Day 13: Tucson

We took off this morning for the Gem Show at the Convention Center -- the biggest show around. We managed to get good parking at the Simpson Street Parking area and walked the 5 or so blocks to the Convention Center. We got suspicious when we noticed that there were no cars in the main parking area and no hoards of people milling around. We walked up and opened the door and found that nothing was going on -- despite a large sign for the show that was displayed out front. Feeling rejected again we thought that we had missed it -- the events around town have different start and end dates.

We figured while we were downtown, we would go see the Presidio. We followed a sign for the Visitor's Center to get more information. On the way we discovered a sign listing dates for the Convention Show -- Feb. 9 - 12. Looks like we were just two days early. The Visitor Center folks confirmed that the show would open on Thursday and gave us some useful information on the Presidio and Tubac.

We followed the Presidio Trail. This trail is marked by a turquoise line running along the sidewalk -- like the red line marking the "Freedom Trail" in Boston. However, Tucson is a little more casual about their line. We found it went under planters, trash bins, closed off outside seating areas, etc. To further confuse us, the Presidio Trail map was oriented so west was at top, but we managed.

We saw the Pima County Courthouse which has a beautiful tile dome. We passed the restored northeast corner of the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. Similar in function, but not appearance to Ft. Vancouver, the Presidio has shorter adobe walls. We strolled through the Old Town Artisans which is an old building filled with small art and craft shops with a courtyard of outside coffee and food restaurants.

After passing by the bus plaza, we got to the old restored railroad station that still serves Amtrak and also houses a nice restaurant and art gallery. It was at this railroad station that Wyatt Earp shot Frank Stillwell in the old west. They had an old steam engine out back that a volunteer guide took us through I now understand why there are all hose water towers at railroad stations.

We passed the St. Augustine Cathedral, Spanish Colonial Style church with a magnificent sandstone facade. And ended up back at the colorful Visitor's Center area with lots of gift shops and coffee shops. We had lunch at a Mexican Restaurant recommended by Teresa's friend. It was colorful and great cuisine. We decided to try lunch instead of dinner and had no trouble getting in. As we left Teresa noticed that there were heaters and benches all along the front of the restaurant. We figured they must have quite a line at dinner.

We decided to go to Saguaro National Part (East) to see the cacti and perhaps catch a good view of the sunset. We drove the circle route, took a number of short hikes and pictures and ended up back at the Visitor's center about 5:30. However, the Visitor's center closed at 5. I think I might be getting a complex about this...

We waited in the picnic area out front and staked out a good view site for the upcoming sunset. Just as sunset started, I noticed a Park Service truck idling on the road. Then I heard him close a gate over the road. I dashed back to the car and found Teresa to tell her they were closing. I took one quick photo and off we went. The ranger waved at us as we left. Now I am getting a complex.

Tomorrow we are off to Tubac.

Day 12: Tucson

We ended up staying in Tucson today. We discovered that the Tubac Arts and Craft Festival starts on Feb. 8th. So we will probably go there on Wednesday.

Today we hit the outskirts of Tucson: DeGrazia's historic area, Cabino Canyon Recreational Area, Mt. Lemmon and Summerhaven, and finally Agua Callente Park.

The DeGrazia compound included the artist's home, the Mission on the Sun, and the Gallery in the Sun. The 10-acre historic district in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains was designed and built from the ground up by Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia, who achieved world-wide acclaim for his paintings of native children in the Sonoran Desert.

DeGrazia built the gallery from natural materials including cactus, using traditional adobe bricks crafted on-site. The gallery opened in 1965 and houses more than 15,000 DeGrazia originals.

Adjoining the gallery is Mission in the Sun built in 1952 in honor of Father Kino and dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico. It is an adobe structure with rustic rock floors, open-air ceiling, and decorated with DeGrazio's murals and art. DeGrazio's grave is behind the mission.

Next to the Mission is the artist's home which is very rustic and beautiful. Part of the home is now used as a gallery for visiting artists. DeGrazia helped many new artists get started during his lifetime and that continues to be an important function of his gallery.

