we passed the site of the copper smelter. The smelter covered 200 acres and had over 30 buildings. The smelter closed in 1950 and was torn down, but mountains of slag remain along the track. The slag was molten when it was dumped, and corrugated iron panels held the slag back so it didn't slide onto the tracks. Much of the corrugated iron has rusted away, but he slag has solidified so it stays put.

Interestingly, a company has recently purchased the slag pile and will haul it away over the next 20 years or so to reprocess it. The slag has copper, zinc, silver and gold left in it from the original smelting operation, and modern methods make it economically feasible to recover these left over metals.

After passing the slag pile, the track begins to follow the Verde River. The train ambles along at a relaxing 10 or 12 miles an hour, so there's plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. At the beginning of the route, the river valley was still relatively flat.

A little farther along as the altitude increases, the canyon gets deeper.

 

Appetizers were served shortly after we left the station. We had chicken wings, sandwiches, a vegetable platter, crackers and three or four types of cheese, Caesar salad and bite-size brownies for desert. After we had some snacks, we went out onto one of the open cars.

Each guest is assigned to an enclosed car, but there is an open car with benches for every one or two closed cars. Riders can go out onto the open cars for a better view of the passing scenery. Each open car also has an attendant who is an expert on local history and the wildlife. The next photo shows how the open cars (darker color) are placed among the closed cars.

We passed the nest of the bald eagles who are year-round residents. The eaglets have left the nest by now, but we later saw one of them on a distant ledge. A number of migratory eagles join the year-round residents in winter. There were a couple of ospreys flying high overhead, a couple of small elk, and one black bear ambling along the river bank. Unfortunately, we didn't get any wildlife photos.

Still farther up the canyon, the red sandstone becomes more apparent. The red color comes from a small percentage of iron in the rock. In the next photo you can see uplifted red sandstone to the right with black volcanic basalt to the left. The basalt is topped with a layer of red sandstone, and there is a layer of light-colored limestone on top of that.

Speaking of rocks, our attendant identified many of the named rock formations for us. These were a lot easier to photograph than the wildlife since they were a lot bigger and they didn't move. The first one was Hole in the Wall.

Then there was Lincoln's Profile - complete with a tree for hair.

The next one is Turtle Rock.

There were more, but the last one we'll show is the Guardian Angel. You can see the flowing robes, the long hair, and it even looks like she is carrying a shield.

There are numerous Native American cave and cliff dwellings and pueblos in this area of Arizona. In addition to the larger, better known ruins, there were several along the train route, including the one below right before we got to the turn-around point in Perkinsville.

Perkinsville is a small, abandoned town named after the Perkins Ranch that has been located there for a century. Except for one home occupied by a Perkins descendant, about all that remains at Perkinsville are old, unused railroad buildings.

 

Scenes from the 1962 movie How the West Was Won were filmed in Perkinsville. The station appeared in the move.

At Perkinsville, the train stops, the locomotives uncouple and run down the siding to the other end of the train for the return trip. Notice the bald eagle paint job.

The FP7 locomotives being used for passenger service (#1510 and #1512) were built in 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of GM for a railroad in Alaska. After service in Alaska, the locomotives were put on display in California for a while, then were used in Wyoming. Verde Canyon Railroad purchased the locomotives in 1995 and restored and updated them.

We saw the black bear we mentioned earlier on the return trip back to Clarkdale, but other than that, the ride back was fairly uneventful. We spent part of the time inside enjoying our cushy seats, and part of the time outside. Even though it's the same scenery as on the way up the valley, it looks a little different on the way back because not only are you viewing the scenery from the other direction, the sun also is at a different angle.

We really enjoyed the Verde Canyon Railroad. Not only was it a scenic ride, but we liked the comfortable, roomy seats, we liked being able to move from inside to out at will, and we liked the appetizers.

Our next sightseeing outing will be to Sedona, so stay tuned.

Jerome, AZ

We left Tucson for a relatively short, four-hour drive to our next destination of Camp Verde, AZ, where Rancho Verde RV Park would be our home base for the next week. Camp Verde is about 60 miles south of Flagstaff along the Verde River.

It was getting pretty hot in Tucson, so heading north and moving to a higher elevation provided a welcome change in the weather. Temperatures were still in the 80s around Camp Verde, but with the low humidity of the high desert, it was usually quite comfortable.

Rancho Verde RV Park is a fairly small campground with only about 25 to 30 sites. It has full hookups with 30/50 amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The main road that circles the campground is paved and the pads are gravel. There's a concrete patio on each site and grass between the sites. The sites around the perimeter are back-ins, and there are some extra-long pull-throughs down the center. The back-in sites are fairly wide, but the pull-throughs are set up face to face so you may have to share living space with another RV if the campground is full. Fortunately for the campers, the campground wasn't full. We had a pull-through on the end which wasn't face to face with another site.

There are some trees for shade at Rancho Verde, but not so many that we couldn't get satellite. Rancho Verde is a nice, quiet, attractive little campground.

We chose to stop in Camp Verde because is is in the center of quite a few historic Arizona towns and Indian ruins. We made a day trip to this area from Flagstaff when we were there back in 2007 when Lora and J. Michael flew out to meet us to go to the Grand Canyon. Click here to read about our previous visit to this area. This time, we decided to stay south of Flagstaff and planned for additional time to see more of the sights.

One of those places to see was Jerome, AZ. Jerome is a "boom 'n' bust" copper mining town located about 20 miles northwest of Camp Verde. Jerome was founded on the side of Cleopatra Hill in 1883. It was named for Eugene Murray Jerome, who was an investor from New York who owned the mining claims and financed mining operations there.

In the early 1900s, Jerome became known as the "wickedest town in the west" because of all the gambling and vice. The town boomed in the 1920s and became the 4th largest town in Arizona with a population of about 15,000. The Depression brought a bust in the 1930s. During WWII, there was an increased demand for copper, and the town once again prospered. After the war, the smelter and the last mine were closed in the 1950s, and most of the population left.

In 1967, Jerome was designated a Historic District, and in 1976, it became a National Historic Landmark. Today, Jerome is a tourist town with about 350 residents. Some of the historic buildings have been restored, but there are also a few crumbling foundations and a few boarded up buildings here and there. There is a mining museum, numerous bed and breakfasts, a couple of hotels, restaurants, shops, art studios and galleries.

When we found out they were having their 45th Annual Jerome Historic Home and Building Tour, we scheduled our visit for the weekend to coincide with the tour. The tour included 7 historic, restored homes and other points of interest and one contemporary home. Proceeds from the tour benefit the Chamber of Commerce.

Jerome is known as the "Mile High Town" because it sits on the side of Cleopatra Hill at an elevation of 5,200 feet.

The road to Jerome makes several switchbacks as it comes up out of the valley before arriving in town. Jerome usually gets fairly crowded on weekends, but it was especially crowded because of the house and building tour. Although there are several parking lots in town, we weren't sure where the tour started so ended up following the signs to a large, paved lot on the outskirts of town where there were special shuttles into town for the tour.

New this year were a number of costumed reenactment groups including Civil War soldiers. They entertained visitors waiting for the shuttle with information about their weapons, uniforms and encampment. A battle reenactment was scheduled for later in the day. We heard the fix was in and the South was scheduled to win, but that the Union would be victorious on Sunday.

Transportation to each venue on the tour was provided by means of vans and SUVs operated by volunteers. We originally thought we would be driving our own car to each stop, but with the steep, narrow streets in Jerome and with the lack of adequate parking at some of the stops, having several hundred people driving around town looking at historic buildings just isn't practical. We got our tickets and waited in line about 20 or 25 minutes for our turn to board transportation to the first house on the tour.

While we waited, we took turns climbing the steep steps up to the next street level to look down on the main street and out into Verde Valley while the other held our place in line.

There was also a mock gunfight across the street while we waited.

We eventually got to the front of the line and hopped into an SUV to travel to our first stop. The first two houses were located on Society Hill and were built by the mining company for members of mine management.

The Sullivan House was built in 1886. Con Sullivan, his wife, and their 8 children lived in this 1,000 square foot house for many years.

 

The Mills House was built in 1898 and was occupied by Carl Mills until 1950. The house sat vacant from 1950 until 2003. Part of the roof had caved in, and the soil from the hillside had eroded down into the house. A local resident bought the house and renovated it adding a second story.

We were able to spend as much time as we wanted at each stop on the tour. The tour included the interior of the houses, but with the low light and numerous people, it was difficult to get photos. Volunteers were available at each stop to answer questions.

From the Mills House, we were able to walk to our next two stops. The United Verde Apartments were built by United Verde Mining in 1918. They consisted of three and four-room apartments that were rented primarily by single female teachers and nurses and by small families. The apartments were occupied until 1952. The buildings were purchased and renovations began in the 1990s. Today, the apartments are used for retail space, by full-time residents and for vacation rentals.

 

Christ's Episcopal Church is located right next to the apartments. Built in 1927, the church has a wooden frame with a stucco exterior. Today, it houses the offices and archives of the Jerome Historical Society.

