Chapter 67 – Tucson, Phoenix, Grand Canyon
Dave and Helen Damouth
www.damouth.org
April 13, 2001
3/8/2001 We arrived at Apache Palms RV Park, in Tempe, Arizona, early this afternoon. This is a small but immaculate park, fairly convenient to the airport where we'll be picking up Helen's niece, Sharon, tomorrow. A few sites have instant telephones. The first two places we called for reservations were full, and this park is full for the period next week when we'll be back in the area. In contrast, the huge Mesa Regal RV Resort – a few miles east and a few dollars more expensive – had plenty of space for next week and said "the snowbirds are leaving – no need for reservations".
3/10 Phoenix is a huge airport. It's right in the center of the metro area with expressway entrances at both East and West ends of the facility, thus easily accessible from any direction. I saw only one of the four terminals, but it seems to go on forever. Sharon's plane arrived on time, but then we spent almost an hour in the crowded luggage claim area, finally discovering that someone had moved a portion of the baggage from her flight off the conveyer belt to a cubicle on the side.
Tomorrow, we'll start out on a 6-day whirlwind tour to show Sharon as much as possible of Arizona.
3/11 Up early and on the way to Tucson for a few days. First stop, about an hour along the way, was Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. The main attraction here is a multi-story "Big House" built by the Hohokam people prior to 1350 AD and abandoned around 1450 AD. Substantial portions of the high walls are still standing. Considering that it is built of caliche (containing calcium carbonate) mud, it's amazing that anything is left. It is now protected from direct rain by a high freestanding roof, which stands so far above the ruins that one quickly forgets that It is there and it doesn't detract from the viewing experience. Ruins of many other buildings are nearby, mostly unexcavated. There is no restoration – only stabilization of the existing structures. The museum shows that this site was one of a group of interrelated communities which were linked by roads and shared a common irrigation canal system.
Another hour and a half of driving, mostly along SR 79, brought us from the ancient ruins of Casa Grande to the futuristic Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 is the Earth). It was originally built privately by an eccentric billionaire for around $200 million, ostensibly to prove the feasibility of a Mars colony. It's a huge hermetically sealed glass, concrete, and stainless steel dome, intended to demonstrate that a complete and self-sufficient ecology could survive for several years without outside help (except for electrical energy from an external power plant.) Eight people were sealed into the 3.5-acre building for two years, along with a carefully selected collection of plants, animals, and insects spanning a wide range of separately controlled climatic zones.
The mainstream scientific community scorned the entire effort as poorly controlled pseudo-science. I view it partly as art and mostly as an example of the long and honorable traditions of audacious empirical engineering, which has often jumped out well ahead of rigorous science, pointing the way for the scientists to follow.
A major problem developed, and a major scientific mystery was created, early in the 2-year sealed period of the experiment. Massive amounts of oxygen were disappearing from the sealed interior – far more than predicted and far more than could be replaced by photosynthesis. Several times during the two years, many tons of pure oxygen were injected from outside to keep the people alive. It wasn't until well after the experiment was terminated that the oxygen loss was adequately explained. An excellent explanation of the oxygen problem can be found here.
Except for the oxygen problem (which can be easily avoided now that it is understood), the experiment seems to have been mostly successful. We've heard rumors of assorted social problems among the eight people in the Biosphere. But a quick Web search found no publications analyzing either the technical or social aspects of the overall experiment (except for the oxygen problem, which is well documented). The people who spent the two years inside seem to have disappeared from public view and have apparently never published any memoirs or granted interviews.
Meanwhile, the entire massive facility is now owned by Columbia University, and is being used by Columbia and other universities for an assortment of academic experiments. The Biosphere 2 building is no longer sealed, but because of ongoing experimental programs, only small areas are open to the public. Columbia has converted some buildings on the site for use as a hotel and conference center. Portions of other buildings (including underwater viewing areas for the coral reef in the Biosphere 2 "ocean") are being remodeled as tourist attractions, apparently as a fund-raising endeavor. I found these attempts to imitate commercial tourist attractions to be rather poorly implemented and unattractive, although perhaps they will improve with time (and money).