We saw a film of several interviews with DeGrazia showing how he crafted some of the gallery. One of the floors has cactus slices (like tiles) in the floor. I didn't realize it but under that green spiked exterior, cacti has a skeleton that looks like wood with holes in it. It's hard to recognize a dead cactus--looks like a dead tree. Anyway, in the film he referenced the "jumping cactus." He said the cactus didn't jump, people did when they ran into it. We saw some of these in the garden. They have these little burrs that easily "jump" onto your clothes. Plant life here is downright dangerous. Cacti have developed all kind of different ways to impale you.

Cabino Canyon Recreation Area is run by the Forest Service. They have a visitor's center with all sorts of exhibits and pamphlets on the animal and plant life in the Sonoran Desert. They have a number of trails and a tram that acts as a shuttle between viewpoints. We didn't take the tram, but went on a short nature walk where we saw examples of many different types of plants and cacti. There were lots of saguaro -- we are in no danger of missing them! One of the most interesting sights was a crested saguaro. Evidently sometimes the cactus goes crazy and varies from the usual pattern. This is rare, this is the only one I've seen -- so far.

The nature trail we took was called the Bajada trail. Bajada (pronounced buh-HA=duh) is the Spanish word for "gently sloping skirt of sediments surrounding a desert mountain range." Glad they have a single word for that.

Next we drove up Mt. Lemmon which towers 8,000 + feet over Tucson. The road was in good shape. It was constructed during the Depression by the Conservation Corps -- all by hand. It has lots of twists, turns and switchbacks -- but has a lot of places for cars to park along the road and numerous view points, vistas, and campgrounds. We stopped at a vista view and took a short rock climb to a fantastic view of Tucson below.

We went all the way to the top. The temperature and vegetation changed quickly along the way. Gone were the saguaro. Instead we had snow and tall evergreen trees. It looked a lot like the Grand Canyon area. We stopped at a small village called Summer Haven. This is where folks from Tucson go to get out of the heat of the summer. Most houses are log-cabin style. The town was nearly destroyed in a forest fire in 2003. Most of the cabins we saw were new and the destruction of the trees was obvious on the hillside.

We stopped at a recently rebuilt restaurant called the "Cookie Cabin." They served pizza-sized cookies and pizzas. We split a peanut butter cookie and a pepperoni pizza. Strange combination--but yummy. We skipped the ski resort on our way down -- although it is unusual to find one of those this far south.

Final stop was the Agua Allente Park. This is a true oasis. The park surrounds an artesian spring fed lake that has ducks and turtles and is surrounded by tall palm trees. We took a short hike through just a fraction of the site. It was very peaceful and refreshing, a relief from the desert.

We got home about 5:30, and after taking a Dr. Pepper break, we took a walk around the neighborhood in search of a good sunset view. The sunsets here are great. There are usually a few clouds around that swirl around in the crimson glow of the sunset. As and extra plus, you have the mountains in the background. We were busy taking pictures and happened to look behind us. There was a large cloud with a glow at the top. The glow was the moon and we watched as it rose out of the cloud. Quite a show. Once it rose, we realized the cloud looked a lot like a UFO. A beautiful Arizona night.

Day 11: Tucson Gem Show - Part 1

We slept in till about 8 am. No sunrise this morning, but when Teresa went outside she noticed the cloud formations and came and got me. Very dramatic. We also noticed that houses here do not have lawns, just rocks and desert plants. Being from the Pacific Northwest (wet side) it all looks very dusty and barren to me. Yesterday I noticed a lot of street names ended in "verde." Our host told us that means "green" in Spanish. I told Teresa this morning as we were driving to the Gem Show along one of the "green" roads, "They call this green??" Teresa said, "It's all relative."

We found the signs for the Gem Show and entered the parking lot. It was as if we were attending a concert or something. They had lots of people directing traffic. We got parked and followed folks into the door of a gigantic tent. A woman stopped us at the door and asked if we had registered. We looked puzzled and she said, "this show is wholesale only." We asked where we could go and she pointed to a stack of thick magazine-like show guides. "All the information you need is in there." So we went out to the car to try and figure out our next move.