 

From the church, we caught another SUV to the Gutierrez Cottage. This was the home of a miner by the name of Damian Gutierrez. Few of these simply-built miners' houses remain. In the basement of the home, Damian Gutierrez kept a burro that he would take to town for tourists to have their photo taken. The house, which was a bed and breakfast in the 1980s, is now a private home owned by a couple from Phoenix.

The Gutierrez Cottage is known for its extensive, terraced gardens.

One very striking species of plant in the garden was tritoma, which is also known as a torch lily or red hot poker. The flower portion is about 7 or 8 inches tall.

The only contemporary house on the tour is the Kinsella House. They couldn't even save the crumbling foundation of the old house that once stood on this site, so they built an entirely new house. There are two additional stories down over the hillside. The back of the house has two decks overlooking the valley.

From the decks, you can see the Douglas Mansion, which was built in 1916 by Jimmy Douglas as a hotel and residence for his family. Jimmy Douglas was the owner of the Little Daisy Mine.

The mansion was donated to the state by Jimmy's sons and is now a museum. The museum is part of the Arizona State Park system, and due to budget cuts in Arizona, the state park is now closed. An agreement has been reached to have the park operated by the Jerome Historical Society. Renovations to the museum are underway, and it is hoped the park and museum will be reopened in a few months.

From the Kinsella House, you can also get a good view of the Little Daisy Hotel, which was built as a dormitory for miners at the Little Daisy Mine. The hotel was renovated and is now a private residence.

The next tour stop was Lawrence Memorial Hall. Originally built in 1917 as a garage, this building became the home of J. C. Penny in Jerome from 1937 until 1953. It was one of the company's largest stores back in the day. Today, the building is owned by the historical society and is used for the town's Christmas party, the Halloween party, and dances. It is also available for weddings and private parties. Refreshments of cookies and lemonade were being served at the hall during the tour.

Next, we took a van to Audry Headframe Park. A headframe is the structure built over a mine shaft and was used to haul ore up out of the mine. The Audry Headframe was part of the Daisy Mine and was used to haul over $125 million in copper, gold and silver out of the ground. Below the headframe, you can look through a glass window down into the 1,700 foot shaft.

We caught the next van back to Lawrence Hall, then walked about a block to the final tour stop. Along the way, we stopped to watch a glass-blowing demonstration (not part of the tour) by one of the many local artisans.

The last stop on the tour was the Connor Hotel. First built in 1898 by David Connor, the hotel burned down twice by the turn of the century. David Connor was one of only a few in town who had insurance so he was able to rebuild both times.

The Connor Hotel was a luxury hotel with a barroom, card rooms and billiard tables on the first floor. The hotel closed in 1931 shortly after the Depression caused a downturn in the demand for copper, but the owners continued to rent out retail space on the first floor. After the mines closed in 1953, Jerome attracted hippies and counter-culture tourists the 1960s and 1970s. The hotel reopened with low-budget rooms as sort of a flop house. Code violations such as the lack of a sprinkler system and unsafe wiring forced the hotel to close again in the 1980s.

The hotel was reopened with 12 deluxe rooms following extensive remodeling and safety modifications. Guests just need to be aware there is live music in the first floor bar on weekends, and the old building doesn't have very good sound proofing. The volunteer also told us about some strange noises and unexplained occurrences that happen from time to time in Rooms 1, 2 and 5. The hotel has been featured on several TV programs featuring haunted buildings and ghost stories. The hotel management is kind enough to warn any prospective guests.

Visiting some of the historic homes and buildings in Jerome was a unique experience. The town really goes all out for this two-day event. Volunteers put in long hours planning and working the event. They had even taken the time to paint temporary lines on the parking spots in the dirt and gravel lots in town and along the roads in an effort to keep the parking as organized as possible. Since we had left our water in the car, one very thoughtful feature of the tour that we very much appreciated was the availability of cold, bottled water at every stop for a suggested donation of only $1.

Jerome turned out to be a good start to our sightseeing at this stop in Camp Verde. Look for our next post, and we'll tell you what else we found to do.

 

Tombstone, AZ

Tombstone, AZ evokes images of old west gunfights, tough cowboys and dusty streets. Even though it meant backtracking about an hour and a half east from where we were staying in Tucson, we couldn't resist taking a day trip to see this legendary old west town.

Tombstone was founded as a result of Ed Shieffelin finding silver in the nearby mountains. Ed was a scout for the U. S. Army headquartered at Camp Huachuca (wha-CHEW-ka). Ed had a hunch there was silver in the hills, and he would frequently venture out into the wilderness to "look for rocks." The soldiers at camp told him the only stone you will find out there is your tombstone.

Ed did eventually find silver in 1877, and he appropriately named his first claim the Tombstone Mine. Word of Ed's success spread, and soon other prospectors, gamblers, cowboys, homesteaders, speculators and businessmen flocked to the area. The town was laid out in 1879 on the only level ground near the mines, which was called Goose Flats. The town was named Tombstone after Ed Shieffelin's mine.

Today, Tombstone is a tourist town. Allen Street is the main street of the old downtown area, and it is closed off to motor vehicles.

The only vehicle on Allen street is the stagecoach.

Tombstone has free parking in a couple of lots and on the side streets, but just about everything else in town costs money - as we said it's a tourist town. After finding a convenient parking place near Allen Street, we stopped at the visitor center to pick up a map and to see what we wanted to do.

We decided to start off with a 30-minute trolley tour of the historic area. At a cost of $5 a person, that was a good choice. In addition to pointing out important landmarks, the guide also gave some history of the town. After we learned where everything was located, we walked around on our own for a closer look and for photos. The main historic area of the town is only three blocks wide by about six blocks long.

Tombstone is most famous for the gunfight that took place in 1881 between the three Earp brothers and John Henry "Doc" Holliday on one side and the "cowboys" (the Clantons, the McLaurys, and Billy Clairborne) on the other. The site of the gunfight is said to have been the O. K. Corral, but it actually started on Fremont Street and ended a short distance away in a vacant lot that is down the street from the rear entrance to the corral. The photo below shows the spot on Fremont Street where the gunfight started.
 

The gunfight took place to the right of Fly's Photography Gallery and boarding house. "Doc" Holliday had a room in the boarding house that he shared with his girlfriend, "Big Nose" Kate Horony. By the way, "Doc" Holliday was not a doctor at all, but a dentist.

 

The lot where the gunfight ended is walled off. For $6 a person, you can tour a museum containing Tombstone artifacts, watch a multi-media presentation on the history of Tombstone and see the spot where the gunfight ended. For an additional $4 you can watch a reenactment of the gunfight presented every day at 2:00 PM. We opted for the admission without the gunfight reenactment.

The multi-media presentation, which is called the Tombstone Historama, was a combination of a movie and a large, rotating diorama showing the town of Tombstone at various stages during its history. As we mentioned earlier, the town was founded in 1879 on Goose Flats near numerous silver mines. The town boomed through the mid 1880s with a population estimated to be around 15,000. As the silver diminished, the mines went deeper and deeper. Once the mines reached the water table, the mines flooded. Attempts to pump out the mines were marginally successful for a few years, but eventually proved to be too costly for the small amount of ore that remained. By 1930, the population of Tombstone had declined to about 150.

Today, tourism has revived Tombstone, and there are about 1500 year-round residents. No wonder Tombstone has been called "The Town Too Tough to Die."

After the Historama presentation, we did a quick tour of the museum, which includes the inside of Fly's Photography Gallery. Camillus Fly was famous for his photographs of Geronimo, the Apache chief, and the people of Geronimo's camp. Reprints of some of Fly's photos are displayed in the studio.

At the site of the gunfight, there are mannequins positioned as depicted in a sketch made by Wyatt Earp many years after the battle. In the photo below, the Earps are in black, "Doc" Holliday is in gray and the cowboys are in tan. A recording describes the events. About 30 shots were fired in about 30 seconds. Billy Clairborne and Ike Clanton had run away at the beginning of the fight, and when the smoke cleared, the two McLaury brothers were dead, and Billy Clanton lay dying. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and "Doc" Holliday were wounded. Wyatt Earp was unharmed. With the gunfight taking place at such close range, it's amazing anyone survived.

Although the gunfight has been the subject of numerous movies, books and dime novels and is usually portrayed as a classic battle between good guys (the Earps and "Doc" Holliday) and bad guys (the cowboys), the story is a lot more complicated than that. There had been friction between the Earps and the cowboys for some time. Some say it was personal, and some say it had its roots in the Civil War years before with the Earps (who were from the east) representing the North, and the cowboys (who were from Texas) represented the south. That's a bit of a stretch, however, because "Doc" Holliday was from Georgia.

Virgil Earp was a deputy U. S. Marshall at the time of the gunfight, but the Earps were viewed by their enemies as tyrants. On the other hand, the cowboys were a loosely organized gang who were cattle rustlers, horse thieves and robbers. However, they were generally easy to get along with as long as you didn't cross them, and they were fairly popular in town because they had a lot of money to spend.   The Earps and "Doc" Holliday were exonerated of any wrong-doing after the gunfight.