Sharon and Dave took a fascinating "inside tour" of the Biosphere 2 building, which turned out to be mostly a tour of the infrastructure in the basement – massive air handling equipment, water filtering and circulation systems, and the giant "lungs" which allowed the interior air to expand and contract with temperature changes without breaking the hermetic seal. The small "ocean" even has wave-making equipment, to meet the water circulation needs of a rather complete coral reef community. The University of Hawaii is now using this "ocean" to do studies of coral reefs, under controlled conditions which could not be achieved in a real ocean.
After another hour and a half of driving, we arrived at Mission View RV Park on the south edge of Tucson, rather tired and with just enough daylight left to get set up in our campsite. We arrived long after the office had closed, and although we had a reservation, the office staff had forgotten to leave any information about which site we were to occupy. Two different charts posted outside showed different listings of available sites, and we soon found that neither corresponded to reality. As we were driving up and down the roads trying to pick a likely candidate campsite, a manager finally arrived on a golf cart, and offered to go unlock the office and look up our reservation. He returned a few minutes later, and we were quickly installed in a nice campsite.
The park is neat and attractive (although mostly gravel, like most desert campgrounds.) It's primarily residential – lots of park models and mobile homes. The RV sites are quite large. Like most primarily residential facilities, the office hours are very limited, making it awkward for travelers. They do have two modem hookup plugs, at comfortable desks in the quiet library – open until 11 p.m. every night. The park is within the San Xavier Indian Reservation (although apparently not managed by the Indians), and is just a couple of miles from the San Xavier Del Bac Mission.
3/12 Helen's back is bothering her again, and she decided to stay home and rest. Dave and Sharon drove to Nogales, Mexico through hillsides covered with dense patches of bright Mexican Gold Poppies.
We parked on the Arizona side of the border and walked into Mexico through a turnstile in a high masonry border wall. We saw no customs or immigration people on the way into Mexico. When returning, we filed rapidly past a bored US customs officer. He glanced casually at various identification cards carried by the Mexicans and simply asked the Americans if they were citizens – by far the most casual, fastest and easiest border crossing we've seen.
Nogales is much smaller and less frenetic than Tijuana (the only other border town we've walked through). The vendors in the tourist area are much less aggressive than those we encountered in Tijuana. The tourist shopping and restaurant area begins right at the border, so it's convenient to park on the American side and walk in. We spent a couple of pleasant hours wandering through the shops, people watching in a small park, and eating lunch in an attractive restaurant. The town is hemmed in on two sides by steep hills, with homes clinging to the slopes. We walked part way up one of these slopes on a wide staircase to get a broader view. On this hill just outside of the tourist area, we found ourselves looking out across a large residential neighborhood that was ramshackle and dirty, with heaps of trash everywhere, some of the tin-roofed houses looking about ready to fall down, streets rough and narrow.
Driving back toward Tucson, we stopped at Mission San Jose de Tumacacori, a National Historical Park. The original mission was established by Jesuit Eusebio Francisco Kino in 1691. In 1767 the Jesuits were expelled from Tumacacori (and from all the other new-world missions) by the King of Spain and replaced by Franciscans. The Franciscans began building the present massive adobe church about 1800, but it was never completed. Apache raids, neglect, and a terrible winter contributed to its abandonment in 1848. The church is surprisingly intact, after more than a century of neglect. Work is now underway to stabilize and preserve the structure, although it will apparently never be fully restored. Portions of other mission buildings still exist, and other foundations and artifacts have been excavated. A small museum presents the history of the Sonora missions.
A few miles further north, we stopped at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, which encompasses a Spanish military site, Arizona's first European settlement in 1752. While Dave napped in the truck, Sharon enjoyed the visitor center and museum, which contain artifacts from this period as well as later colonial periods.
3/13 In the morning, Dave and Sharon visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We've previously described this delightful place – part botanical garden, part science museum and part zoo, all mixed up together – in chapter 13.
Then we picked up Helen and went to Mission San Xavier Del Bac, yet another of the missions founded by Father Kino. It is still the main church and school of the Tohono O'odham people. The current church was begun in 1783, and has been in almost continuous use since then, making it one of the best-preserved of the early mission churches. It is also one of the most architecturally elaborate examples of Spanish Mission Architecture. It is strikingly visible from a long distance, and has been nicknamed "The White Dove of the Desert".
