Science Capital of America

If ever a state deserves to be called the Science Capital of America, it is Arizona. The variety of scientific fields is astonishing--biology, anthropology, geology, mineralogy, astronomy, zoology, ornithology, botany.....

Biosphere 2--It's called Biosphere 2 because Earth is Biosphere 1. This was the place where 8 people lived in a glass cage for 2 years. They had to breath only the air they produced and eat only the food that they grew. That was their downfall. They didn't have enough air, so they had to create more and they weren't getting enough calories. They have two massive "lungs" that control air volume. Now they use it for all kinds of scientific experiments and have created several different climate zones inside, including a small ocean, rainforest and desert.

Titan Missile Launch Silo--During the Cold War, this was the last chance America had to defend itself. Twenty-five of these silos were stationed around the country, ready to launch a nuclear missile with the turning of a key. Four crew members were stationed there at all times. During the tour, you get to go down into the silo and see the missile and the control room.

Casa Grande Ruins--This was a thriving community of the Hohokam and a chance for us to look back and imagine the culture at it's height. Archeologists study this culture that use irrigation for a thousand years and ended around 1450.

Sabino Canyon--a shuttle takes you to the top of this lovely canyon, where you can walk amongst the sauguro, along a river, watching for birds.

Other science places we will go to on our next visit: The Planetarium at the U of Arizona, Kitt Observatory, Biotanical Gardens.

Junga Game of the Gods

It is astounding that most Americans don't even know Chiricahua National Monument exists. It is more visually stunning than the Grand Canyon. You can walk down around the spires to be awed by their size and shapes, wondering at how they defy gravity and stay in place. I kept thinking how much my dad would love this place.

Bisbee/Queen Mine

We liked Bisbee so much that we stayed a few extra days. We were staying in this cute little RV park overlooking the gigantic pit mine, close enough to easily walk to town. This is a town with a lot of personality--old buildings, teetering houses, real handcrafted arts, even the junk shops are creatively arranged. We ate in several small restaurants--Roma Bella, Bisbee Grill, and Cafe Cornucopia--with high quality foods at reasonable prices. We hung out for an evening at the local saloon, my husband played pool and we listened to a local singer/songwriter, who was quite good. It was also a great location for several day trips around the southeast corner of Arizona--so much to see there!The Queen Mine is just on the edge of town. It was in operation until 1975. They have found an amazing variety of ores here, but mostly copper. They give tours underground that last about an hour. You have to don yellow slickers, hard hats and lanterns to ride on the little tram into the mine. I certainly learned a lot about the mining industry.

Eat a Burger, See a Murder

Tombstone is a lot like Virginia City NV; once an important mining town, now just a tourist trap. The main street is lined with gift shops. People dressed in costumes come up to you on the street and invite you into their restaurant or shop or museum. They hold silly fake shoot-outs in the middle of road. One guy stopped us and really said, "Come on in. Eat a burger, see a murder."

In reality, Tombstone was a highly dangerous, nasty place. We went to the Boothill Cemetery, where 250 people are buried. Most of them died awful deaths--found in mine shafts with bullet holes, hanged, lynched, suicides, stoned to death.

The OK Corral is now completely enclosed with bleachers, where they charge you to watch a fake gun battle of a real shoot-out that lasted a total of 30 seconds.

The most worthwhile thing in the town is the old Courthouse, now run as an Arizona state park--a very well done museum.

Cave Kissed

So far, the best experience of this trip has been the Kartchner Caverns, outside of Benson, AZ. Discovered in 1974 by two cavers, they kept it secret for 14 years. In 1999, it was opened to the public.

They have two different tours of the two biggest areas of the caverns. Of course, since we don't know if we'll ever be back, we had to do both. They last about an hour and a half each. The first one was called "The Big Room." We learned so much about how they are formed by hard water (calcite) at the rate of 1/400 of an inch every 500 years! The bacon formations were fascinating. No photos are allowed, so I can't show you pictures (the photo above is from their website). But we felt the second tour, "The Rotunda Room and the Throne Room" was even more thrilling. It is here that the massive 58ft tall Kubla Khan column is. They do a lovely light and music show that really makes you stop in wonder.