From the O. K. Corral gunfight site, we continued our walk around town. The Arizona Legislature created Cochise County in 1881 and named Tombstone as the county seat. The courthouse was built in 1882.

Diagonally across the street from the courthouse is the adobe house built in 1882 by Allen English, a lawyer originally from Saginaw, MI. Although English was a heavy drinker, he was a very powerful and successful attorney back in the day.

Up the street from Allen English's house was the Museum of Victorian Fashion featuring Victorian and Edwardian clothing from 1840 to 1920. Margery enjoyed seeing the fashions, but wondered how the ladies kept some of the long dresses clean with all the dusty streets.

Up on Fremont Street is Shieffelin Hall, which was built in 1881 by Ed Shieffelin's brother Al. The hall was intended to be a first-class opera house offering culture to the citizens of Tombstone. When it was built, Shieffelin Hall was the largest adobe building anywhere in the southwest. It had a seating capacity of 600. Today, it is used for city council meetings and for civic and social functions.

At the other end of the entertainment spectrum was the Bird Cage Theater down on Toughnut Street. Yes, that's the real name of the street. It was named for the Tough Nut Mine that was down over the hill from the street. The Bird Cage featured drinking, gambling, bawdy entertainment and "ladies of the night." Today, the Bird Cage Theater is a museum.

Other old saloons, like the Longhorn, are now restaurants.

And the Silver Nugget has been converted to a bed and breakfast.

Many of the old stores along Allen Street are gift shops selling Indian jewelry, western wear, T-shirts, and other souvenirs. Several of the western wear shops sold period costumes, and we had a lot of fun trying things on.

Before we left the old downtown area, we stopped into the museum at the office of the town newspaper, the Tombstone Epitaph. There are displays of old printing presses and type-setting equipment.

While we were there, Margery picked up a reprint of the newspaper from 1881 with the story of the O. K. Corral gunfight.

About a half mile outside town is Boothill Graveyard. On the way to the graveyard, we stopped for a photo of the house where Wyatt Earp stayed while living in Tombstone. The house is now a private residence, but it is set up to look as it did back in the day (well, it probably looks better now than it did back then), complete with fiberglass horses at the hitching post out front.

Boothill has the graves of many of the unsavory characters of Tombstone including those of Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton who were killed at the O. K. Corral gunfight.

The epitaphs were interesting. One read 'Unknown - Found in Abandoned Mine.' Others read 'Stabbed,' 'Killed by Indians,' 'Shot.' And one read - 'Here lies George Johnson...Hanged by mistake 1882...He was right, we was wrong, but we strung him up and now he's gone.' The west was indeed wild and woolly.

After walking around Boothill, we headed back to the motor home. That's about it for our stay in the Tucson area. We're headed north, so stay tuned.

Tucson, AZ, Part IV: Mission San Xavier and Tucson Mountain Park

It was mid afternoon when we left Old Tucson Studios, so instead of going straight back to the motor home, we drove a few miles south of Tucson to see Mission San Xavier del Bac. The first mission was founded in 1699 by a Jesuit missionary.  The original mission, which was about two miles from the present building, was destroyed by an Apache attack in 1770.

Construction of the present building was started in 1783 by the Franciscans. The new building was protected by the presidio (fort) that had been completed at Tucson several years before. The mission, which is of Spanish design with heavy Moorish influences, was completed around 1797 using mainly Native American labor. The mission was built in a centuries-old Tohono O-odham Indian settlement. From the photo below, it's easy to see why the Mission San Xavier is called "The White Dove of the Desert."

After Mexico won its independence, it banned all Spanish-born priests, and the priest at San Xavier was sent home to Spain. The church was left vacant from 1828 to 1858. The church was reopened in 1859, and a new priest was assigned and repairs were made.

Extensive restoration was begun to both the inside and outside in the late 2000s. Artwork and statuary were repaired and restored by preservationists brought in from Italy. These preservationists, some of whom worked on restoration of the Vatican, also trained local parishioners in restoration techniques to carry on future work.

Work on the outside includes replacing the concrete stucco coating that was added years ago. It was discovered the concrete didn't breathe and trapped moisture inside the walls. Moisture in the walls causes deterioration of the interior plaster and delicate interior paintings. The stucco is being removed and replaced by a mixture of sand, slaked lime, water and prickly pear cactus pulp. This mixture is similar to the original material used to finish the exterior, and it will breathe to better preserve the interior. You can see in the photo above of the exterior the tower on the left is a brighter white than the tower on the right. That's because the tower on the right has not yet been restored. The tower on the right is also missing the top dome and spire because it was never completed in the original construction.

On the west side the main church is a desert garden and a chapel.

And to the east of the mission is Grotto Hill.

Mission San Xavier dal Bac continues to minister to the Native American Tohono O'odham with both the church and a mission school.

The following day, we planned to stick around the motor home. We mentioned Tuscon Mountain Park several days ago in our first Tucson post about Saguaro National Park. Tucson Mountain Park is a scenic, 20,000 acre county park that we had to drive through to get to Saguaro National Park. Old Tucson Studios and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum are also located in the park. It turns out a little corner of the park also extends right down to the boundary of Desert Trails RV, and a trail crosses the wash into the park less than 200 feet from our site.

Daytime temperatures had been in the upper 80s and 90s for most of our stay; but the day we decided to stick around the motor home, the high was only in the mid 70s. The campground office has trail maps, so we decided to walk one of the shorter, desert loop trails over in the park. The next photo shows Margery at the start of the trail in Tucson Mountain Park.

 

Although we were down on the valley floor, there were still a fair number of saguaros. We learned at the Desert Museum saguaros don't usually grow on the valley floor because cool air can pool there in winter; but this area must be close enough to the hillside the cool air doesn't collect. We could see his multi-branched saguaro on the other side of the wash from the front window of our motor home.

Saguaros usually have to be at least 8 feet tall and 50 years old to bloom, so it's hard to get a good photo of the flowers because they bloom so high above the ground. But on our hike, we found a saguaro with flowers on a lower side branch, so we were able to get a closer shot.

Saguaro cacti have a woody skeleton. When a saguaro dies, the skin eventually falls off, and the pulpy interior dries out and crumbles. This leaves just a skeleton of wooden slats. These will eventually get blown over by the wind.

This area of Arizona also has a lot of cholla cactus. The cholla in the photo below are called chain fruit cholla, which can get up to 15 feet tall.

Some of the fruit of the chain fruit cholla remains on the plant for several years. Each year new flowers sprout from the old fruit to produce more fruit which can form long chains.

The trail map we got in the campground office turned out to be pretty accurate, and the trails through the park are well marked and easy to follow.

 

We saw several jackrabbits on our hike; but they are very wary and ran as soon as they saw and heard us, so we didn't even get a chance at a photo. But take our word for it, they have LARGE ears! We also saw a lizard zip across the path, but was so fast we have no idea what kind it was.

Back at the campground, we were able to get a good photo of a 5 or 6-inch long horned lizard. Their camouflage is so amazing!

Also in the campground, Paul was able to get a shot of a gila woodpecker. They're the ones responsible for most of the holes in the saguaro cactus.

 

We had one more sightseeing adventure while we were in the Tucson area to tell you about, so look for our next post.

Tucson, AZ, Part III: Old Tucson Studios

Yet another attraction that was right up the road from the campground is Old Tucson Studios. Old Tucson Studios is a historic movie studio that is a combination of an active movie studio and amusement park with old-west-themed rides, games and shows. The studio has tours only (no rides or shows) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at a reduced price. Since we aren't into rides and since most of the rides are for kids anyway, we chose to go on a Tuesday just for the tour. The entrance to the studio is shown below.

The guided tour was excellent. The guide was well acquainted with Old Tucson Studios having first visited when he was only 10 years old. After retiring from military service, he returned as a special effects technician in explosives and has appeared as an extra in a couple of films. His knowledge about Arizona history and about the studio made the tour especially interesting.

The studio was built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures on land leased from Pima County. The original studio was a replica of the town of Tucson in the 1860s for the film Arizona starring William Holden. The studio lay dormant for several years after that first movie until it was revived 1n 1945 for the filming of The Bells of St. Mary's starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. It was also used for several additional movies after that. For a time, the county leased the studios to the Junior Chamber of Commerce for $1 a year. The Jaycees would open up the studios on weekends for picnics as a fundraiser.

In 1959, entrepreneur Robert Shelton worked out a deal with the county whereby he could lease the studios, revive the aging facility, and open it to the public as a theme park while maintaining it as an active film studio.

The studio has been used for over 300 movies including Rio Bravo, McClintock, El Dorado, Rio Lobo (all starring John Wayne), the 1986 filming of The Three Amigos, the 1993 filming of Geronimo.  About 150 TV programs including later episodes of Little House on the Prairie were also filmed there. The studio has also been used for many music videos, TV commercials and photo shoots for print advertisements.