Next, we headed to Arizona State Museum, which emphasizes the archeology and ethnology of Arizona. We enjoyed the carefully presented history of the native peoples of this region. Relatively little of their extensive collection of artifacts was on view, presumably because one of the two museum buildings was closed for renovation.
After the museum closed, we stopped for dinner at Old Pueblo Grille. We knew nothing about the place, having stumbled across it while looking for another restaurant which is apparently out of business. But serendipity wins again – the building is architecturally pleasing and attractively decorated, and the food was excellent. Both the building and the food are innovative modern interpretations of traditional Southwestern themes. We recommend it highly.
3/14 Up early for the 350-mile drive to Grand Canyon National Park. We wanted to get there in time for the best canyon viewing (the hour or so before sunset), and so drove straight through. We indeed finished setting up camp in Trailer Village just about an hour before sunset, and rushed to the Rim overlooks. Helen and I were here on the south rim 41 years ago, and spent a few days on the North Rim with our daughter Leata just two years ago. We also saw these views from the bottom up, fifteen years ago when we spent 21 days traveling the entire 270 miles of the Colorado River through the park in dories (16' plywood rowboats). This is Sharon's first visit. We hope it is not our last visit.
The canyon was its usual spectacular, indescribable self, accented with a light layer of snow along the rim. We timed the weather perfectly. A recent flow of cold northern air has left the atmosphere unusually clear, providing excellent viewing across the vast spaces of the canyon. But we're now in a warming trend, and the temperature is just warm enough to let us stand and look for long periods. The temperature ranged from a nighttime low of 30 to a mid-day high of about 50. A couple of days ago, it was snowing and 10 degrees colder.
At sunset, we walked to the Arizona Room at Bright Angel Lodge for dinner, getting a table right at the huge windows overlooking the canyon, and watched the canyon disappear into violet murk during the early part of our dinner. For a restaurant run by an institutional caterer, the food was unusually good. The hot chocolate brownie, drizzled with prickly pear sauce and served with a scoop of canyon crunch ice cream was one of the best, most intensely chocolatey brownies ever.
3/15 Up early for more canyon viewing. Sharon and Dave drove to the Rim and took the shuttle bus part way out along West Rim Drive (closed to private vehicles all year). With limited time available, we got off at only a couple of viewpoints, and hiked only one spectacular half-mile stretch of the Rim Trail. The morning light gave the canyon a whole different appearance than the previous evening.
Not wanting to come back to meet a noon checkout time, and unsure of the trailer-friendliness of the viewpoint parking areas along East Rim Drive, we moved the trailer out of our campsite to the RV parking area before starting our 40-mile round trip drive out to Tusayan Ruin and Museum. The museum, which presents a history of the native peoples in this area, is small, and the ruin was a bit of a disappointment (it is very ruined). But the drive is right along the rim. We had time to stop at two rim viewpoints, and had excellent views from the car at other points.
We then rushed back to pick up the trailer and started retracing our route south. Our only stop was Montezuma Castle National Monument, Sharon's only chance to see an early cliff dwelling. Numerous large pueblos and cliff dwellings were built in this area during the period from about 1150 to 1350 A.D. One in particular, named Montezuma's Castle by early Western settlers (who mistakenly thought it was built by the Aztecs), is very well preserved, protected by the overhanging cliff. We got there only half an hour before closing, but fortunately the area is compact and we were able to spend most of the time gazing at the 5-story "castle" and reading the interpretative material. The interior of the cliff dwelling is closed to visitors, for preservation reasons.
This is the most attractive of the ancient dwelling places that we've seen. The cliff dwellings overlook a sheltered green valley, watered by a sizeable creek lined with tall sycamore trees. The creek provided a plentiful source of irrigation water, and the broad flat valley bottom provided good farming. It's an idyllic spot, and no one yet has a satisfactory explanation of why all of the settlements throughout the region were abruptly abandoned only a century or two after they were built.
We got back to Phoenix after dark. Mesa Regal RV Resort made it easy for us. There is a knowledgeable guard at the front gate 24 hours a day and he opened the office, registered us, assigned us a site, and led us to the large site. It was nice to have a guide through this rabbit warren of over 2000 sites. While Dave and Helen relaxed, Sharon rustled up a light supper. It's nice to have a houseguest who can comfortably and competently poke around in a strange kitchen.
