Cave Creek

The hike in Cave Creek was special because William joined us. Doesn't happen often so mark it down - April 12, 2015. We drove up to Cave Creek for an early AM hike in the foothills. There is always something different to see everywhere you go, everytime you go. It might be the flowering plants or a waterfall or a creek or well you just never know what. Sometimes it's wild animals, but not this time.

 So let's get started. This is called the Jewel of the Creek and we took the Dragonfly Trail.

How cool is this flower? I call it a fairy duster, not sure what it really is, but I think there really is some flower called a fairy duster or pixie duster or something like that.

This is the flowering Ocotillo or as I call it Nature's Barbed Wire.

This place was pretty full of Saguaros. I imagine when they flower it is quite the sight to see.

And finally a little water feature, every good hike has a water feature somewhere in it. Had to cross that little creek on those thin little boards, it was interesting.

 

That's all I got for now, Adios

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Doing some catch up posts here, cause I have been MIA for quite some time and I am sure I have something to say. In March we went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park. We hadn't been there in quite some time, like a few years, some things have changed and some have remained the same. It is still a great place to walk around and enjoy the beauty and quiet of nature. Some photos of the trip for your viewing pleasure:

 

 

In addition to the beautiful scenery, there were a few Chapunga statues scattered around the grounds. We first saw a Chapunga exhibit at the Chicago Botanical Gardens in June 2003. They are beautiful stone statues and so it was fun to see one again when we least expected it.

 

After we finished walking around the Arboretum, we went into Superior to take a look around. We have been here before, but never to the "business" area of town. Like most mining towns around here, it was a very depressed area. It is so sad to see all the abandoned buildings and businesses. What was once a thriving area, where people built their homes and lived their dreams, is now just left to decay.

That's all I got for now, Au revoir 

Flowering cactus

This will be a sneak preview of some of the flowering cactus photos I have. I am working on a project made up of desert flowers but well it's not ready and well I don't know when it will be and since you my loving mother and only reader wish to see some cacti with flowers here you go.

I do not know the names of them, but you can see there are many varieties and all with beautiful flowers! Since I am way more impressed with my ability to capture a hummingbird in photos, I have included a few of them also. See if you can spot the hummingbird!

That's all I got for now. Ciao

Tuzigoot National Monument

Early AM last Sunday we headed to Tuzigoot National Monument in Clarkdale, Arizona. I enjoy exploring Indian Ruins. There is something about the history of the ruins, that calls to me. I try to imagine myself living in that time and I don't think I would have lasted long. I would have been the one they left behind when they moved along because I couldn't make the trip. It was a simpler time, but I think a much harder time to live. What no running water or electricity? Those are kind of basics to me. Clarkdale is just up the road from Old Cottonwood. It is an old mining town, big surprise I know. The temp in the car went from 50s to 20s in a flash, however, by the time we got there while windy and a bit chilly it was really quite pleasant with the sun beating on us. Here are a few photos of the ruins:

 

 

As always, please stay on the trails there are many things that creep and crawl and bite and sting and RATTLE!

After exploring the ruins, we did a quick cache. There I am making the find.

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Took a quick tour through Clarkdale and saw this church. In case you can't read it, it is St. Cecilia's Mission.

That was pretty much the day, quick trip up and back with a stop at Portillo's on the way home. 

Sears-Kay Ruins

This was originally to be a hike to Seven Springs near the Carefree/CaveCreek area, though we never quite made it there. Along the way is the Sears-Kay Ruins, which we stopped to see. Well that little hike, one mile round trip, ended up being quite interesting and by the time we finished it was too hot for me to even consider anymore outdoor activity for the day. Such is life in the desert. Actually I cannot imagine life in the desert back when the Hohokam lived here. There were even a couple caches along the trail and there was this rather large spider, not really sure what kind and you might have to look hard to see it, because it was blending right into the rocks, but see it I did and it was creepy looking.

Pat climbed up the rocks to check for any enemies that might be advancing, just like the Hohokam back in the 1500s. 

 

 This was part of the ruins, note the low rock walls that set out the different rooms of their village.

 You can see forever from up on top of the hill and that is probably why they settled there to be able to see when the enemy was headed their way.