Inside one building there were sets for a courtroom, a bank, and a general store. There was also a video documenting the 71 years of actors, actresses, and movies/TV shows that were filmed here that was a lot of fun to watch...especially those done in our lifetime.

Another building had photos, posters, memorabilia and costumes from various movies and TV shows. The outfit on the left in the composite photo below was worn by Loren Greene (Ben Cartwright) and the shirt and hat were worn by Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright) in Bonanza. Notice how big Hoss' shirt is. The dresses in the center are from Little House on the Prairie, and the dresses on the right were worn by Barbara Stanwix in Big Valley.

Unfortunately, a fire destroyed much of the north end of Old Tucson Studios in 1995. Buildings, costumes, memorabilia and about 25 buildings (including the multi-million dollar sound stage) were lost. The fire was made worse by high winds and lack of water. On top of that, rather than concentrate their efforts on saving buildings, firefighters had to protect propane and gunpowder that were stored near the fire area.

The next photo illustrates how hot the fire got. The squiggle on the wall is what is left of one of the lamp posts from the burned area. The fire was so hot it melted the aluminum.

Rather than recreate old sets after the fire, entirely new buildings were constructed in place of those that were damaged or destroyed. This was done to try to make the new buildings more useful for new movies and to also make the studio a better tourist attraction. Some buildings were not replaced at all. The photo below shows some of the new buildings. The streets in this area were widened to make more room for spectators and gunfight reenactments.

After our guided tour, we were invited to a presentation by a snake oil salesman. At the beginning, he asked for a volunteer. Paul tried to play with his camera and to not make eye contact, but it was no use. He was chosen to bang on the drum every time the salesman pointed to him.

Actually, Paul kind of had fun with it. As a reward, he was given a bottle of 'Miracle Elixir' which surprisingly tasted like root beer. Afterward, we went to the corner saloon to watch a documentary on John Wayne.

In the saloon, Paul used his root beer to try out the bar.

 

After the tour, the snake oil show and the documentary on John Wayne, we wandered around the set on our own to get a closer look at the things we saw on the tour. The next photo is a small railroad station that is portable. It has been moved to numerous locations, including off-site.

Then there was the old mission. While most of the buildings are three-dimensional and many have rooms inside that can be used for filming, the mission is a false front and is only about 10 feet deep. They had photos displayed from several movies showing how the mission has changed in appearance. The mission is used for a stunt show on full-schedule days, but it can easily be reverted back to a movie set. The mountain in the background is part of the Tucson Mountains and has appeared in many movies.

We stopped for a fun photo by the rest rooms. They are disguised as an old west bath house, and Margery is pretending to hang up her bloomers. A sign on the building says, "We use fresh creek water."

Speaking of fun photos, we found a place for another silly one.

There is an artificial river on the set. When making a movie, they used to let water out of a large reservoir only when they were filming a river scene. When the director yelled, "Cut", they would turn off the river and pump water back into the reservoir between takes. Now there is a high volume pump that circulates water continuously so the tourists can enjoy the river all the time. A blooming prickly cactus adds to the ambiance.

 

On our way out of the studio, we stopped at the larger, permanent railroad station. It was nicely framed by a couple of large saguaro cacti.

We really enjoyed visiting Old Tucson Studios. It has whetted our appetite to watch some old westerns that were filmed here. In fact, we just recorded Geronimo for future viewing.

We still have some more sightseeing here in Tucson, so stay tuned.

 

Grand Canyon Part III: Desert View

When we visited the Grand Canyon back in 2007, we drove the car up from Flagstaff where we were staying to visit the canyon for a second day. We drove along the rim to the east of Grand Canyon Village and stopped at some of the overlooks. This trip, since we had more time, we drove east all the way to Desert View, which is near the east entrance to the park.

Desert View is located about 27 miles from Grand Canyon Village, and if you have the time, it is well worth the drive. The main part of the Grand Canyon within the national park runs roughly east to west. At Desert View, the canyon takes a turn toward the northeast. This bend in the canyon provides for expansive views. The photo below is looking northeast. You can see the Colorado River just to the left of the center of the photo.

 

The next photo is looking west. They were conducting a controlled burn of dead branches and debris down toward the southern entrance that day, and you can see the smoke drifting out over the canyon.

 

The real gem at Desert View is the Watchtower.

The Watchtower is another building at the canyon designed for the Fred Harvey Company by architect Mary Colter . The Watchtower was designed as a gift shop and rest stop for tourists. The tower, which is designed to mimic an ancient Indian watchtower, was opened in 1933.

There is a gift shop off to the side of the tower on the first floor. From the second floor of the tower, you can step out to an observation deck over the gift shop.

The most impressive part of the tower is the interior. The interior of the tower is open with circular balconies. There are narrow staircases going up to each higher level. The photo below is looking up the central opening with its surrounding balconies.

 

The interior of the tower is decorated with images painted by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie depicting Hopi mythology. In the photo below, Paul is sitting in front of one of those images.

Murals and other images painted on the walls and balconies by artist Fred Greer are copies of prehistoric pictographs and petroglyphs. Margery is standing by some of these images in the next photo. The small windows keep the interior of the tower rather dark to give it a cave-like appearance.

After we left the Watchtower, we drove about three miles from Desert View back toward Grand Canyon Village and stopped at Tusayan Ruin, which is a pueblo from about 800 years ago. We happened to arrive just as a ranger-led tour started. The rangers really know their subjects and are very interesting to listen to. She talked about some of the artifacts in the small museum, then led the group outside to the pueblo where she described what life was like for the pueblo dwellers. The photo below shows the partially reconstructed and stabilized walls of the pueblo.

 

The pueblo was "U" shaped with the sleeping rooms at the base of the "U" and smaller food storage rooms on the two legs of the "U." The photo below shows a scale model of the pueblo that was in the Canyon View Information Center.

Like other pueblos we have seen, entry was through openings in the roof. This would have helped keep animals and wind out of the pueblo. Activities such as grinding corn, weaving baskets, preparing game, and cooking would have taken place on the roof or in the courtyard enclosed by the "U."

The circular structure at the left corner is the kiva, or ceremonial chamber. A larger kiva (in the background to the upper right in the above photo) was constructed a little later. The next photo shows the base of the later kiva.

 

The kivas we have seen at other ruins have been completely or mostly underground. Here, there is only about 18 inches of soil before you hit solid rock, so the kiva was constructed mostly above ground. The ring of stones in the center was for the fire. There was a semi-circular bench around the perimeter on the near side on which ceremonial vessels were placed. The two posts indicate where two of the four roof support posts would have been. The original posts were taller. Logs and branches would have been leaned up against the perimeter of the roof and then the whole thing would have been covered with mud.

While we were listening to the ranger at the pueblo, we also learned  the yellow-green, twiggy balls in the juniper trees were a variety of mistletoe.

From the pueblo, we headed back toward the west and stopped at several of the overlooks along the way. At Grandview Point, Paul hiked a short way down Grandview Trail. Grandview Trail was originally constructed by miners and follows an ancient Indian route down to Horseshoe Mesa where the Grandview Mine, also known as the Last Chance Mine, was operated by Pete Berry from 1892 to 1901. The trial is quite steep and narrow. The photo below was taken from Grandview trail.

 

Pete Berry also operated a hotel at Grandview that had the reputation of being the best accommodations at the canyon. However, in 1901, the railroad arrived at a spot 11 miles to the west and travelers no longer wanted to take the bone-jarring stagecoach ride to Grandview. The El Tovar Hotel was built at the rim of the canyon near the rail terminus by the Fred Harvey Company and opened in 1905.

We had a great visit to the Grand Canyon. We had time to do a lot more than we did on our first visit, and we really enjoyed being able to hike along the rim and down into the canyon. From the Grand Canyon, we continued on our way west toward California.

Grand Canyon Part II: Hermit's Rest

After our hike down Bright Angel Trail, we boarded the shuttle to Hermit's rest. Along the way, you can get off at any of the numerous stops to explore the overlooks, and then catch another passing shuttle (shuttles run every 10 to 15 minutes) to continue your journey.

The road along the rim to the west of Grand Canyon Village is closed to private vehicles, and only commercial tour buses or the free park shuttle bus are allowed. Near Grand Canyon Village you can board a free park shuttle bus going along the rim to the west.

When we visited the Grand Canyon with Lora and J. Michael two years ago, we took a short, narrated bus tour along this rim road. The bus tour was available as an option when we bought our train tickets. However, the bus tour didn't go all the way to Hermit's rest, and it only stopped at a few overlooks. Since we were staying longer on this visit, we wanted to be sure to see Hermit's Rest. We also chose to get off the shuttle at most of the stops along the way.

In the photo below, Paul is using the binoculars at one of the stops to look for the Grand Canyon Lodge over on the North Rim, which is about 10 miles away. If you know where to look, you can just barely make it out. We learned where it was located on the bus tour we took during our visit in 2007.

The next photos show some of the beautiful views from the overlooks.