3/16 Another busy day. First stop was Mesa Southwest Museum, which covers the history of Arizona from animated dinosaurs to archeology displays about Arizona's ancient Hohokam people, to reproductions of territorial jail cells. Well done and interesting!
Next stop was Rawhide – a commercial re-creation of an 1880s Western town. Craftsmen create and sell their wares in antique buildings and shops. Live six gun shootouts and stunt shows occur hourly. A cheerful fun place – best visited with a bunch of children along, since many of the sights, rides, and activities are especially geared toward children.
Rawhide had an interesting and friendly staff, all outfitted in proper western attire appropriate to their role as bank robber, sheriff, the doctor's wife, Indian, etc. Lots of fancy facial hair (all real), but not one fancy lady or bawdy joke. Between shows, the staff hung around and conversed with visitors. A decrepit miner with burro in tow was especially attentive to children. Helen talked with a stunt man who had taken a dive off the roof of the boardwalk during the shootout, about his job (the high fall, and then laying dead in the hot dusty road until the skit played out) and about our RV lifestyle. Good burgers at the steakhouse fortified us for the afternoon.
Then we rushed off to the Heard Museum, getting there only an hour before closing. It's worth several hours, and we had to be quite selective as we walked through the many areas featuring ethnological, historical and contemporary materials of Southwestern Native Americans; Native American basketry, jewelry and pottery; and kachina dolls.
When the museum closed, we drove directly to the airport, getting there in plenty of time for Sharon to catch her flight back to Columbus. We then headed back to the trailer, where we'll crash and relax for a few days, and then see a few more Phoenix attractions.
3/29 Relaxing is easy when afternoon temps are in the low 80's. The grapefruit tree on our site is heavy with bloom and the aroma wafts into our open windows. Two Gambel's Quail run through the site several times a day, seeming out of place in this urban setting. Maybe we will take a moonlight dip in the Jacuzzi or one of the two large pools or use the library or the puzzle room. An active table tennis group here plays three nights a week. Dave joined them for an energetic 2 hours. Another group plays volleyball every morning except Sunday, and Dave has been joining them several times a week.
We've heard others say that they found these snowbird parks to be unfriendly, compared to RV Parks which cater primarily to travelers who stay only a few days. But I've found the two kinds of place simply different, not more or less friendly. The table tennis and volleyball groups couldn't have been more welcoming. They didn't come hunting for me – I had to take the initiative to show up at the posted time and place. But once there, they went out of their way to make the newcomer feel welcome and to integrate me into the activity immediately. I suspect the many other activity-oriented groups would be equally welcoming.
Mesa Regal (the park we're in) has changed ownership recently and is undergoing a difficult transition period. The new owners apparently want to upgrade this older park to match the image of some of the newer ones in the area. Both short-term and annual lease prices have risen substantially. Local zoning rules are being rigorously enforced, sometimes requiring expensive modifications to older rigs when they change ownership. Older residents, living on a fixed income, are being indirectly forced out, and there are currently many empty sites.
These older folks often are living in an old travel trailer which has been expanded over the years, with the original trailer almost disappearing under layers of additions. Bolted-on aluminum sheds extend out one side, expanding the living area. A huge aluminum awning covers most of the rest of the site, and perhaps even extends entirely over the trailer, providing a more secure roof and additional insulation. Large storage sheds are built. Sometimes part of the area under the awning gets enclosed with glass or screening, making it into an "Arizona Room".
One of these older trailers near us is now being prepared for moving. It's sad to see all these additions being removed, one by one, leaving the original trailer looking ragged and forlorn. It's a hard decision for the residents, since the cost of moving and setting up on a new site in the same region is about $4,000 – more than a year's site lease. This means that the payback period after moving to a lower-rent site could easily be a decade. Most of these people can't expect to live another decade.
