Away Into the Æther…

It has been six months since our last post. We did not go deeper into the gradient, become one with the universe or float off into the æther. We just went home to Kentucky. We made it safe and sound and we have had new adventures since then. Now, we can’t promise that our adventures in and around Kentucky will be as interesting to read about as those we had in Florida, California and Arizona or that they will happen as often. In fact, we don’t really promise adventures at all. Maybe we should call them “doings.” Whatever you call them, if you want to read about our lives and times join us on our new web log. We call it Jiggity Pig.

Goodbye to the Grand Canyon State

To all good things an end must come. Or so they say. We have loved our time here in Arizona. The climate (at least from September to March) agrees with us. All the things we want are available here. The speed of life, the sentiments of the folks, even the landscape all fits us in a way that we have never felt before. It just isn’t home. Home is where your heart is. Our heart is with our families. That means home is 1,772 miles away in Louisville. Today was our last day. We plan to be long on the road by the time this posts. Goodbye Arizona. Louisville, we'll see you soon!

Quaint Shops

Since getting back from that trip to Sedona we haven’t gone out and done much. We both feel spent as far as sight-seeing goes. We have been so many places in the last year the thought of going to see yet another collection of art or yet another Indian dwelling or yet another museum holds no appeal. We never would have thought that we could get touristed out, but it’s happened. It’s too bad because there is a lot more in Arizona that we still want to see. Maya wants to visit the Yuma Territorial Prison. Matt would love to go to Biosphere 2. There’s also the Wrigley mansion, Cosanti, the trail up Black Mountain and the Vulture Mine in Wickenburg. But we are just so tired of going and doing… That’s not to say we’ve stayed home all the time, or had no interesting experiences. We have discovered a few interesting stores that are worth a mention.

First up - a CD store called Zia Record Exchange. After hearing them on American Routes Maya wanted to get some music by Feufollet. They are a group of collage students that play Cajun music. It’s some really fun stuff. We didn’t find any of their music, but Matt did find an album he’s been looking for. Blows Against the Empire is a sci-fi themed concept album by a lot of the folks in Jefferson Airplane as they broke up and became Jefferson Starship. It was even nominated for a Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation. It didn’t win, but strangely none of the nominees in that category did. Anyway Zia’s – great store if you are looking for CDs or DVDs and happen to be living in the Phoenix area.

Several times we have passed a store called Pop the Soda Shop. We thought it was a 50s style soda fountain type place. It turns out it’s not. The soda shop sells sodas. Hundreds and hundreds of kinds of soda. Imported, gourmet, vintage, weird and wonderful. Most of them we had never heard of. Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola is a less sweet, more flavorful cola. Schartner Bombe’s Zitronenfruchtsaftlimonade is a very light limon-lime type soda. And of course they sell Jones Soda as well. We took our drinks to the park and sipped soda greatness under the trees. We would totally go there again if it was at home. Good thing they ship worldwide!

The last of our last little discoveries is the Sphinx Date Ranch. They have a sign out front advertising their world famous date milkshakes which we have seen many times. You can only see that sign so many times before you just have to try one. That is if you like date. Maya wasn’t really interested, but Matt likes dates enough to try it. It was good if you like dates. There were tasty little date chunks mixed in. As we were stepping out there was a tourist stepping in. Lured in by the sign, just like Matt. He asked us what else there was to do nearby. After six months here we know all about it! We probably told him a lot more than he wanted to know about Hohokam Indians, museums, hiking trails and obscure shopping. We feel like such experts of this city now. Neat little stores: just another thing we’ll miss…

It’s All about the Red Rocks

At the beginning of March we took one last over-night trip. We went north again. While on our way to the Grand Canyon we passed two other national parks that we wanted to see. We just didn’t have the time then so we made a special trip to see Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki. Since it’s too far to get up there and back home we had to stay the night somewhere, and where better than Sedona? It’s a big tourist spot. People have been telling Maya for months that we just have to go. On the way back we to Phoenix we planned to stop at yet another National Park: Montezuma Castle. It was a great trip.

Getting up to Flagstaff was no problem. By the time we were there, there was snow on the ground. It wasn’t very cold, but the snow was lingering. Sunset Crater Volcano is worth a visit if you are at all in the area. It’s a small cinder cone – literally a huge pile of ash and other loose ejecta – and it’s only 1000 years old. Most volcanic mountains you can name are much older. The other think that makes the volcano so unique is the different colored layers. Most of the cinders are black, but at the very end of the eruption, the color turned to red so there is this permanent sunset tinge to the mountain.

The other big feature is the lava flow. There is actually a few flows that cover much of the land of the park. The Bonito lava flow is an amazing jumble of broken rock that covers everything in the northwest area of the park. You can really see how it rolled along, filling the valley. Matt, big geology nerd that he is was really impressed by the lava. Can’t you tell? The park is a very picturesque place. We didn’t happen upon any place that wasn’t stunning to look at. Picturesque and lonely. When there you are pretty far away from civilization so there’s nothing but the mountains, the trees and the whipping wind.