 

Margery usually looks away if Paul gets close to the edge, but she somehow managed to take the next picture even though Paul was only a few feet from the drop off.

Powell Point is one of the overlooks along the road to Hermit's Rest. Here, you can look down over the edge (there's a railing, so you can safely lean over far enough) and see the remnants of the Orphan Mine. In 1893, a prospector found copper and opened the mine. Difficulty getting the ore up to the rim forced the mine to close after a short time. In 1951, uranium was discovered at the site, and the Orphan Mine became America's richest source of uranium - even though the mine was within the national park. By 1969, the high-grade ore was mined out and operations ceased. The Park Service gained control of the mine in 1988. The photo below shows a shed (left) and the rusty remnants of the tower (just below center to the right) for the tramway used to bring ore to the surface.

 

The photo below is yet another beautiful view from one of the overlooks on the way to Hermit's Rest. You can see a short stretch of the Colorado River near the center of the photo.

 

At the end of the shuttle route is Hermit's Rest. Designed by architect Mary Colter and built in 1914 as a rest stop for tourists in coaches operated by the Fred Harvey Company, the building now contains a snack bar and gift shop.

 

The next photo shows the fireplace and some of the furniture inside Hermit's Rest designed by Mary Colter.

Architect Mary Coulter was born in Pittsburgh and is well-known for pioneering in the aesthetics of an architecture appropriate to a natural setting. Hired by Fred Harvey, the various buildings at the Grand Canyon including Hermit's Rest, Hopi House, Desert View Watch Tower, and Lookout Studio are excellent examples of some of her work.

Fred Harvey Company got its start by opening high-quality eating houses for railroad passengers. He contracted with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to build eating houses all along their routes. The eating establishments grew into hotels. When the AT&SF Railroad built its Grand Canyon Railway line to the South Rim in the early 1900s, Fred Harvey also got the contract to build hotels, inns, and rest stops at the Grand Canyon. Do you remember hearing about The Harvey Girls?

The name Hermit's Rest comes from a Canadian-born prospector by the name of Louis Boucher. In 1891, Boucher staked mining claims below the present-day site of Hermit's Rest and carved a trail down into the canyon. Although not a true hermit, Louis Boucher is the person for whom Hermit Trail and Hermit's Rest are named.

From Hermit's Rest, the shuttle bus only makes three stops on the return trip to Grand Canyon Village where we parked, and it only takes about half an hour to get back.

Next, we explored the Grand Canyon eastward to Desert View. Look for our next post.

Grand Canyon Part I: Bright Angel Trail

The morning after we visited Petrified Forest National Park, we took off to the west on I-40. Then we turned right in Flagstaff, and headed north to the Grand Canyon where we had reservations in Trailer Village Campground inside the park.

Trailer Village has full hook-ups including 50 amp electric. The sites and roads are gravel. As you can imagine, the campsites are well used so they are pretty dusty. We put out our patio mat to minimize tracking dirt into the motor home. The sites are also surprisingly wide for a national park. The photo below shows our site in Trailer Village.

 

The campground is pretty quiet, even during the day. At night, it is eerily quiet - there is no traffic noise and no trains.

Although we've investigated staying in national parks before, this is the first time we've ever actually done it. The campgrounds in most national parks are older and have only a few sites suitable for our 37 foot motor home. Additionally, most national parks have no hook-ups. You normally have to reserve a site in a national park well in advance, and the big-rig sites are very hard to get. In addition, many of the national parks have a lot of trees, which isn't good for our satellite internet. But Trailer Village doesn't have many trees and it has full hook-ups (including cable). Also, since we there were early in the season, we were able to get reservations only a few months in advance.

We went to Grand Canyon National Park back in 2007. We picked up our daughter, Lora, and our son-in-law, J. Michael, at the airport in Phoenix and drove to Flagstaff where we all stayed at the KOA. We, of course, stayed in the motor home, and Lora and J. Michael stayed in one of the KOA Kamper Kabins.

We took the train from Williams to the canyon, which we highly recommend. You can read about it it in our June 2007 Grand Canyon and Flagstaff Area post. Then we drove up from Flagstaff in the car to spend a second day at the canyon. Seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time was a real thrill and sharing it with Lora and J. Michael was a lot of fun.

This time, however, since we stayed right in the park and since we stayed longer, we had a more leisurely visit and could take more time to get to know the park a lot better. Also, since Margery's successful knee surgery, we were able to do a lot more walking, including hiking a short way down into the canyon.

By the time we got set up, it was mid-afternoon so we relaxed a while before dinner. Then we went to the canyon rim to see the sunset - something we couldn't easily do while staying in Flagstaff.

We decided to go to Yavapai Point, mostly because it was close to Trailer Village. Yavapai Point turned out to be an excellent choice because it has quite a bit of parking - many of the overlooks get pretty crowded around sunset. Also, because Yavapai Point juts out into the canyon, you can see the red light of the sunset shining on the rocks in the canyon looking to the east...



...and you can see the sun setting over the canyon looking to the west.

We also wanted to see a sunrise. However, Arizona does not observe daylight savings time. That coupled with the fact that we were there about a month before the Summer Solstice meant sunrise was a little after 5:00 AM, so we never made it for a sunrise.

The next morning (well after sunrise), we went to the Bright Angel Trailhead located near Grand Canyon Village. Bright Angel Trail is one of the more popular trails down into the canyon because it is not quite as steep as some of the other trails. It is also the trail used for mule rides down into the canyon. You can take a 7-hour round trip to Plateau Point 1,300 feet above the Colorado River. Plateau Point is the smooth, greenish patch toward the left in the photo below, and the wiggly tan line is the trail running out to the end.

You can also take an overnight mule trip to Phantom Ranch, which is at the bottom of the canyon and across the river. The telephoto shot below shows Phantom Ranch.

The scenery on the way down the trail was amazing. Walking into the canyon, even for only a short distance, made us feel like we were really experiencing the canyon. It was a lot better than standing at the top just looking over a railing.

 

The next photo is another view from Bright Angel Trail.

We could see a rider with pack mules ascending the trail in the distance. There are no roads to Phantom Ranch. Everything must be packed in on mules and trash must be packed out.



A little farther along, we could look down and see more mules and riders on the switch-backs way below us.

 

On down the trail, there is a tunnel through the rock.

 

On the other side of the tunnel, we saw more mules coming up the trail.

 

We went a little farther, then turned around and headed back up toward the rim. Shortly after we went back through the tunnel, another group of riders passed us. Mules have the right of way, and we had to stand aside and wait for them to pass. Fortunately, the trail was plenty wide in this area.

As we climbed back up the trail, we could see the pack mules that passed us earlier on the trail above us.

 

After we got back to the top, we hopped on the shuttle bus that goes out to Hermit's Rest. We'll tell you about that in our next post.

Painted Desert

As we said in our last post, Petrified Forest National Park also contains an area of the southern portion of the Painted desert. We started our tour through Petrified Forest National Park at the southern entrance where most of the petrified wood is located. As we drove through the national park, we saw the amount of petrified wood decrease and the colors of the Painted Desert become more obvious.

Blue Mesa is located about midway through the park. Although there is some petrified wood in this area, it seems to be more a part of the Painted Desert than the Petrified Forest because of the striking coloration of the landscape.

There is a three-mile loop road that climbs to the top of Blue Mesa and a one-mile hiking trail that goes down into the sculpted hills on the eastern side of the mesa. The two photos below are near the trailhead at Blue Mesa.

The next photo is looking down the trail. To give an idea of scale, there is a person in a red shirt on the trail toward the left side of the photo.

 

As we said, there is some petrified wood at Blue Mesa, but not that much. The gully in the photo below has collected quite a bit of it.

 

The next two photos give an idea of the colors at Blue Mesa - blue, gray, pink, mauve, tan, and white.

 

After we completed the one-mile loop trail, we had to climb back up to the top of the mesa. In this photo you can also get a sense of the gravel-like texture of the rock. It is very crumbly.

A short way up the road from Blue Mesa is Puerco Pueblo. The pueblo is named for the nearby, seasonal Puerco River. Puerco Pueblo was a 100-room structure built around 1250 AD that may have housed nearly 100 people. The next photo shows the stones outlining where the pueblo once stood.

 

There are numerous petroglyphs in the vicinity of the pueblo. The one below was interesting, It looks like a large bird (stork?) carrying a baby in its bill. So storks ARE the ones who bring babies...it's written in stone. :-)

 

The next petroglyph seems more sophisticated than anything else we've seen. The birds above the geometric designs appear to have sun shining on their backs. The geometric design looks like something that could be woven into a Native American rug.

 

From the pueblo, the park road crosses over I-40, then makes six-mile arc on the north side of I-40 before it ends back at the interstate. It is this section of the park where you can get magnificent views of the Painted Desert. In this area north of I-40, there is much more red color.

 

 

 

There are several overlooks in the northern part of the park and a few hiking trails. After stopping at several of the overlooks, we got on I-40 and headed back to the motor home. From Holbrook, we continued on our way west.