I've occasionally heard older RVers describe the slide-out rooms on modern RV's as "tip-outs". I now understand the origin of the term. Some trailers in the park are very early "park models". In watching one of these being dismantled for moving, I found that its two extension sheds actually do tip. The extension area is hinged where its floor meets the main trailer, and rotates 90 degrees into the trailer, the entire extension lying flat on the floor inside the trailer while in motion. This means that all furniture has to be removed from that area, and leaves a huge gaping hole in the side of the trailer, which is covered with a taped-on sheet of plastic during moving.
The newer homes are also called "park models" but are actually small manufactured homes. A dealer has a model home set up here in the park. Older travel trailers and park models have a fixed triangular trailer hitch assembly sticking out, often disguised by an oddly shaped flower planter built around it. These modern park models have a hitch assembly (the entire A-frame which sticks out in front) which can be unbolted from the main frame and then stored underneath the "trailer". Thus, when the (mandatory) skirting is installed around the base of the home, there is no visible evidence of its "trailer" nature.
There are many homes of all the above types presently for sale here. Advertised prices vary widely – with an older expanded trailer listed for $5000 and an immaculate park model with ducted air conditioning, large storage shed, and Arizona room listed at $40,000. In most cases, these are sold fully furnished, and much of the price difference reflects the quality of the furnishings. In addition to this purchase price, the owner must then pay an annual site lease, which at this park is around $3000, depending on the size of the site.
Many of these trailers are for rent, with monthly rentals averaging around $1100 during the winter season (varying widely depending on the size and quality of the home). This rental includes all RV Park charges. A prospective snowbird could rent one of these homes for the three winter months for a total cost of perhaps $3300. Those who like the area and the lifestyle after renting for a season or two would look around for a suitable trailer to purchase.
Mixed in with these essentially permanent homes are a scattering of motorhomes and trailers which are here for the season but which also travel. Some of these people are in pure snowbird mode – driving their rig straight from a northern site to here in the autumn and then driving straight back in the spring. Others occasionally extend their spring and autumn migratory trips into a more leisurely format and visit other parts of the country.
Then there are a few purely transitory people like us – here for a few days or a few weeks. We are a very small minority.
3/31 We've had several days with the temperature in the high 80's, and discovered that our 13-year-old air conditioner couldn't handle it – overheating and blowing a circuit breaker. We've no idea how long it's been that way since we were never in weather that warm last summer. There's a Camping World store just a few miles away, so I drove over and bought a new high-efficiency model (same brand, same cooling capacity, but 30% less power required). It wasn't until I was uncrating it, back at the trailer, that I realized that getting this bulky 100-pound object up onto the roof of the trailer by myself might not be trivial. After a couple of false starts and some head-scratching, I finally found a way. That was the only hard part – the actual removal of the old unit and installation of the new was straightforward and fairly quick, we should be adequately cool for another decade or so.
4/2 Two garden tours this weekend in Phoenix held promise that I might see inside the 6' adobe-style walls enclosing nearly every lot. The Garden Club tour Saturday was of mostly 1920's residences on small lots with mature plantings. Oleander grows to 30' here and makes a marvelous privacy hedge. Hollyhocks are lush and widely planted, as are iris and artichokes. Artichokes love cool humid weather, so they thrive here in the winter, fruit and bloom profusely in the spring, and simply go dormant in the summer.
Nearly all the gardens had lots of hard surfacing, – adobe walls, flagstone or cement paths and patios, and sorted colored gravel often covered all but a few planting beds. Most houses had no lawn at all, only colored gravel and cactus between the street and the house. Even so, Phoenix has become one of the worst places for people with allergies. Too many flowers and trees have filled the air with pollen.
Heavily shaded tiled entry patios were the norm, with brightly painted doors and one or a pair of cacti in pots for accent. Nothing fussy, all bold lines with spare detail. I expected to see swimming pools at every house, especially in the upscale houses on Sunday's Garden Conservancy tour, but I was wrong. Water was everywhere, but in small fountains, streams, and ponds, not swimming pools. I do not understand why there were so few swimming pools.
Outdoor rooms are the current gardening fad, and every house had at least one outdoor dining room, always under the solid shade of a roof overhang or under a Gazebo. (The sun is too hot for an umbrella to help much, and no screens are needed in this arid climate that has no mosquitoes and few flies.) Under the large gazebo, along with the dining table and chairs, there was often a kitchen countertop with a BBQ, and overstuffed sofas and coffee tables. Several had massive masonry fireplaces. One had an 8' long radiant heater and a paddle fan, mounted in the ceiling. Another had all those and a recessed misting system in the ceiling for cooling!