It was a pleasant drive and an interesting area, we will have to head back for the Seven Springs hike when the weather gets much much cooler.

 

Trip to Sedona/Cottonwood

Yep, still trying to avoid the heat here in the Valley of the Sun. Pat and I decided since it still gets too hot for me to hike in this area we would head up to Sedona for the day. We proceeded to try to find a hike that wouldn't be too long, and we could be done before the sun got to me. All of our regular spots in the Sedona area are in NATIONAL FORESTs, oh what gorgeous areas they are and so plentiful we never have to do the same hike twice. Guess what they were all closed YES closed just like the Grand Canyon, so we had to find a state park to hike in. Low and behold we found Red Rock State Park and it was open and we had never been there and so off we went. It turned out to be a very interesting park and one we probably would not have gotten to for some time, leaning more towards the National Parks when we hike. There were multiple trails and they all sort of winded around linking up with each other and so you can hike any length of time to suit your needs. One of the hikes went past this wonderful looking stone house, that was fenced in and no admittance was allowed and well that didn't make me happy because that is just the sort of thing I like to dig around in. Turns out the house has a legend and you can read about it here. The house belonged to Jack and Helen Frye. Jack was the "father" of TWA and Helen at one time was Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. I believe there is a story there, but you will have to read the legend to find out.

  I love red rock country.

 Also love a creek on my hikes.

 Trail Closed doesn't stop him.

 Did I mention the Grand Canyon and all National Forests are closed? That would pretty much cover most of Northern Arizona. We found the tourists who got turned away at the GC, they ended up at Red Rock State Park!

 They fenced me out.

 A closer look at what I am sure was a magnificent home in the middle of Red Rock Country. 

On our way home we went through Old Cottonwood to look around. There was another pleasant surprise. I think Jerome gets way more publicity and tourists, however, Old Cottonwood was a very cute little town with a lot of old stone buildings. There were also lot of wine shops and wine tasting rooms and so on. Since I am not doing all that well with my acquiring a taste for wine, we skipped that, looked around town for a bit, had lunch then headed home. 

 Look how cool this stone building is. If I remember correctly it is a Community Center. Probably play bingo there on Friday nights.

 This was a motel, had a really nice courtyard area with dark creepy stairways to the second floor all done in stone.

This is the old jailhouse turned tea room.

It was a fun Sunday exploring new areas. Take the road less traveled you never know where you will end up.

Daytrip to Globe

Let's get this out of the way. 

• Yes, it is still over 100 degrees most days here
• Yes, I have had more than enough
• Yes, I know it will probably last at least another month
• Yes, I am still whining about it 
• Yes, I know we are all sick of hearing me whine about it
• Yes, I am sick of hearing myself whine about it. 

So we took a daytrip to Globe, if you think that stopped my whining, wrong you are. It is just as hot there, but at least it was new scenery. We are doing the 31 day Geocaching challenge. Which means we need to find at least 1 cache a day for each of the 31 days of August. Check out the Instagram photos on the right for progress of the 31 day challenge. I am determined not to miss a day no matter the heat and I may extend it to a year long (or more) challenge. We found a couple caches in Globe, there aren't that many in that area that don't involve hiking and I don't hike in 100 degree weather. We did find the old Globe cemetery, which proved very interesting. Since Globe is an old mining town (big shock I know) it is situated on hills and parts of the cemetery are so old that it is in a state of disrepair and it appears graves are slipping down that hill.

 

 Stopped in Superior looking for a cache, this was a park full of old mining equipment, we didn't find a cache here but it was fun to look around.

 On top of Globe, found the cache up here and a nice view of the town!

 This is what I mean about history in the cemetery. A prospector killed by Apaches in 1876 (that's a bit before my time) and first to be buried in the Globe Cemetery.

 Some grave sites were very well tended and even had recent "additions" to them.

 A much older section of the cemetery, not that well tended.

 The children's section was very sad, there were multiple graves, some very old and some newer, but all had new  toys left at them.

 There was a section for Confederate Veterans and Buffalo Soldiers. I am not even going to pretend I know anything about that.

All in all it was a fun trip, we got 2 caches, spent some time exploring an older section of Globe, well all of Globe is old but we hadn't been in this area before, and we stopped for lunch at the Mexican restaurant we found last time we were in Superior.