Petrified Forest

We left Albuquerque and drove east on I-40 to Holbrook, AZ, where we stayed at OK RV Park. All the sites at OK RV are extra-long pull-throughs. Unfortunately, the sites are very narrow; and, although the utility pedestals are not shared, you are back to back with your neighbor. The good thing is, because the sites are so long, the RVs are parked in a staggered fashion, and you are not directly opposite another RV on either side. The photo below shows our site at OK RV.



The entire campground is sand and gravel and is a little dusty, but that is to be expected when you're in the desert. There are full hook-ups and Wi-fi. We opted to pay the $5 a night extra charge for 50 amp because it was 90 degrees. We didn't want to have to turn off the air to run the microwave.

The reason we stopped in Holbrook was to visit Petrified Forest National Park, which is located along both sides of I-40 about 15 miles east of Holbrook. The national park is located at the southern end of the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert stretches from eastern end of the Grand Canyon in an arc down to the Petrified Forest - a distance of over 150 miles. The southern end of the Painted Desert is incorporated into the Petrified Forest National Park.

You can access Petrified Forest National Park from I-40 to at the northern end, or you can access the park from the south by taking U. S. 180 east from Holbrook. A 28-mile long road connects the north and south entrances of the park. We decided to start at the southern end because that's where the highest concentration of petrified wood is located.

The park has visitor centers at both ends. The southern visitor center is located just inside the entrance near an area called Rainbow Forest. In the visitor center, we watched the video about the history of the park and about how petrified wood is formed. Then we walked the Big Log Trail, which starts behind the visitor center.



Petrified Forest National Park contains one of the largest, most colorful collections of petrified wood in the world. Unfortunately, tons of petrified wood have been taken by souvenir hunters and even more has been destroyed by those seeking the crystals and semi-precious gems sometimes found within the petrified wood. They used to dynamite the logs just to see if there might be crystals inside.

The Petrified Forest was named a national monument in 1906, but it didn't become a national park until 1962. Making the Petrified Forest a national park provided more protection, but it is estimated about one ton of petrified wood is carried out of the park by visitors every month in spite of stiff penalties and in spite of the fact petrified wood that has been legally harvested from private property is readily available for sale all around the area.

Petrified wood is formed when trees are submerged in water then buried in layers of sediment rich in volcanic ash. The volcanic ash is high in silica, which is key to transforming the wood to stone. The silica and other minerals infused themselves into the wood and began to form crystals within the cell structure, much like the way fossils were formed. The silica displaced the cellulose that originally made up the wood. The colors in the petrified wood come mainly from various iron compounds. The photo below shows the rich colors in some of the petrified wood.

 

Here is another example.

 

Most of the petrified wood is from an extinct variety of conifer that grew up to 200 feet tall. The southern end of the park has some of the most colorful petrified wood. It also has some of the biggest logs.

The next photo shows a log called Old Faithful. At over 9 feet in diameter, it is the largest log in the park.

The detail of the wood grain and bark of some of the logs is amazing. You can also see knots where there used to be branches.

 

 

Also in the vicinity of the southern visitor center is a trail Agate House, which is an Indian pueblo. Along the trail, which is about two miles round trip, we came across a colorful collared lizard.

Agate House was built from chunks of petrified wood sealed in place with mud mortar. Archeologists believe Agate House was originally an eight-room pueblo built about 1000 years ago. The pueblo was partially reconstructed in the 1930s.

From Agate House, we drove north through the park. The landscape, which is part of the Chinle Formation, is comprised mostly of compressed, sandy gravel. We began to see more of the multi-colored terrain of the painted desert. Petrified wood continued to dot the landscape, but it isn't as prevalent as it is in the southern part of the park.

Notice the petrified log balanced on the top of the dune to the left in the photo below.

 

In spite of the inhospitable-looking terrain, there were a few wildflowers blooming.

As we proceeded north on the park road, the amount of petrified wood continued to be less and less obvious, and the colors of the Painted Desert became more dominant. We'll tell you more about the northern part of Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert in out next post.

We decided to leave Bluewater Lake a day early. We were headed to Flagstaff, AZ, four hours away, where we planned to camp with our daughter, Lora, and son by marriage, J. Michael. The Saturn needed a good cleaning, and we had to remove and store the mobility scooter and our folding bikes. The extra day provided us time to do that and reconnoiter the area. We checked in at the Flagstaff KOA shortly after noon. We got a little earlier start than we had planned and Arizona doesn't change to daylight savings time so we gained an hour. That gave us plenty of time to get everything done before we were to drive to the Phoenix airport to pick up Lora and J. Michael.

A lot of people swear by KOA, apparently because they have a reputation for nice, clean restrooms and showers; but we never use campground restrooms or showers so we're not big KOA fans. Our experience is that their sites are too close together, and they are usually at the top of the rate scale for the area. This KOA certainly was no different. The sites were only about 16' -18' wide and and were mostly dirt. Actually, the sites were mostly fine dust. Our dog, Molly, got filthy and with all the wind, so did our motor home. The cost was over $33 a night, even with the KOA Kamper Kard discount and without the additional $3 a night charge for cable. Our neighbor's picnic table was right under our slide-out window. Fortunately there was a ban on charcoal fires due to drought and high winds because the KOA-provided charcoal grill was so close to our motor home the charcoal lighter would have blistered our paint. Unfortunately, we had to set up close to our neighbor's grill because it was the only place we could position the motor home and still reach all the hookups, miss the electrical box with the slides, and have room to get out the door. This KOA has made an effort to leave a few shrubs between sites to help with privacy. Unfortunately, because the sites are so narrow, that means you tend to get poked in the butt by branches when you try to get into your outside storage compartments. There was a fair amount of traffic noise from US 89 and there were a lot of distant train whistles.

The campground does, however, have a nice balance of shaded and open sites and they have planted some flowers here and there to help beautify the place. We like open sites because of our satellite internet dish, but a lot of people prefer shade. The road leading from the office to the main camping area is lined with fairly large trees. Unfortunately, there are quite a few that are very close to the road. Most of these trees have large pieces of bark missing in an area about 3' from the ground and again at about 10 to 12' from the ground where unsuspecting RVs have strayed too close. We're happy to say, we did not leave our mark. :)

We went with KOA this time so that Lora and J. Michael could stay in one of their cabins. We could have put them up in the motor home, but being full-timers we have little space left to store luggage for week-long company. Besides, they are relative newlyweds, and we were afraid accommodations with parents in the motor home would be a little too close for comfort. So we thought the KOA Kamper Kabin would be a way for everyone to have their own space and privacy and still be close by to share morning coffee and meals. The office staff at KOA was very accommodating in giving us a site near their cabin that had an unobstructed view of the southern sky for our dish. They also accommodated us arriving a day early.

The 2 1/2 hour drive to Phoenix to pick up Lora and J. Michael at the airport was so interesting as we went from 7,000' pine forests around Flagstaff, through high desert, and down to the Sonoran Desert around Phoenix. Most of the stately Saguaro Cactus had little white flowers clustered at the ends of their arms. After returning to the KOA, Lora and J. Michael checked in to the Kamper Kabin, took a nap, then we all enjoyed a leisurely dinner.

We were all anxious to see the Grand Canyon, but we thought it would be better to have a less strenuous day after Lora and J. Michael's travel day. Additionally, they had just moved the previous week and the 3-hour time change was an adjustment so we decided to take a leisurely drive to Sedona, AZ. Sedona is an artsy community in the Red Rock Country of Arizona. This is a view of the Oak Creek Canyon in the Coconino National Forest on the way to Sedona.

The main street of Sedona is lined with eclectic shops selling anything from western wear to jewelry to tee-shirts to psychic readings. It's not difficult to see why Sedona is a popular tourist destination. The views from almost anywhere in town are fantastic!

On the way back to Flagstaff we stopped by Montezuma's Castle National Monument. Montezuma's Castle is a five-story, 20-room cliff dwelling in the Verde Valley about 40 miles south of Flagstaff just off I17. Early settlers assumed the dwellings were built by the Aztecs and gave it the name Montezuma's Castle. The name stuck even though it was later determined the dwellings were built by the Sinagua people. The Verde Valley had been occupied for thousands of years by hunter-gatherers. The Sinagua, who were sophisticated farmers, moved into the valley around 1125 and built the cliff dwellings around 1150. The dwellings were occupied until the early 1400s. Today the dwellings are somewhat deteriorated by time, weather, and vandals. They have been stabilized, but can only be viewed from the valley floor.

A short distance away is Castle A, as it was named by archaeologists. Because it was built closer to the base of the cliff, it was more exposed to the weather and to vandals and today only a few original foundation bricks remain. However, in its day it was a six-story building with about 45 rooms.