After consulting the guide and a map, we decided to try the 22nd and I=10 location and headed out. After a few wrong turns due to human (me) error, we arrived at a large tent with a park-yourself parking lot. We scored a spot right in front and headed inside. WOW. Folks say you can't really describe the Gem Show--you have to experience it. And what an experience it is. We entered a huge tent filled with vendors selling jewelry of all kinds, rocks, gemstones, beads, marble carvings, and various related goods from all over the world.

It took us over an hour to get through the tent. Hungry for more, we went under the freeway to a frontage road with a number of motels each taken over by the Gem Show. Parking lots were occupied , lobbies were occupied, the restaurants were occupied, even the ground-floor rooms were occupied by tents and vendors. Sort of a new take off on Occupy Tucson.

We finally found an unoccupied restaurant at about 3pm and stopped to eat and rest our feet, and to get ready for the hike back to the car. I was so glad we have been hiking every day. This was a hike, just a different type of trail. After finding our car again (with a few wrong turns), we stopped at Fry's to pick up a pizza and headed home with our treasures and sore feet.

Tomorrow we are going to hike through the craft district at Tubac.

Day 10: Sedona to Tucson, AZ

We got up early again and just made it to Bell Rock for the sunrise. It is not nearly as dramatic as the Grand Canyon, but it is so interesting to see how the light and shadows change as the sun comes up. We had breakfast, packed up, and headed down highway 179. This road is an absolute treasure trove of interesting points of interest. We just got a few miles down the road and there was another view point turn off. This happened to be the Red Rock Ranger station and Information center. In addition to the great territorial view, we got useful information on other places of interest that we probably would not have found on our own.

First stop was the V Bar V Heritage Site. This used to be a private ranch and the original fireplace was left in place (without the house). The rancher kept trespassers off the property with a shootgun and preserved the petroglyph cliffs on the property. The site is now run by the Forest Service and has the largest known petroglyph rock site in the Verde Valley, as well as one of the best preserved. When we got there we were greeted by a volunteer host couple (she ran the small information center and he gave informational talks at the petroglyph site.

As we left to go up the trail he said, "Don't step in the pies." They meant cow pies. Evidently 4 cows wandered onto the property somehow and were scaring the tourists and depositing pies on the path. The couple has been trying to shoo them off and clean up. They told us that yesterday they saw one of the cows literally jump over the fence - reminiscent of that cow that jumped over the moon. We didn't see the cows and avoided the pies.

The petroglyphs were fantastic. The rocks were covered with a naturally occurring substance called desert varnish that preserves the carvings. These petroglyphs were made by the Sinagua people who lived here between A.D. 900-1300. They were farmers and this was a sacred area for them. Archeologists have discovered that these rocks act as a calendar with the sun shining on various glyphs at certain times of the year indicating the planting cycle. Using a sundial-like technique to act as a calendar is reminded me of what we saw in Mayan ruins in Mexico.

Two exits down on I-17 we stopped at the Montezuma Castle National Monument. At one time this dwelling house about 45 persons. It was built into a cliff similar to the Pueblo dwellings in Colorado. My first question was, "how did they get up there?" Answer: They used a series of ladders, caves, and ledges. The Spaniard explorers who discovered the abandoned "castle", thought it was Aztec -- hence the name. But the inhabitants were none other than our friends from the V Bar V, the Sinagua. There was another larger structure that housed about 100 folks. Although it had burned and collapsed, you could still see the outlines of the square rooms. In about 1300 A.D. the Sinagua left and abandoned their homes. No one knows why. There are marked similarities between the Sinagua and the modern Hopi tribe.

Back on the freeway, we started to look for those distinctive cactai, the saguaro. I remembered seeing a number of them between Sedona and Phoenix from my last trip through here with Jim. At that time, I wanted to take pictures of them, but missed my chance. So we were on the lookout. None. Then when we got down to about 3,000 feet at a town called Bumble Bee, we saw them. Teresa pulled off the freeway at Black Canyon City to see if we could find some to photograph. We didn't have any luck until we were about ready to get back on the freeway an ran into a sign for a municipal park and cemetery. So we ended up walking through the cemetery taking photos of the saguaro. Later we discovered that there is a National Park just north of Tucson named Saguaro National Park! So I'm guessing we will have more chances for photos.