Some of these gardens were quite elegant, and had been featured in national magazines. Most had benefited from professional design. I liked the designs of Greg Trutza, and I particularly enjoyed the boldness of the Carrie Nimmer designs – simplicity, strong colors, and dramatic foliage. Her own garden was all xeriscape, meaning designed with plants (Octopus agave and a few cacti) that need and get no irrigation, only natural rainfall, less than 12" per year. Her design for a neighbor's small city lot was a most delightful intimate seating arrangement between the house and the sidewalk. Under lacy mesquite trees, a dark red adobe wall with a bench in the nook strewn with colorful throw pillows was fronted with matching penstemon. Fortunately, this was on a quiet residential street. People on the garden tour just couldn't resist sitting there a while.
Artist John Jackson was on hand to talk about his garden filled with his own sculptures on pedestals — sculptures of leaves. These 3' long life-size casts of real leaves, of the selloum and monsterosa philodendron, often with an aged copper patina, were surprisingly attractive in a garden filled with real leaves and would be stunning inside a modern house or art gallery.
4/6 When we first started traveling, I discovered that our storage locker contract prohibited the storage of firearms. So lacking anything else to do with it, I tossed my father's old shotgun in the back of the big storage area under the bed in the trailer, where it rode for several years. This year, with new and more restrictive gun regulations taking effect in Canada, I stored the gun in a gun dealer's safe in Moorhead, Minnesota, before we crossed the border for our summer's expedition across northern Canada and through Alaska. The gun dealers are allowed to ship guns to any other licensed gun dealer anywhere in the country (but not directly to an individual).
When we got back from the summer's trip and expected to spend a few weeks in San Diego, I visited a local gun dealer to have the gun shipped back, but discovered that California gun dealers cannot deliver guns to anyone who is not a California resident (as evidenced by a local address and a California driver's license). Bummer! The next opportunity to retrieve the gun arose here in Phoenix, where we expected to be for a couple of weeks. I made arrangements with a gun dealer near our RV Park, who sent the appropriate paper work off to the dealer in Moorhead, MN, and I then called the dealer in Moorhead to confirm the arrangements, requesting that the gun be sent by UPS 2-day air.
From there on, the transaction became an unbelievable comedy of errors. The back-room clerical people at the Minnesota dealer mistakenly (and illegally) sent the gun, via slow UPS ground, to my Escapees mail forwarding address in Texas. Meanwhile, I was calling the Phoenix dealer daily, wondering why the gun hadn't arrived. Finally, I got a call from Escapees, asking me what they should do with the gun. I told them to forward it to the Phoenix gun dealer, since UPS couldn't legally ship it to me. They called back a day later to tell me that UPS wouldn't take the gun because it had to be shipped from a licensed gun dealer as well as to a licensed dealer (federal law). So after several phone calls, and another day of delay, paperwork was prepared by the Minnesota dealer and faxed to UPS corporate headquarters authorizing the gun to be picked up under the dealer's license.
Unfortunately, the paperwork got filled out wrong, and the Texas UPS driver still refused to pick up the package, requiring another round of phone calls and paperwork and another two days of delay. The next set of paperwork worked, and Escapees reported that UPS had picked up the gun. So I began calling the local dealer daily, wondering why the 2-day air delivery was turning in to a week. Next, after a week, I got a call from the clerk at the Minnesota dealer, asking what they were supposed to do with my gun, which had just been returned to them, by UPS Ground. So after over two weeks, the gun is back in Minnesota where it started. (In the interim, I had done some research on the UPS web site and discovered that this is probably the only way UPS could have handled the shipment under their current regulations – too bad nobody seemed to be aware of that).