On Friday we drove from Flagstaff to Williams, AZ, to board the train for the Grand Canyon National Park. The train is operated by the Grand Canyon Railway, which provides two regularly scheduled round trips a day between Williams and Grand Canyon Village. Back in 1901 the Grand Canyon Railway (then a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) built a rail line from Williams to the South Rim of the canyon as a means to lure tourists. The three-hour train ride quickly became more popular than the six-hour stage coach ride. However, as use of the automobile grew in the '40s and '50s, the train fell from favor. In 1968 passenger service was discontinued although the train continued to haul freight for several more years. Then the rails lay unused until Max and Thelma Biegert bought the rail line in the late 1980s and began restoration. The Williams Train Depot was reopened on Sept. 17, 1989 - exactly 88 years to the day after the first passenger train traveled from Williams to the Grand Canyon. Max and Thelma retired this year and sold the railroad to Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which is the concessionaire for the Grand Canyon and many other National Parks.

The train provides a fun, relaxing way to travel to the Grand Canyon. There is a staged gun fight before the passengers board the train. Here the "bad guy" has been shot and is about to make a soft landing.

The gun fight characters later stroll aisles of the train after it is underway chatting with the passengers. A singer in cowboy garb also goes from car to car singing old western songs. It was a lot of fun, and we really recommend the train as a way to have a relaxing trip to the canyon.

We made the short walk up the hill from the train station past the El Tovar Hotel for our first glimpse of the canyon.

Words simply can't describe the Grand Canyon. Pictures can't do it justice. It is just so vast that it is beyond words and pictures. You have to see it in person. See Photo Album 19: Grand Canyon and the Flagstaff Area for pictures of the train ride and our attempt to capture the majesty of the canyon in photographs.

We opted for a 1 1/2 hour guided bus tour of a portion of the Hermits Rest Loop, which is just to the west of Grand Canyon Village. This particular tour was only available to Grand Canyon Railway passengers. As first-time visitors, we thought it would be a good way to get oriented. The tour was very informative, and we thought it was well worth our while. Here are Lora and J. Michael at one of the stops along the bus tour.

Here is Paul posing for a photo at the rim of the canyon. Step back a little more...a little more...

Help! Just kidding. Paul is really squatting on a ledge that is about 15' wide and about 4' below the one he is pretending to hang on to. The camera angle makes it look like there is nothing there.

One thing that becomes very evident is how deceiving distances are. Your mind knows that canyon is about a mile deep, but when you look down into the canyon and the tour guide tells you what look like shrubs about half-way down the canyon are really 70' tall cottonwood trees, it really surprises you. The photo below shows Indian Garden. The green ribbon in the center of the photo are the 70' cottonwoods along the famed Bright Angel Trail. Bright Angel Plateau with the trail showing up as the light tan line is visible beyond Indian Garden. The edge of the plateau in the upper left is the turnaround point for the one-day mule trip, which means it is a half-day's ride. The trail to the bottom follows the trees and goes off to the right of the plateau. The mule trip to the bottom takes a full day down and a full day back with an overnight stop at Phantom Ranch.

On our way back from the Grand Canyon we all agreed we wanted to experience more of the canyon so we decided to travel back by car. We left bright and early two days later and stopped in Tusayan, which is just outside the south entrance to the park, to see "Grand Canyon Movie" at the National Geographic Society Visitor Center IMAX Theater. This is the most watched IMAX movie of all time having been viewed by almost 40 million people. The movie starts with the Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans or Ancient Ones), who were early inhabitants of the canyon area. It then moves into more recent history with Spanish discovery in 1540. It details the exploration of the canyon by John Wesley Powell in 1869. John Wesley Powell was a 35-year old Civil War veteran who lost his right arm in the battle of Shiloh. Powell, who was also a professor of natural history, and nine companions explored the uncharted and dangerous canyon in 4 small, wooden boats. Three of Powell's companions, in fear for their lives in the dangerous rapids, left the group to climbed out of the Canyon on foot. They were never heard from again. It is assumed they were killed by Indians.

Learning a little about Powell from the movie really piqued Margery's interest in him. She is currently working her way through the 573 page A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell by Donald Worster. How interesting to learn that in the spring of 1857, he stayed on Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh before beginning his exploration down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers where he learned about the geological history that had made the North American continent what it was.

From the IMAX movie, we went to the rim of the canyon and explored the area to the east of Grand Canyon Village as well as Kolb Studio at the Village. The Kolb brothers operated a photographic studio at the south rim of the canyon from 1904 to 1976. In 1990 the building was restored and today operates as a book store, museum, and art gallery. The studio is located near the trailhead of Bright Angel Trail, which descends down into the canyon. Paul and Lora took a short hike down the trail. We saw this mule party a ways below heading back up the trail. Mules have the right of way on the trail and hikers must pass by on the outside next to the drop-off.

In the day between our two treks to the Grand Canyon we stayed a little closer to our home base. Sunset Crater National Monument is about 15 miles north of Flagstaff. It is at the beginning of a 34 mile scenic loop that ends up at Wupatki National Monument, which is the site of numerous pueblo ruins. Sunset Volcano is a 1000' high black cinder cone tinged with yellows and oranges. The volcano erupted sometime between 1046 and 1071 spewing ash, cinders, and lava over a wide area. Below is a view of the Bonito Lava Flow in front of Sunset Crater Volcano.

Even though over 700 years has elapsed since the last volcanic activity, there is surprisingly little vegetation on either the lava flows or the cinder cones. Weather usually breaks down the lava and cinders to turn them into soil, but the low amount of rainfall in this region has slowed the breakdown and thus the plant growth. The area is in the San Francisco Volcanic Field (named for St. Francis and not connected to San Francisco, CA) and is dotted with numerous cinder cones and several lava flows. Although the cinders begin to thin out quite a bit as you get closer to Wupatki National Monument, their black evidence can be seen essentially the entire 34 mile scenic drive,

At Wupatki National Monument we visited two of the seven pueblo ruins that are open to the public. The first was Wukoli Pueblo, which is the best preserved dwelling in the park. Two or three families lived in this pueblo which was occupied from about 1120 to 1210.

The second site we visited was Wupatki Pueblo, which is the largest pueblo in the park. This dwelling had approximately 100 rooms at its peak and rose multiple stories. It also had a circular ceremonial or meeting room and a ball court.

Now, we don't really like big cities, we don't like a lot of glitz, and we don't gamble; but our curiosity got the better of us and since Las Vegas is kind of on the way to our next area to explore in Utah, we planned to spend a couple of nights in Vegas. We wanted to see the lights, see the exotic hotels, and take in a buffet or two.

Lora and J. Michael had arranged their schedule to fly back to Pittsburgh from Las Vegas. We made reservations for us at the Circus Circus KOA and for them at the motel section of Circus Circus. Again, KOA usually isn't our cup of tea, but we needed a campground with reasonably priced motel rooms nearby. The Las Vegas Circus Circus KOA is basically a paved parking lot with side-by-side hook-ups. There's not much shade and not much grass, but it is conveniently located at the north end of The Strip and it does have both a hotel and a motel. But at over $50 a night for a campsite (with a KOA Kamper Klub discount and without the extra charge for Wi-Fi), it leaves a lot to be desired.

The route from Flagstaff to Las Vegas takes you right across Hoover Dam. We had heard about restrictions crossing the dam with large vehicles such as trucks and RVs after 9/11. Although RVs are currently permitted to cross, they may be subject to search. Since, as full-timers, our motor home is well packed and since we didn't know the extent of the search or the length of the backup, we opted for the half-hour longer route through Laughlin, NV. Besides, there are also construction delays at the dam because they are buiding a bridge 1/4 mile downstream to eliminate most of the traffic across the dam and eliminate terror threats to the dam. Completion of the bridge is scheduled for 2008.

After we all got settled, we drove The Strip while it was still daylight and again later at night and marveled at the lavish hotels. The Luxor Hotel is built in the shape of a black pyramid with a huge sphynx in front. Caesar's Palace looks like Roman architecture with a reproduction of the Collesium out front. Paris Las Vegas has a large replica of the Eiffel Tower.

New York, New York looks like the New York skyline with a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. At night, The Strip lights up like no other place you've ever seen. The older hotels and casinos have most of the neon, although even the McDonalds have elaborate neon signs. Many of the newer hotels rely on their design to be noticed and have somewhat more subtle lighting. Most of the newer hotels do, however, have a jumbotron out front previewing their shows and advertising their casinos.

As far as we can tell, the hotels (even the large, expensive ones on The Strip) all have free, self-park garages. They want to make it easy for the general public to stop by and maybe spend a little time in the casino or attend a show. Some even have free shows outside to draw people in. Treasure Island has a pirate show and the Bellagio has lighted fountains that are choreographed to music. There is a 1000' long, eight-acre lake in front of the Bellagio with fountains that can propel water up to 50' high. The fountains twirl, sway, pulse, rise, and fall to the music.

During the afternoons, the shows are every half hour. At night, the shows are every 15 minutes. We were there in the evening and stayed for four shows. The shows are relatively short (about 4 minutes) and by the time each show was over and we found a new vantage point, it was almost time for the next show. Each show had different music and different fountain choreography. There are at least 20 or 30 different music selections including classical, pop, broadway, and Christmas. It was agreed by all that it was one of our favorite parts of Las Vegas.

