Arizona Sunshine

We took a winter trip to Arizona to escape the winter cold and enjoy some sunshine. Our first stop was Sedona, which is just south of Flagstaff. We went on a number of short hikes and enjoyed the signature Red Rocks.

I really liked the twisted trunk on this juniper tree.

We then drove to Tucson. We skipped the interstate, and instead drove on slow and scenic roads. Along the way, we stopped at Montezuma Castle National Monument, a set of cliff dwellings from a thousand years ago.

There was a pretty stream there called Beaver Creek.

We arrived at the monument at 8 am, when they opened, and it was still cold.

Later on our leisurely drive, we saw Casa Grande Ruins National Monument and stopped there. These are the remains of structures built by farming people in the 13th century. Nice museum at the monument. 

A shelter was built in 1932 to protect the ruins from weathering. I was excited to hear from the ranger that the shelter was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., but I had it wrong. It was his father Frederick Law Olmsted (Sr.) who was the famous landscape architect who designed Central Park in NYC.

Saguaro National Park is just outside Tucson, and it was fabulous.

The saguaro are sometimes called giant cacti, as they can grow 40 feet tall.

The park has a good museum and knowledgable park rangers. The saguaro can live 150, maybe 200 years, but they grow very slowly. A seedling can take 5 years to become 2 inches tall, 20 years to reach a foot, and 50 years to reach the height of a human. It is only when they are 60-100 years old and 12-15 feet tall, to they sprout buds, that eventually become arms. This photo has a saguaro with a small arm bud. Amazing plants.

This was some kind of mutant.

We enjoyed looking at all of the other types of cacti. This is a barrel cactus in bloom. I would love to come back in spring when most of the cacti are in bloom.

When we got back to the visitor center, they had a nice cactus garden, and Susan pointed out that from above the cacti have geometric patterns. Interesting pictures!

One day we drove out to Kartchner Caverns State Park and toured the caves. The caves were discovered by two college students in the 1970s, and they realized that they had a rare find: A cave that has not been vandalized. They kept it a secret and then worked with the ranchers who owned the land and The Nature Conservancy, and then the land was sold to the State of Arizona. The tour was amazing, and I highly recommend it. Caves are fragile: human touch can leave oils which can damage the rocks. The State Parks spent millions building trails for tours, as well a high-tech system of air-lock doors and misting machines designed to preserve the cave.

We were not allowed to take photos, so here is a picture from Wikipedia.

Again, I highly recommend taking this tour!

After the tour, we went to the nearby town of Benson, AZ (population 5500), and found a diner. The lunch was good!

When we walked in Susan was very impressed with the homemade pies. I suggested she just have pie for lunch! But she ordered a sandwich, and took half of it home, and did not order any pie. ☹️

The main reason I am posting about this diner is that they had these neat jukebox sets at the tables. The jukebox had all kinds of artists from the 60s and 70s. I asked the waitress whether they still worked. She said that to work they needed a big jukebox with the vinyl records. She also said that when the current owner bought the diner, the previous owner offered to sell the big jukebox for $17,000, and they could not afford it. I guess these units at the tables are like remote terminals for the big mainframe terminal.

More on Tucson, on my next post on the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.