At least now, I'm dealing directly with the clerk in Minnesota who will be talking to UPS and preparing the shipment, eliminating one middleman (the manager of the gun department) and one source of error. I told the clerk to ship it out immediately to the Phoenix dealer, this time by overnight air. This time, it worked, and the gun arrived a day later. The Federal background check (required before the dealer can give me my own gun), which can take up to 3 business days, actually took about five minutes, and I was quickly on my way out the door. We're now free to leave Phoenix. (Some of you will remember our gun storage saga in Laredo, Texas, when we toured Mexico two years ago. On that occasion, the Federal background check indeed required the full three business days – which turned into five days, since it spanned a weekend.) I now wish I'd sold the gun before leaving home. It's an heirloom, but certainly not worth the hassle involved in lugging it around the country.
4/7 We took a long loop drive east along the Apache Trail (SR 88) to Roosevelt Dam and Lake, then north on SR 188, then returning south and west on SR 87. Don't try the Apache Trail with a big RV! The eastern half is narrow (one lane in places), poorly maintained gravel, with sharp curves and steep (10%) grades. We stopped frequently at pullouts to walk through the adjacent desert, enjoying a colorful profusion of flowers and the mountain views. The Mariposa tulip (bright orange lily about 3" in diameter) was new to us; several types of cactus were blooming, in brilliant shades of purple and orange. A small type of yucca was blooming profusely – heavy, dense spikes of white. This is still the Sonoran desert with the saguaro cactus as the signature plant. Along the highway we see these magnificent old cacti lopped off where they grow under power lines.
An occasional century plant was sending up a stalk, still weeks away from bloom. At this stage, these bloom stalks look like giant asparagus spears – six inches in diameter at the base, already 10 feet tall, and on their way to 20 feet high by the time the flowers open. The plant spends fifty years or so growing and storing energy for this one event, pours all of its energy into flowering, then withers and dies. Last year's dead and dried flower stalks are still standing here and there.
In the evening, we went to Organ Stop Pizza. This restaurant is in a large modern building designed especially to showcase a giant Wurlitzer Theater Organ. The organ, slowly rotating on an elevated turntable, dominated the huge restaurant. Spotlights gleamed on the glossy black finish, glinting on the gold curlicues and making rainbows dance around the room. The organist, a middle aged gent in shirtsleeves, took requests from the crowd, knew how to show off this unique instrument to maximum effect, and was a showman of the first order, playing romantic music for the couple celebrating their wedding anniversary, then switching to Star Wars music, then Clare de Lune, then off to a bouncing children's song while kids danced in the aisles.
The organ was originally installed in a theater in Denver, probably in the 1920's. Since being installed here, it has gradually been expanded, and now is claimed to be the largest such organ in the world. In addition to a huge array of familiar organ voices, displayed in glass-fronted swell boxes, it has almost every conceivable sound effect, including two grand pianos whose actions are linked to the organ keyboard, a realistic bagpipe, several kinds of old automobile horns, many different percussion instruments, two separate high-pressure trumpet stops, etc. Although the restaurant is a very large space (even had a balcony where patrons could look down onto the organ), the organ was capable of filling the space with thunderous conversation-stopping sound. The pizza was OK.
4/8 Helen was lucky to get a parking spot at the Phoenix Art Museum on this Sunday afternoon. A touring Normal Rockwell exhibition had brought in a crowd. Since I had already seen this exhibition elsewhere, I wound my way past the long waiting lines at the admissions desk. The clerk could hardly believe I wanted only to see the regular collection.
Though small for a city the size of Phoenix, (8th largest city in the US), the museum did display items from all the major periods of art history and I enjoyed the small sample of 19thc Western and landscape art (Remington, Moran, Bierstadt, …). But most of the display space was devoted to 20th century art. Diego Rivera was a Mexican painter who abandoned impressionism and who became known for large political statements in huge murals. He incorporated Karl Marx, Lenin, and an unflattering Rockefeller in one mural, much to the discomfort of Rockefeller, who had commissioned the mural. After that, Rivera did not receive many commissions from Americans. (The Communist party expelled Rivera, perhaps for his radical views?) But Rivera is also known for exalting the bronzed faces of the indigenous people of Mexico, often beside the pearly white of lush calla lilies. I found his saguaro cactus painting much more interesting with its simple surrealistic landscape which carried, for me, no political meaning whatsoever.