That feeling of isolation is only stronger when you drive up to Wupatki. The park preserves the ruins of half a dozen pueblos of the Sinagua culture. It’s not really a culture as in “a group of living people”, but more of a system of adaptations to the high desert recognized by archeologists. Sinagua is simply, “without water” and refers to the way these Native Americans seemed to make a living in such a dry environment. Wupatki Pueblo was built in the 1100s and was the center of a community numbering in the thousands. It’s all built out of the red native stone and almost blends into its surroundings. Almost, but not quite. There is a whole complex with a ball court and a few smaller homes scattered around.

Wupatki is not the only ruin in the park. One of the others we visited is called The Citadel. It’s build of red and black stones at the top of lava-rock hill. This hill is right next to some kind of sink hole. In addition to a great view of the Sunset Crater and the San Francisco Peaks in the distance you can also look down into this immense pit. The fact that some Indian groups believed that their ancestors came into the world from a cave comes to mind when looking down from the citadel.

After seeing the two parks we headed back to Flagstaff and ate supper at Beaver Street Brewery. We went there last time we were in Flagstaff and the food was still amazing. The beer too! We took the “growler” we got last time back and had it filled back up. Growler is apparently what you call a half-gallon jug of beer. They had a Belgian style beer on tap, but you couldn’t get it in a growler so we got the bock instead. Also very tasty. The easiest way to get from Flagstaff to Sedona is to take highway 89A which travels beside Oak Creek Canyon for a while and then in a shocking set of switch-backs works it’s way down into Oak Creek Canyon. It’s like the wilderness version of Lombard Street (which we have also driven down). We had timed our trip so that we would be driving down the canyon at sunset. It was amazing. Once on the canyon floor, next to the creek and surrounded by Northern Arizona’s pine trees, it was more like being in the Smoky Mountains.

As a result of that timing we missed the thing Sedona is most famous for until the next morning: the red rocks. It’s the rusty red buttes that attract a lot of the tourist attention in Sedona. They are nice. The whole area around Sedona is part of a National Forest and for a low-low five dollars you can buy a Red Rocks Pass and park all the scenic turn-outs and trail heads. If we were to go again, that’s what we would do. There are trails and cool rock formations to look at almost everywhere. First thing that morning we took a look around the town. Sedona itself is not much to our taste. We walked the little strip and it’s just like all the other little tourist trap strips in all the other little tourist trap towns. Jewry, expensive art, gems, antiques, Olde Tyme photo parlors and the like. There were a lot of westerns filmed around Sedona in the 1950s so there are some plaques that commemorate that. If you are into any of that, cool. We just aren’t. We headed to Red Rocks State Park. It’s not in the prime location, but there are some decent trails. There’s also this house up a hill. It’s the dream home of a TWA executive husband and an artist wife. It was never finished because the couple split up, but if got far enough along to be habitable. It’s called the House of Apache Fires. You can only see it from the outside but we could tell that it’s flat, open and expansive, just the way we imagine our dream home.

After lunch at a fun little sandwich shop slash specialty imports store called Euro Deli we headed for home. Along the way we stopped at Oak Creek Vineyards and Winery. We haven’t been to any wineries in Arizona, but along Oak Creek and in the Verde Valley there are several. We tried their stuff and ended up getting two bottles even though they were close to $25 apiece. We got the Zinfandel and the Fumé Blanc. Excellent! Not as good as the wines we got in California, but certainly the best wine we’ve had in quite some time.

Still headed generally south we next came to Montezuma Castle National Monument. The park is actually in two pieces. The northern-most part is called Montezuma Well. It’s a collapsed cave that has resulted in a water-filled sink hole. Farmers of the Southern Sinagua lived in houses built into the sides of the sink. There is a small outlet from the sink they the Indians diverted for irrigation. The Sinagua who lived on the edges of Montezuma Well didn’t really want for water as there is the sink and a river not too far away as well. River or no, it’s still a fairly dry landscape. Then there is this pit with trees growing on the sides and ducks on the lake at the bottom. It’s like noting else we have ever seen. It’s Matt’s favorite stop of the trip.

The main part of Montezuma Castle is the “castle” itself. It’s a five story, 20 room dwelling set 100 feet up the side of a bluff facing Beaver Creek. The name is a complete misnomer, of course. European settlers in the area somehow assumed that the cliff-side dwelling was the last retreat of the Aztec Emperor whom Cortez had displaced 300 years earlier. No. It’s not. There was once an even larger complex on the ground nearby. The foundations remain. You used to be able to go up into the castle via a series of ladders. That practice was ended in 1951 when the volume of traffic started to threaten the structure. The way that National Parks preserve things sure has changed.

One last thing of interest: this is our 100th posting. There won’t be too many more. Our time in Arizona is fast coming to a close.