There are food bargains to be had in Las Vegas if you look for them. The new, large hotels on The Strip are quite expensive, but the smaller hotels and casinos (which are still very nice) off The Strip or downtown have much lower prices, especially if you stick to the coffee shop, grill, or cafe instead of the main dining room. For example, at Kitty's Grill in the El Cortez Hotel downtown you can have an 8 oz. prime rib for $7.95 (12 oz. for $9.95) or surf and turf (7 oz. NY strip steak and 12 to 15 decent-size broiled shrimp on a skewer) for $12.95. All dinners include soup or salad (the blue cheese dressing is excellent), vegetable, and potato. The food is good, especially for the price, and ambiance is not bad (linen napkins, but no table cloths - this is the grill, not the dining room). We also had a great breakfast buffet for $5.99 at Sam's Town, which is off The Strip on Boulder Highway. The hotel is beautiful with a large atruim/lobby, although not as extravagant as those on The Strip, and is very well maintained. The food at the buffet was excellent with all the usual breakfast items (scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, cereal, rolls, muffins, etc.) plus freshly-carved ham and made-to-order omelets. They also had lunch and dinner buffets, but we didn't make it back to try them.

On the one full day that we had in Las Vagas we backtracked 30 miles to Hoover Dam. There is a tour of the dam that easily accommodated Margery's scooter.

The tour includes a movie about the history and construction of the dam and an elevator ride 500' down into the rock of the canyon wall to see one of the two 30' diameter water intake pipes that carry up to 90,000 gallons of water a second...

...and the eight huge generators on the Nevada side of the dam (the Arizona side has nine). The smaller, horizontal generator in the foreground is one of two generators (one on the Nevada side and one on the Arizona side) that power the dam facilities, the Visitor Center, and the power plant itself.

In the 1800s and early 1900s the Colorado River often flooded low-lying farm land and communities as it surged with water from snow melt in the spring. In the late summer and fall it often slowed to a trickle too small to be useful for irrigation. The river needed to be controlled; but before that could happen, there needed to be agreement on how the water could be equitably divided. In 1922, the Colorado River Compact was signed by the 7 states served by the river. Then in 1928, Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act authorizing construction of the dam. Although the act called it the Boulder Canyon Project and the dam was initially called Boulder Dam, the dam is actually located in Black Canyon. In the end, Black Canyon was chosen because it is narrower than Boulder Canyon and it had less silt to be removed to get down to bed rock. Construction began in 1931 with the building of diversion tunnels for the Colorado River. The first concrete was poured in June, 1933. The dam was completed in 1935 - two years ahead of schedule and well under budget. Not only did the dam make it possible to provide water and electricity for much of the southwest, it provided thousands of jobs during the Depression.

Here are some interesting facts about Hoover Dam. It is 726.4' high from bedrock to the top and contains 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete weighing 6.6 million tons. There was such a great mass of concrete that a large chiller was used to circulate cool water through the concrete to cool it as it cured. The dam is 1244' wide at the top, 45' thick at the top (width of roadway and sidewalks) and 660' thick at the base. Some of the equipment used to build the dam was too large to transport so it had to be built on-site. Of the thousands of people that took part in the construction, 96 lost their lives. Contrary to popular myth, none is buried in the dam. There are 17 total commercial generating units plus 2 service units to supply power for the facility itself with a total capacity of 2080 megawatts. Lake Mead, which is behind the dam, is currently 53' below its normal level for this time of year because of ongoing drought. Therefore, the power plant can not be operated at full capacity at this time. The photo below shows Lake Mead with one of the water intake towers in the foreground. The white "bathtub ring" shows the normal water level.

See Photo Album 19: Grand Canyon and the Flagstaff Area for more photos of Hoover Dam. We are disappointed that not many readers are taking advantage of the photo albums. In addition to the pictures, there is other information included that is not in the weblog. If you are having trouble accessing the photo albums in a timely fashion, please let us know. We'll see what we can do to speed up the time.

The time for Lora and J. Michael to return home arrived all too soon. We got them to the airport, then returned to the motor home to finish packing and hitch up the toad just in time for the 11:00 AM checkout time. We were headed for Zion and Bryce National Parks in southern Utah.

Panoramic view of a Quartzsite sunset from the top of the motorhome.

Quartzsite is located in western Arizona, just 20 miles east of the Colorado River. This town of 1,900 plays host to more than a million people a year, most during January and February. At this time of year, 2,000 vendors of rocks and gems and everything else imagineable create one of the world's largest open air flea markets. In addition to vendors of all kinds of merchandise who peddle their wares in swap meets all over town, during the last week of January there is a huge tent filled with vendors of mostly RV-related merchandise. There are also many promoters of RV resorts from a lot of different states. Finally, there are hundreds of  recreational vehicles  brought in by several large dealers in the southwest. How they get them all there, though, is a mystery.

Although we had extensively researched Quartzsite, where it is reported that 250,000 RVs converge on the town and adjacent desert, you just really have to see it to believe it. As we approached the exit on I-10, Quartzsite and the surrounding desert were already peppered with RVs for as far as they eye could see.

We wanted to be in Quartzsite during the Sports Vacation and RV Show the last week of January. We arrived late Thursday morning with full water and propane tanks and empty grey and black water tanks. We planned to stay with the Escapee Boomers' group on BLM land. This area of desert allows 14 days of free camping but without any hook-ups. It's called boondocking or dry camping. However, finding your group in the desert requires that you recognize the signs.

We loved our location in Scaddan Wash because we were close to the mountains and they were beautiful as they changed color throughout the day with the sun.

We were also high enough to see the town in the distance. (That's one of the things we've noticed about the west. In many places it is so flat...you get a great view of the horizon but no view of the area right around you.)

The show itself was fun but in some ways disappointing. To be sure, there were no bargains in products OR fair fare. (A smoked turkey leg was more expensive than the ones in Disney World!) There was every product imagineable for your RV and then some but no appreciable show discounts. The one thing we would save with a purchase was paying double shipping since we have to have everything forwarded by our mail service.

There was one item we have been considering for some time, and we did purchase it. The Campfire in a Can is a great alternative to having to carry or purchase firewood. Additionally, many places are so dry that campfires are prohibited. However, the propane version should pass muster since gas grills are allowed. On top of all that, It's lighter weight than the firewood and kindling we were carrying.

We also took some time to explore the area around Quartzsite. We were surprised to see these hay fields with desert mountains in the background.

We noticed as we traveled from Phoenix to Quartzsite, that there were a lot of dairy farms, but different than we're used to seeing in the east. Instead of grazing in pastures, the dairy farms keep the cows in feedlots where they are fed from large bales of hay. We saw many 18 wheelers on the interstate piled high with hay bales. Now we know where the hay was being grown. We passed many fields being worked by CRIT Farms. We learned that CRIT stands for Colorado River Indian Tribes. The 3,500 active Tribal members include the Navajo, Hopi, Mohave, and Chemehuevi Tribes. Through their innovative approach to agriculture, they successfully farm 15,000 acres of alfalfa, cotton, and duram wheat among other things. They have become adept at growing different crops in different seasons. They work fields that look sunken with dirt walls around them. This, in fact, is part of their irrigation system. Between fields there are canals with water drawn from the Colorado River.

Quartzsite is also the location of an interesting sidelight of Arizona history. In the mid 1800's, Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War at the time, approved a plan to experiment with camels for freighting and communication. The desert became home to 74 camels and their caretaker, Haiji Ali, whose Arabic name was promptly changed to "Hi Jolly" by the soldiers. Although the camels proved their worth, the experiment was abandoned because they scared the burros, mules and horses. Hi Jolly remained in the United States and is buried  in the Quartzsite cemetery.

To experience Quartzsite is to see an eclectic mix of people, recreational vehicles, vendors, and lifestyles. Check out Photo Album 012: Quartzsite for more pictures of  our interesting encounters.

After nine days of "roughing it," we were ready for some hook-ups... electric blankets at night would be especially appreciated in those 30+ degree nights. Additionally, Margery began having a reaction to all the dust and was having trouble breathing. Off-road vehicles are a BIG thing in the desert and there is a lot of dust pollution generated by them as well as from the road traffic. We discovered there are a lot of dirt roads in the desert! In many cases, just the main roads are paved.

So what's our verdict on Quartzsite? We are definitely glad we experienced it, but a visit every year is not a necessity for us. There are many people who full-time with dry camping as their norm. Some people camp in the desert from September - April for just $130 for the season. This would not be possible without the installation of solar panels on your rig to charge your batteries and more than two batteries which come with the rig.

We enjoyed desert camping and look forward to trying it in more solitude, but we're thinking 5-7 days are enough even though we could probably make it 10. We likened dry camping to the weekend camping we did for so many years...fun for a time, but it's nice to go home to the conveniences. As our motorhome manufacturer so aptly says on each one they built...we're "roughing it smoothly." :)

We left Quartzsite and headed south to Yuma on our quest for suitable snowbird roosts.