A Week in Mesa

Ron & I used to attend the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show each February to get out of the Minnesota winter.  We hadn't been for many years, but thought it might be fun to go again, so we headed toward Phoenix for the week.  Driving in city traffic was harrowing after not having to deal with it much on our travels, but we found our campground in Mesa - Palm Gardens RV Resort.

It is a lovely RV park - lots of Minnesotans & Canadians!

One of the two pools & the palm trees (not native, but they sure are pretty)

And there were orange, lemon, tangerine & grapefruit trees everywhere - yum!

Since the horse show didn't start until Thursday, we took the opportunity to go RV shopping.  There were hundreds of RVs to look at right along the street we were staying on.  It was great as we are hoping to upgrade our trailer sometime this year.

 

Scottsdale was only a short distance away, so off we went.  The show grounds are much bigger than we remembered.  There a many more arenas and everything seems bigger.  We were so happy to see our friends, Don & Sandi Holien.  They are the creators of all of the beautiful leather jackets I have worn for many years.  Always love-love-love to see them whether on the road or back in Minnesota.

Sculpture near the entrance of the show.

Arabian Costume horse in the warm up area.

Country English Pleasure horse in Wendell Arena. 

Me! The sculpture is made out of scrap metal parts.  There were several of these sculptures on the grounds & in the market place.  They were incredible!

 

We were also excited to be able to spend a day with Ron's brother, Dan and his wife, Chris, who were in Mesa visiting Chris's parents.  We went to the Mesa Flea Market (HUGE!!!) and then out to the Suspicion Mountains (yeah, I know, more pictures of mountains).

Dan & Chris

Views along the trail.

The view from the top.

Saguaro.

More cacti!

Ron & I on the trail!

We are on the move again - driving up to Las Vegas via Congress, AZ & Kingman, AZ.  We hope our weather holds, as it has been beautiful - sunny & warm!

 

 

Cochise Stronghold

On our last days in Benson, we wanted to go up to the mountain range we had been looking at all month.  They are called the Dragoons, and we had heard that the hiking was supposed to be outstanding.

What we didn't know was that the drive in was 17 miles of not so great dirt road! About half way in we wondered what we had gotten ourselves in to.

But we found a place to park at the end of the road and headed up the trail.

It was a beautiful hike up to the mountains.  They call this area the Cochise Stronghold because the Native American chief, Cochise and his band of Apaches, hid in this area, evading capture for many years. 

This is Council Rock, where it was originally said that the treaty with the Apaches was signed (later, it was found that it was not here, but it sounded cool!)

 

The trail crisscrossed this wonderful little mountain stream several times.

The higher we got, the more rapids and waterfalls. 

 

And the views were spectacular!

Next week, headed to Mesa (eastern suburb of Phoenix).

 

 

 

Texas Canyon & The Amerind Museum

Since our beautiful weather had returned, we decided to take a trip out to Texas Canyon, just east of Benson. 

The canyon is full of these exposed rock pedestals, spires & balanced boulders.  The rock is Quartz Monzonite (Granite) that has been formed by exposure to the elements.

Nestled in the canyon is the Amerind Museum & Art Gallery.  It was founded in 1937 by William Shirley Fulton - whose wife, Ruth, was a breeder of champion Quarter horses!  It is an anthropological and archaeological museum and research center dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Native American cultures and their histories.  The buildings that house the museum and gallery are, themselves, beautiful.  Adobe - in Spanish Colonial Revival style.

The archaeological collection covers Native American cultures from Alaska to South America.  There are beautiful collections of pottery, weavings, clothing - it was very interesting.

The Art Gallery at Amerind had an exhibit of paintings by Western artists including William Leigh and Frederic Remington.  There were also pieces by Native American artists and Spanish & Mexican period furnishings. 

If you ever get to southeastern Arizona, the Amerind is definitely worth seeing!

Karchner Cavern-Yes, another cave!

So, before Ron & I took off on this great adventure, the only cave I can ever remember being in is the little one at the Boom Site on the St. Croix River.  Who'd have thought that I'd get kinda hooked (Ron, not so much) and go through 3 in less than 6 months. 

It helps that they are usually situated in beautiful mountainous areas with lots of hiking available.

And beautiful views of the valleys below.

Karchner Cavern was discovered in 1974, when 2 men found a sink hole (still there!) when they were trying to find shelter from a storm.  The change in air pressure during the storm caused air from the cavern to rush out through a small hole in the sink hole.  The men chipped out the rock enough so that they could squeeze through into the cavern.  They realized that it was a very unusual cave with so much decoration and tried to buy the land it was on.  The owners of the land were ranchers - the Karchners - who had owned the land for many generations, and would not sell.  The cavern was a secret until 1988 when the state of Arizona bought it for 1.5 million.  They put 36.5 million into developing it into an attraction that could be viewed by the public, but protected from any of the issues that have plagued other caverns open to viewing.

A tram took us up to the entrance to the cavern.  The tunnels into the cavern were carved over a period of 22 months.  There are a series of air lock doors to go through, and a misting area to reduce the amount of lint that we would shed (who'd have thought?)

It is a short journey compared to the other two caves, about 1/2 mile, but it is unique and highly decorated.  I learned a lot about the names of the formations.  This is a wet cave, actively making formations.  Unlike the other two, this one was hot & humid.

This is called "Bacon" drape.

Soda straws - we saw one that was 9 feet long!

"Drapery"

One of the things I loved about this cavern was the beautiful color.  There was a lot of red, gold, caramel veins in the white - and the active stalactites and stalagmites are translucent.

They call this a Shield -

This is the highlight of the tour.  It is a column (joined stalactite & stalagmite) that is 5 stories  high.  It is in the Rotunda, referred to as Xanadu, and they call the column "Kubla Khan".  The light show in this area is really awesome. 

Always fun to explore the area we are staying at.  It is surprising what we find! 

Hope everyone is watching the Super Bowl today.  Thankfully, the unusual rain we had (steady light rain Thursday thru Saturday) has moved out and it is gloriously sunny again.