Looking Through Holes

Near the end of February we were looking to do something a little bit adventurous, but not too far away. In Papago Park, near the zoo, there is a rocky outcrop with an eroded passageway through it. This is known as Hole in the Rock. It is thought that the Hohokam Indians used the hole and where the sun rose relative to the hole as an observatory for marking the seasons. The hole is accessible from the steep face shown in the photo above. We took the longer, much gentler path that leads around the rock and comes to the hole from the back side.

While it’s not that high, the view from the rock is still great. It puts you up above all the surrounding hills and buildings. We just sat down and took it all in. What we found really neat about the place is that everyone else there was doing the same thing. Everyone was sitting down just looking at the vista. There were older folks, teenage girls, burley guys, us; everybody silent and looking out across the landscape. It’s like we all knew that this was some kind of sacred place. Some of that power still resides and ensures the Hole in the Rock remains a quiet retreat.

The next day we went a little further afield to another Hohokam site, Casa Grande. This is not to be confused with Pueblo Grande. The Casa Grande ruins are to the south near Coolidge, AZ. In addition to the platform mounds we have already seen, the Hohokam built a few multi-story buildings. The only one remaining is the one preserved at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. And even it isn’t doing that well. Structures like Casa Grande and the “Big House” here in Phoenix (known only from early reports) are believed to be observatories. There are a few circular and square holes in the structure that pass all the way through to the inner rooms. On key days of the year light from the sun or the moon would pass right through the holes. Neat! There is more to the site than just the observatory. The eroded walls of a whole city surround the main building. There is a ball court and a couple of platform mounds as well. Among the ruins we saw a roadrunner sneaking along. Sneak, sneak, sneak!

Hiking Through Superstition

The day after our trip to Quartzsite we went back to Lost Dutchman State Park to hike in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains. Maya had recently bought some new Earth Shoes that offer her a lot of support. Matt had used some Christmas money to get a sweat-wicking hiking shirt and some hiking shoes with the express purpose of wearing them on this planned hike. We haven’t done nearly as much hiking of late as we would like to so we were both really excited about this hike. In short – it was one the best days we’ve yet had in Arizona.

The route doesn’t look that hard from the trail head, but it starts to get steep right away. The ground is all loose volcanic rock so going up not all that easy. We were both caught off-guard by the difficulty. But we had good shoes on, had our water along and were determined to make it all the way around the trail. It’s only a 2.4 mile loop. It can’t be that hard!

It was hard, but in a good way. At the top we looked out at the valley spread before us and posed with the shoes that had helped us reach there. We must clarify. “Top” means not the top of The Flatiron (the brown rocky mountain) but the top of the trail, which is not even up to the base of the The Flatiron. That was hard enough!
It’s not easy to capture the spectacle of the trail or the mountain or the views in photos. They jest aren’t wide enough. Photos and words, even, aren’t deep enough either. There’s something you feel about the countryside. The landscape really reaches into you. At least it does us. We will miss it.

The Wright Kind of City

We would we remiss if we did not mention at least once that Phoenix has a lot of public art (generally good public art, even) and a lot of unusual buildings. One local paper runs a column called Surreal Estate that profiles some of these unusual buildings. One article in particular about the Circles Records inspired us to go take a look. The picture we got of it isn’t that great (there’s a better one here) but the thing about the building is that there are hardly any straight lines. The front of the store (built as a car dealership in 1947) undulates along the street. It’s a CD store now. There selection isn’t super and we didn’t get anything, but mostly we went just to look at the building.
Maybe it’s because Frank Lloyd Wright had a summer home here. Maybe it’s something else. But the fact is there are a lot of striking buildings to be seen here. We’ve passed this one a few times and we always call it the Hanging Gardens building. Amazing!
Another place we’ve enjoyed is the Arizona Falls. When the canals around Phoenix were being built this outcrop was in the way, rather than blast it away, the designers just let the water flow over it. The falls became a gathering place for locals and picnics and dances were held beside the canal. Much later an early hydro-electric plant was built on the falls to catch some of that falling energy. The energy plant was eventually abandoned but recently it was renovated and now some of the water from the canal pours over the old gears of the energy plant and other streams of water arc out around a central plaza. There are several vantage points to look at the falls. The Salt River Project (the agency responsible for the canals in Phoenix) hails it as a fusion of art history and technology. That was our feeling too when we saw it.
There is also the Giant Baby. Not so much an interesting piece of architecture as just a giant painted-on-plywood baby. Why is it is a field in Goodyear? We don’t know. No one seems to know, but lots of people must wonder. It’s quite visible from I-10. This picture was taken as we drove past on our way to Quartzsite.
Coming back from Quartzsite we saw another strange thing from the road: snow! That’s right, snow visible from Phoenix. Of course, it was miles and miles away and almost a mile above us on the slopes of Four Peaks. Our little picture doesn’t quite do it justice so there’s another view here.