We made it through Phoenix. I hadn't noticed drivers very much in California, Nevada, Utah -- but in Phoenix they are crazy. Teresa asked me to look behind to see if anyone was coming when she was about to change lanes and I see this car coming up fast and zipping between lanes. Then there was another, and another. The Trip-Tik that we have has a stamp over all the Arizona pages which says "traffic rules strictly enforced." So we expected drivers to be well-behaved. Not so. Our host here confirmed our observation. He told us that "strictly enforced" meant you could drive 10 mph over the speed limit -- but if you drove 11 mph over, you would get ticketed. And the speed limit is 75 in most places on the freeway!

We made it to Tucson around 4:30 and found Teresa's friend's house. Unfortunately, her friend is not here right now, but her father is hosting us. He took us out to guide us to the Gem Show headquarters and we went to Fry's (like Fred Myers) for some provisions. Now we are doing laundry and relaxing for a while. Tomorrow we will check out the Gem Show. We'll be in Tucson for about a week alternating between points of interest and the Gem Show.

Day 9: Grand Canyon to Sedona

We woke up early, so decided to go out to the rim for the sunrise. It was very cold, but worth it. As we were walking back we encountered a group getting ready for a mule ride along the Bright Angel trail. The group was gathered for their safety talk. Several tour guides (in cowboy hats) and a group of mules hung around near by. The guide was telling the folks that their mule would walk close to the edge of the trail from time to time. When this happens they should NOT lean away from the edge. This is because not remaining upright in the saddle would loosen it. I'm thinking NO WAY are you getting me on that tour.

Teresa and I headed for our spot in he cafeteria for some coffee to warm up. We split one of the cafeteria's home-baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The lodge here is not as posh as the one at Zion. No free breakfast and cafeteria style. The closest thing to a prickly pear margarita was Gallo wine in a small bottle. They did have a small pizza place off to the side which we tried last night. The Bright Angel Lodge on the rim has a bar and restaurant. We frequented the Bright Angel Lodge fireplace in the lobby. That's where we tried to warm up as we were waiting for the sun to rise or set.

Once we could move our fingers and toes again, we headed back to the room to pack up. We checked out and headed south. We skirted Flagstaff, taking the I-17 exit south and then the 89A exit for Sedona. There was a "scenic" marking on the map for this route, so we decided to take it rather than doubling back on highway 179. Soon after we turned onto the road, we saw a speed limit 25 sign. It soon became apparent why. The road was filled with switchbacks and hairpin turns. It was only 25 miles to Sedona, but we went down over 1,000 feet. We started to see the red rock formations, and it was pretty. When we got about 10 miles out of Sedona the road straightened out (relatively) and we started seeing a number of signs for roadside and state parks. Then we saw the distinctive red rock formations and we were in Sedona.

It's hard to describe the red rocks that tower over the city. Very beautiful and right in your face. So Sedona joins Weed and Springdale in that respect. We drove through East Sedona which is filled with tourist places, eating establishments , galleries, shopping village, hotels, etc. Very trendy and packed with people. Sedona is a town of traffic circles. They are everywhere. We managed to circle to highway 179 south and continued on. This road (highway 179) is fantastic. There are so many rock formations and viewpoints, one after the other.

We went south until we got to Oak Creek Village, a small burg nestled under some fantastic rock formations with a number of motels that are cheaper than those in Sedona. Not nearly as congested with cars and people. More our kinda place, so we checked into a motel. Then we immediately set out to see the area. We stopped at Red Rock State Park and took a hike to several view points. The ranger at the gate said he had just spotted a javelina (The Javelina - Sedona, Arizona's Famous Pig-Like Desert Dweller) We didn't see it, but we did go on the Javelina Trail and got a good view of several of the rock formations.

Next stopped at Crescent Moon Ranch State Park. Neither my golden pass, or the State Park pass we had just purchased for the Red Rock park was accepted, so we paid $9.00 to get in. Once we started going along the trails, we discovered that they entered Forest Service land. That's where all the good views of Cathedral Rock were -- on Forest Service land. Strange.