Female bats roost in the Big Room from Oct to April, so it is closed. The bat only weighs half an ounce and her one pup is half the weight. There were bones from a 86,000 year old sloth found here--think about that.

We camped at there campground for two days while we explored the area. We were told that usually you need reservations to get in, but tourism is down by 50% here. That's pretty scary.

Yes, I was "Cave Kissed," meaning that a drop of water fell from the ceiling and kissed me.

Patagonia Lake/Madera Canyon

At Patagonia Lake they have avian patoon boat tours for only $3! such a deal! We got an hour ride with experienced birders pointing out all the waterfowl and other birds. My favorite find was the black capped night herons roosting in the trees. Also the brilliant red cardinals were heart stopping. The red headed gila woodpecker, above, spent three days drilling the tree beside our campsite.
An absolute jewel in Southern Arizona is the Madera Canyon. Lovely hikes and spectacular scenery. We got caught in a downpour, but it was worth it to see all that beautiful countryside. From the top of the nature trail, if you look south, it looks like Peru; if you look north, it looks the African savannah. They have a lodge and a B&B, but no camping. I would say it would definitely be worth staying there.

Organ Pipe Cactus Monument

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is a fascinating adventure. We were lucky enough to be there while a storm was brewing up from Mexico, giving us cool temps for walking and brilliant skies for dramatic scenery. The highlight of the park is the 20 mile circular drive to the Ajo Mountains, where there are two arches. The views were so spectacular that we wanted to do it again & again.

One day we did a 4 mile hike to an old silver mine, abandoned in 1977. The trail wound around up over hills and down through washes. The next day, we did the 3 mile Desert View to the top of a hill, overlooking big wide Sonoran Desert valleys into Mexico.

Organ Pipe cactus have many upright branches grouped close together. I had never seen one before; they are very rare in the US. The terrain is also covered in ocotillo, saguaro, cholla and barrel cactus, making it appear to be a fantasyland.

Slab City

OK, now that we've been here for awhile and I have a feel for the place, I will try and describe some of the most interesting aspects of Slab City. Everyone says that the population is way down this year; there used to be around 5000 RV's here at one time. Now there's maybe 500. Apparently everyone now goes to Quartzite where there is a massive flea market with over 250,000 vendors.
There are definitely neighborhoods here, the locals, the snowbirds, the hippies, the single old broads. (Sorry, I apologize, but they were pretty rude to us). So where do we fit? Well, really we don't. We ended up with the snowbirds, who are all at least 10-20 years older than us, but very welcoming and friendly. They love to talk. We've met people who have been coming here for 8, 10, or even 25 years. We went to dinner at the Oasis Club: taco dinner $3 each and also the Travel'n Pals Club: pot roast dinner $7 each. These affairs are BYOB and a plate, they provide the food. You can join the clubs for an annual membership fee and they have lots of activities, movies, libraries, tools to share.

We are bordered on the east by the Chocolate Mountain Gunnery Range, which means that at any time of the night or day, missiles and bombs can go off with no warning at all. Just KABOOM! Quite exciting. The locals say that they don't even notice any more.

One of the things we liked the best is the Gopher Flats Golf Course. It reminds me of the one in MASH--18 holes in gravel and bushes. Brad played a few holes and I just laughed.
The library was established many years ago. People keep bringing more books than they take away, so it keeps growing. It is a cool oasis of shade, clean & organized. I found three books I will definitely read.


Brad and I get up pretty early and have our tea in the refreshing cool morning light. Sometimes I climb up to the roof of the RV to survey the landscape. Then we head out for a walk before it gets too hot. We wander through the streets, into the desert, weaving whichever way we want to go. Then it's time to read or socialize or head into town for supplies. Evenings are very relaxing with an early dinner and watching the stars. Some nights we stay at camp and others we are invited to join other campers at their campfire. It's a relaxing way to spend some time.

We will leave tomorrow, after being here for a week. I have spent the time wondering what it would be like to live like this permanently. Certainly there are some wonderful people making a very happy life for themselves here. But really, we are simply not ready to just come and sit in the sun for months at a time. We are not old enough for this life yet--maybe someday.

