It Found Us

Rain on Tuesday so only a short hike in Saguaro National Park east.  Then on to Phoenix.

The Heard Museum and Desert Botanical Garden today.  Back to Atlanta tomorrow.

The Desert Museum

The Desert Museum has to be Tucson's biggest asset.  Icky arranged a behind-the-scenecs tour of the hummingbird avaiary Monday and we were there at 6:30 (hard to believe Icky was  up at 5:00).  the docent was great;  a 15-year employee of the Museum and very knowledgable.

We were able to see two nests, one with newly hatched hummingbirds.  Evidently when they first hatch, the new chicks are barely the size of a raisin.  The Museum has 17 hummingbirds in their Avaiary and since they breed them, will often give them to other institutions like the San Diego zoo.  Very cool and worth getting up early for.

There is so much at this museum that we were there nine hours.  It's a large piece of property so the gardens are extensive.  But they also have great exibits on geolgy, and, since they have animals, it is also a zoo of sorts.  It gets a lot of visitors this time of year so I'm glad we went early.

Took a quick trip to Saguaro National Forest west unit at the end of the day and will do some hiking in the east unit befor heading north to Phoenix tonight.

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Kitt Peak

If you're ever in Tucson, don't miss the Kitt Peak Observatories.  We headed out at 8, planned to spend a couple of hours there and then hike in Saguaro National Park.  Never made it to Saguaro.

Kitt Peak Observatories has twenty-four optical and two radio telescopes.  Two of the Optical telescopes are solar, including the largest in the world.

We toured the large solar telescope and two of the large stellar scopes.  Each tour had a docent and they were excellent. 

Hummingbirds tomorrow at 6 am at the Desert Museum.  Then maybe some of the hiking we missed today.

Miners and Montezuma

Traveled today from Sedona to Tucson (ever wonder why there's a 'c' in TuCson?)

First stop was Jerome, AZ, an old mining town, to get a slice of pie as recommended by Beth and Ben.  Never found the pie but we did find Jerome.  It ain't much; perched way up on the side of a hill.  Evidently it was quite the place when they were mining copper there over a hundred years ago.  Jerome was so wild that after a hard rain the whole jail slid down to the bottom of the hill and they just left it there.

On to Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well, both national monuments.  Outstanding!  You can read more here.  At the well, we went to the base and put our hand in the water.  It was warm.  75 degrees Farenheight.  One of the Rangers said it's due to geothermal activity.

Next we went by Arcosanti, an 'experimental town'.  Whew.  I think the experiment failed.  Pretty shabby and run down. 

We stopped at Picacho Peak State Park just north of Tuscon right at the end of the day.  It's right off the interstate and a beautiful  park.  We arrived at dusk, but had we been there an hour earlier we could have seen fields of bright yellow poppies in bloom.  We may stop again on the way back north.

And for dinner we went to Mi Nidito, a true Mexican restruant that served Bill Clinton.  It was excellent!  Thanks Greg and Stephanie for the recommendation.  We are sending you a post card of Bill eating a ChimmeChanga (however you spell it).

Tomorrow is the Kitt Peak observatory.  Should be fun.

Thunder Mountain Trail

Slow day for us - only one 4-mile hike.  Interesting hike because on one side of the trail 200 yards away is a Sedona neighborhood and on the other is a wildlife sanctuary with unbelievable scenery.  It was a good hike: slow, relaxed and a lot of wldlife- mostly birds.

Out of here tomorrow and south to Tuscon. for three days.  Icky has some interesting struff lined up: Kitt Peak observatory, Saguaro National Park, and more.  Naps are out.

Oh yeah, Feather was a no-show. It worked out fine.

Soldier's Pass and Doe Mountain

We drove up to Oak Creek Canyon yesterday which is about 20 miles north of Sedona and on the way to Flagstaff.  We hiked a short way in only to discover that the streams are so swolen from all of the recent rains and snow melt that we could not cross and had to turn back. Bummer.

However, Icky did some quick homework and found another hike on a trail called Soldier's Pass.  Turned out to be a great hike; a loop of about 6.5 miles with some climbing that provided great views.  Along the way we saw some very large sinkholes in the stone (100 feet across and 50 feet deep) and interesting rock formations.  One was named the seven pools because of seven indentions that collect rainwater in a stairstep formation.

6.5 miles is not nearly enough for Icky so we ended the day with a 1 mile hike that climbed 500 feet to a plateau with great views in every direction.  Doe Mountain.  The promise was that there was much wildlife, but we saw very little.  We did manage to get back down from the mountain just before the sun went down.

Today we are taking a hike with an hebalist named Feather.  Stay tuned for a report on this one.

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The Day in Ruins

Three Great hikes yesterday - 8.5 miles!

First, a short warm up hike of only a mile in to see a 95-foot stone arch.

Then we visited an the Palatki Ruins, an ancient archelogical site close to the hotel which was staffed by very knowledgeable docents from the National Forest Service.  Amazing stuff.   Structures and paintings thousands of years old.

Finally we hiked into the Boynton Canyon, also near the hotel.  Along the way we passed a side trail which Icky had read lead to ruins of cliff dwelling Indians. So we climbed 10,000 feet up the side of a cliff with the climbing gear we just happened to have along to take a look this incredible structure.

We are off to a great start and the weather is perfect!  Going to Oak Creek Canyon between Sedona and Flagstaff today.

Yes, that's Icky and yes she talked me into climbing way up there.

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Enchantment

Five miles outside Sedona is a resort spa called Enchantment.  It is a beautiful place and we are here because Marsha arranged it for us.  This hotel is really impressive; thank you Marsha! (are you working on your website?) 

Sedona looks like it will be a great place to hike for a few days.  We barely had time to drop off our bags in the room before Icky had us out on the trail right before sunset. 

There are indian ruins here and also a Vortex.  Icky says she feels the energy; it just makes me hungry.