At about 5 pm we headed out for the airport. The hotel person had told us this was THE place to view the sunset. The airport is up on a mesa and you can see for miles in all directions. We stopped at the overlook area crowded with tourists with cameras. We fit right in. We were about an hour before sunset and it was getting cold (not as cold as GC) . I think I'm always going to associate the sunrise or sunset with COLD. Maybe Tucson will cure me of that.

After the sunset view we headed back to Oak Creek Village and had dinner at a Thai restaurant that was next to the motel. Food was very good. Teresa ordered a soup which was served in a hot pot with an actual flame going through the middle. It was quite a flame. She tried to blow it out unsuccessfully. It keep the soup boiling hot, and we both ladled out several bowls before the flame eventually went out. I ordered a dish with "Mee" noodles (I couldn't resist). They were crispy and sweet -- reminded me of rice krispy treats.

Tomorrow we are headed for home base in Tucson where the Gem Show awaits.

Day 8: Grand Canyon National Park

I got up before sunrise this morning and went off in search of the perfect place to take a picture. I bundled up since it was supposed to get down to 15 degrees. I started walking the Rim Trail from the hotels back towards the Visitor Center. Taking pictures all the way.

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There was snow and ice in spots. There are a number of places where you can get off the trail and get close to the edge to take pictures. At one point I saw a man kneeling obviously taking a picture. He was at the end of a icy patch and I said to myself -- no way am I going out there. Then I heard him talking to someone. Turns out he had his wife or girl friend further out on the ledge -- I could just see her head -- and he was telling her to move one way or the other to get the canyon in the background. I'm sure he got a great picture, but I thought he was going a bit extreme

After the sunrise I ended up at the Visitor Center (about 3+ miles) and took the shuttle back to the lodge. They have two shuttles running now. The Village Shuttle (blue) which runs from the Visitor Center to the Village and on to the hotels and lodges, and the orange shuttle that runs to several of the lookout points on Desert Drive. I was the only passenger on the shuttle.

I met Teresa back at the lodge cafeteria at the table we staked out last night. We got our computers and had breakfast and Internet. After that we decided to take the Hermit Road. This road is usually only open to shuttles (red), but the red one doesn't run in the winter. We took pictures at a number of viewpoints along the way and took a 2 mile hike from Hermit's Rest to Lomis Point.

When we first started, we noted that the North Rim had clouded up and I made some comment about being glad we were on the South Rim. I think the someone heard me because when we got to Lomis Point it was obvious that the low clouds were coming our way. We were actually above some of the clouds. The wind picked up as we hiked back to our car and clouds covered the canyon in fog. Then on the drive back to the lodge, it started snowing.

We drove to the Visitor Center and it kept snowing. We arrived just in time for the next movie showing about the Grand Canyon and when we left it was still snowing. But by the time we got back to the hotel area, it stopped snowing and there was a sun break. We could see the canyon, but there were a lot of clouds hovering around the higher elevations. It made for some interesting pictures.

About 4:00 pm we started out on our sunset quest. We decided to try the Rim Trail which seemed to have more sun than other possibilities. We hiked and took pictures until about 5:30 when the sunset finally arrived. I about froze waiting for the sunset until Teresa suggested we go into one of the lodges that had a fireplace in the lobby. Teresa called this "waiting for the magic." The colors change minute by minute around sunset time and the clouds added a nice touch by turning pink. So it was worth the wait. We hurried back to the lodge to thaw out.

I now have over 200 pictures of the Grand Canyon -- and that's after culling. This place is just so beautiful. An you can take the same location at a different time and it is completely different, because of the light.

It looks like it will be cold and icy tomorrow, so I may forgo my sunrise pilgrimage -- we'll see.

We will check out of the lodge tomorrow and head to the red rocks of Sedona.

Day 7: Zion to Grand Canyon National Park

We packed up and went for our free breakfast. The lodge dining room has a number of large framed photographs of the Park -- some beautiful scenes. Last night at dinner we noticed a foreign tourist (Chinese I think) in a distinctive checked fleece jacket and toting an expensive camera going from picture to picture taking careful photographs of each. This morning we spotted the same woman having breakfast with a group of about 6 others. Then she got up and started taking photos of the same pictures on the wall. Teresa commented that perhaps the light was different in the morning. Then the photographer and a friend left for a while and came back with a small package from the gift shop. Teresa wondered if she had bought postcards to photograph.