Lots of museums have portrait galleries, but few show the same face in nearly all the paintings. Dozens of different artists were commissioned over the years to paint Natasha Gelman, wife of a Mexican movie producer, at different times in her life. Kept together these paintings now make an interesting study of the aging process and of the comparative styles of a large group of Mexican artists. (And I now would recognize the dear lady instantly, even if just passing her on the street).
4/9 Saw several bunny rabbits this morning in the neighboring site. Long ears but small bodies. Did they find a way through the fence or are they someone's (early) Easter pet?
4/10 It's time to leave. This morning, we hitched up and towed the trailer 90 minutes west – along Interstate 10 to SR 85 and then 11 miles south to Buckeye Hills Recreation Area – a mostly-undeveloped Maricopa County Park.
The park is a gently rolling desert plateau tucked into the side of steep hills which border it to the south and west. We're several hundred feet above the Gila River valley, visible to the north. A taller range of mountains is visible beyond the Gila valley – hazy and perhaps 20 miles away.
We have the entire park almost to ourselves. One motorhome was parked adjacent to the toilet/shower facility in the picnic area – perhaps a mile south of us. Another car of tent campers came into the camping area in late afternoon, and selected a site that isn't visible from our site. The dozen or two campsites are scattered along a loop road, generally with two or three campsites sharing a long pullout parking area at the roadside. This parking area also can function as a pull-through camping area for large RV's. Many of the campsites have a ramada, picnic table, and raised iron grille.
It's generally a quiet, peaceful place, although civilization intrudes in a minor way. Air Force fighters fly noisily overhead several times a day. Much higher, commercial jets frequently pass over with a faint noise – we're directly under a major west-to-east flyway. When the wind dies and it's otherwise quiet, we can hear the faint noises of traffic from SR-85, about a mile away. After dark, the numerous airplane lights confuse the constellation patterns.
A brief walk through the desert showed nothing much new – mostly creosote bush, with occasional acacia and palo verde. Saguaro cacti are large but sparse – perhaps an average of one every hundred yards. Many of the saguaro are in bloom, but we need binoculars to enjoy the flowers. These flowers, heavy white trumpets which look like they are made of plastic, appear only at the very top of the cactus – which is often 20 feet or more up in the air. Helen found an interesting little white flower, tentatively identified as "Ranger's Buttons". Along the washes, vine milkweed is in bloom, climbing up through the bushes, showing large clusters of pink-tinged white flowers, buzzing with honeybees. Most of the creosote bushes are covered with small yellow flowers and silvery fuzzy seeds. An occasional acacia or foothill palo verde also has a heavy cover of yellow flowers.
4/12 Yesterday, Dave took a long hike through the park – north down the road to the end, then up onto a high ridge to the west and back south. Nice view in all directions from up on the ridge. At the higher elevations, the vegetation becomes more interesting. I saw an occasional hedgehog and cholla cactus, some in bloom. The rock is also interesting. These are ancient mountains, composed of folded crumbling granite with occasional intrusions of other types of rock. Visible in the river valley to the northwest is a huge nuclear power plant – looks like three separate reactor buildings, with plumes of steam rising from evaporative condensers adjacent to each.
Today, we explored with the truck, heading down desert roads. Much of the land between our campground and the Gila River is state or country owned – labeled as a wildlife sanctuary. Evidence of previous uses abounds – abandoned irrigation canals, bits of machinery, and old buildings or foundations. Old roads originally built for farm access now lead to parking areas at labeled "wildlife viewing areas". Some of the fields have been plowed and planted, but not harvested – providing food and shelter for wildlife. The only wildlife we saw was a lot of Gambel's quail, a few other birds, and one huge jackrabbit.
We also drove through the village of Buckeye. It's on the old SR-85, the main road before Interstate 10 was built a few miles to the north, and is now a quiet and decaying backwater town, with lots of marginal businesses and boarded up buildings. There were also a few reasonably prosperous businesses, so it's surviving better than many other such towns in the southwest.
4/13 Hitched up the trailer and retraced our route back to San Diego today (SR-85 and I-8). It's a six-hour drive, nearly all expressway, and we drove pretty much straight through – with only two brief pit stops at expressway rest areas. We'll be here a week or so while Helen gets a checkup to verify that her blood pressure medication is doing the right thing. We're still discussing where to go from here. The most likely destination is the high country of northeastern Arizona.