South!

We started out on our five week Southwestern adventure by driving south for seven hours. We wanted to get as far as possible the first day. Choosing an unusual route, we drove down the Extraterrestrial Highway, circling Area 51. They had a little bar called the Ale-Inn, which I thought was kind of cute. No other sightings.

Arriving at the Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge right at dusk, the birds were just settling for the night and we could hear them calling to each other as we set up camp. No other campers were in the whole campground and it was free.

In the morning we walked about three miles lakeside, watching all the migrated waterfowl--tundra swans, mallards, Canada geese. It was chilly with a slight breeze, but not cold at least. Even though it is south, it still high up in the mountains. The lake was mostly frozen.

The winds picked up fericously on Friday. We drove three hours south fighting with them; most the time they were tailwinds and that's okay, but the crosswinds were very scary. We made it to the Colorado River, right on the border of California and Arizona. The winds kicked up and rocked the motorhome during the night. The dust off the fields was everywhere. When they finally settled down staying in a little county park was very pleasant and warm.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about Slab City.....

Southwest

After spending the first eight days of our vacation on the California coast, we decided we’d better turn east, or we’d never get to see the Southwest at all. We had so many places on our list of possibilities, but we had to make some severe cuts if we wanted to get where we intended. It was a daily process of “we are here, where do we want to go now?”

Joshua Tree National Park

Empty landscape with distant mountain ranges, oases, incredible boulders jutting out of the ground. I learned about different types of cactus: cholla, ocotillo, saguro, barrel, and prickly pear. They had informative short nature trails that Brad could handle with his new hip. Definitely stay in the Jumbo Rocks campground. Watching two brilliant blue lizards fighting (mating?) was a thrill.

Sedona

No matter what, plan your trip around being out at sunset, whatever the consequences (no dinner), it’s worth it. The beauty of this place is stunning, whenever you see it, but at sunset it comes alive with color. Since downtown Sedona is a tourist mecca and a traffic nightmare, it’s better to stay a little out of town. We chose Dead Horse State Park, close to Jerome, an old copper mining town that almost died until the artsy people reclaimed it. Now it is full of galleries and is quite enjoyable to cruise around. Also close by are Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle, dwellings of the Sinagua tribe, who lived there for over 300 years and suddenly disappeared with no trace around 1400.

Grand Canyon

If possible, get reservations to the campground inside the park. We didn’t know when we’d be there, when we tried to get in it was Easter weekend, so we had to drive back outside to a dumpy little RV park for $47/night. Not cool. If you go in at the South Gate, make sure that you drive to the right (east), to avoid the crowds. The Mather Point is crazy. Grandview was much more comfortable. We stayed for about 3 hours to watch the sunset. We couldn’t go down the canyon and I think it would be a whole different experience. Although the steep walk would kill me, and I wouldn’t ride mules, but I would love to do the raft trip sometime.

Death Valley

We stayed across the street from Furnace Creek, in a flat gravel parking lot, surrounded by RV’s with their generators running. Not pleasant. BUT… the stars, satellites, and Milky Way were so spectacular that it made up for it. I honestly expected lots of cactus with blooms, and was disappointed that there were none to be seen.

Vortex

Last night, I was at the center of a powerful energy vortex in the heart of Sedona, at sunset, on the vernal equinox, with a full moon (almost) rising. What did I feel? nothing. nada. zip. Yeah, it was beautiful, and I felt content and happy to be there, but no more than if I was sitting at home on my deck.

There are four energy vortexes in Sedona, places where the subtle energy spirals out of the earth, Cathedral Rock, Boynton Canyon, Airport, and the Bell Rock. We walked to the edge of Bell Rock just before sunset, settled in with the camera, and watched the show.

Surreal Landscape

Watching the moon rise in the east and the sun set in the west, at the same time, over such vivid terrain, makes your head spin. These gigantic rock formations, jumbo rocks, stand out against the deep blue sky. The unusual Joshua Trees, yuccas, and Chollo cactus are enough to convince you that you have left Earth for another planet.