This was our second encounter with foreign tourists. Yesterday afternoon, as we approached the trailhead for the Lower Emerald Pool Trail we saw a group getting out of a tour bus just in front of us. The bus said "Mesquite" on it, so I told Teresa, "They are from Mesquite." She said, "No, I think they are from Japan." They were indeed acting like stereotypical Japanese tourists -- they all had expensive cameras and there was a traffic jam at the trailhead as they all took pictures of each other in front of it.

We got through that and then they all passed us as I paused along the trail to take photos. They congealed again at the view point. We snaked our way through and continued onto the rest of the trail while they hurried back to the bus. They weren't Japanese though. They were speaking in a tonal, staccato-like language -- maybe Chinese. As if to confirm our suspicion, we heard on the news that the US is experiencing a surge in Chinese tourists. One woman had a fur coat on (the kind you would wear to a formal) and designer bag and glasses. She didn't have heels on, so she wasn't totally clueless about mountain trails, just different. Hope she didn't get any of that red mud on her coat.

Back at the lodge, we finished our breakfast and headed out up the mountain road that leads out of the park to the east. We had numerous switch backs interlaced with fantastic views and went through two tunnels, one over a mile long. The long tunnel had windows carved out of the rock every so often -- just enough to light the way. Once we got to the top, we encountered many beautiful, layered sandstone formations.

We left the park and headed southeast. The countryside was loaded with pink rock formations and we passed a sign for a state park. I told Teresa we were passing the Coral Sand Dunes Park. She said, " I don't think they have coral here." Evidently this is a common misunderstanding. I looked again at the name of the park: Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.

According to our guide book, many television shows have been filmed among the wind-swept coral-colored dunes.

Soon we passed through Kanab (population: 3514; elevation: 925). A sign posted just prior to entering the town proudly proclaims "Greatest Earth on Show." And the town sports a distinctive "K" on the red bluff towering over the town.

At some point Teresa commented that we had lost our sun. Indeed, it was an overcast day. I didn't until she said something. Just a normal day for a Portlander. With the sun undercover, the temperature was chilly.

As we approached Lake Powell, we passed a sign for a real estate development advertising a "Million Dollar View." A little further down the highway we saw a sign for a scenic view and decided to check it out. I don't think the ad was an exaggeration. You had a 360 gorgeous view of the lake, the dam, the vermillion cliffs. Everywhere you looked it was breathtaking, with the exception of the smoke rising in 3 plumes from a single plant to the left of the dam. Don't know what that was, but it didn't belong in this picture.

We stopped at the visitor's center for the Powell Dam, part of the Colorado River Storage Project. The dam provides electricity throughout the West, but evidently its main purpose is storing water. And that it does. Lake Powell has tentacles into all the canyons and valleys and goes on for miles and miles. There are no roads in the recreation area to speak of, so it is mainly a boating paradise through the carved arches and beautiful canyons of the area.

Right over the bridge from the dam is Page (population: 6809; elevation: 4281). Founded in 1957 to house the workers building the dam, it now has a number of nice motels and acts as a gateway to the recreation area.

We entered the Navajo Reservation and stopped at a scenic view point on Antelope Pass. The view was great and there were several craft stalls, with local craftsmen selling their wares. Of course we stopped to look. There were a lot of craft stalls along the highway -- mostly abandoned because of the off-season. But we found that every scenic view point seemed to have at least one or two. The largest group was at the view point for the Little Colorado River Canyon (quite impressive). In a show of capitalism, they had set up so that you had to walk through them to get to the viewing area. They had some beautiful wares.

It was getting on to 4:00 pm as we approached the east entrance to the Park (too many stops at those craft stalls). So we didn't stop along the 25-mile Desert View Drive, but headed for the Maswick Lodge, hoping to get checked in and get to the rim somewhere for sunset. We made it at the tail end of sunset.

I'm planning on getting up before dawn. Teresa is planning on sleeping in. Then we will have all day to explore. Note that there is no Internet access in the room, only in the cafeteria, so my postings may lag a little.