Southwest, 2005

Do a trip report here....go to another city and want to relate it to what KC is doing right or could do better? Give us a summary in here.
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Roanoker
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Southwest, 2005

Post by Roanoker »

Husband, son and I flew to Phoenix the last week in April, 2005, to visit places of interest in the southwest. Our ultimate destination was the Grand Canyon, but we start with the hotel where we stayed in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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We spent a lot of time at this place, Superstition Mountain. And we got sunburned.
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This was the first day I used my new camera (Nikon SLR D70). Son had a new camera, too, a Canon.
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How many different kinds of cactus can there be?
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So many of them were blooming that year.
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I recall being stunned by the capability of this camera. All I did was point and click.
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Last edited by Roanoker on Fri Apr 22, 2016 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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We're still hiking on and around Superstition Mountain in Arizona.
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Last edited by Roanoker on Sat Apr 23, 2016 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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Still hiking on and around Superstition Mountain in Arizona.
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I like the different kinds of grasses.
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I think this town--visible from Superstition Mountain--is Apache Junction, but I'm not sure.
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Notice the "door" in the rock on the right.
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Lots of places to climb.
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This horned toad is almost camouflaged out of sight.
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Son in the flowers, as opposed to flowers in the sun.
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Last edited by Roanoker on Mon Apr 25, 2016 8:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

Post by Highlander »

Nice pictures.  There are tons of kinds of cacti; you picture a rather henious variety ...  cholla or jumping cactus.  Keep your distance, they will detach onto people and are near impossible to remove once attached. 
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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Highlander wrote: Nice pictures.  There are tons of kinds of cacti; you picture a rather henious variety ...  cholla or jumping cactus.  Keep your distance, they will detach onto people and are near impossible to remove once attached. 
Thank you. I looked up "cholla cactus" in Google images to see which one you were referring to. (I almost never know the names of plants.) I learned that it is also called "Teddy Bear Cholla." One of the displayed pictures actually looks like a bunch of teddy bears!

Now for this week's batch. We're still at Superstition Mountain.
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The original picture was portrait-oriented. It lent itself to an easy blue-to-blue blend, filling in the left side.
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I do love this purple grass.
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It's pretty even as a foreground blur.
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Sometimes the sky makes a good background.
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Back where we started, I guess.
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Look, but don't touch!
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Last edited by Roanoker on Fri Apr 29, 2016 9:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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Finishing up our trek on Superstition Mountain, Arizona.
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You can see Superstition Mountain from an old mining town.
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Old farm equipment was on display.
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“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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We're still at the mining town, and husband is still looking at old farm equipment.
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We are now visiting Tonto National Forest. See the boat on the lake? This picture almost looks like a movie set.
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I framed the original pictures above and below because I didn't want to crop any of the detail.
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Notice the road at the bottom of the canyon.
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Desert wildflowers were plentiful that year.
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I wonder how many kinds of cactus there are.
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This was my kind of trail. Paved.
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This picture is actually a close-up section of the one above. I like it better, but context is good.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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We're at the end of the day on 4/24/05.
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If you eat dinner at Pinnacle Peak restaurant (on the outskirts of Scottsdale, AZ) wearing a tie, someone will cut off your tie and hang it on the ceiling.
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We used 4/25/05 to catch up on sleep and then made our way to Sedona.
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“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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I applied a Photoshop filter to this one.
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This is the view from the inside of a chapel hewn into the side of a Sedona rock face.
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This was on the floor of the entrance.
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Son, on the walkway up to the chapel.
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Here is the chapel from the front.
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I wonder how much those houses cost. Or their lots.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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It is the next day, April 26, 2005. We just left Flagstaff, AZ for our last leg to the Grand Canyon. While waiting for the guys to get gas or something, I snapped this pic of others waiting for their people of interest.
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This is Humphrey's Peak.
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First glimpse of the Grand Canyon.
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I don't think is is possible to take a bad picture of this canyon.
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We checked in at the Thunderbird hotel on the rim of the canyon.
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“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

Post by Highlander »

Thanks for posting.  The Grand Canyon is great from any vantage point.  Did you make it to the north rim? 

Humphreys Peak seems so out of place....looks like the Arizona ski bowl might have still been open. 
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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Highlander wrote: Thanks for posting.
Thank you for commenting!
The Grand Canyon is great from any vantage point.
Indeed.
Did you make it to the north rim?
No. I thought my son said at the time that it was snowy, or the roads were not yet open for the season. (It was late April in 2005.) But when I asked him about last night, he said we didn't have enough time. He'd like to. So would I.
Humphreys Peak seems so out of place....looks like the Arizona ski bowl might have still been open. 
I don't know about the ski bowl thing, but yeah, one would think you'd see only desert terrain in Arizona. I think my son said last night that Humphreys is a volcano.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

Post by FangKC »

Roanoker, I lived in Arizona for seven year, and your photos make me miss it.
There is no fifth destination.
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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Roanoker wrote: No. I thought my son said at the time that it was snowy, or the roads were not yet open for the season. (It was late April in 2005.) But when I asked him about last night, he said we didn't have enough time. He'd like to. So would I.
It's 9000' and has a nice subalpine feel to it.  The Kaibab Squirrel is a bizarre local species that makes the trip worthwhile if you see one. 
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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FangKC wrote: Roanoker, I lived in Arizona for seven year, and your photos make me miss it.
You had a great place to live!
Highlander wrote: It's 9000' and has a nice subalpine feel to it.  The Kaibab Squirrel is a bizarre local species that makes the trip worthwhile if you see one.
We'll have to go back and find that squirrel!

We had just arrived at the Grand Canyon late afternoon on 4/26/05. Notice how the sun gets lower as you view each picture.
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I was in the hotel gift shop when my son came in to tell me there was a photo op outside.
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Was there ever!
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It is the next morning, and we are getting ready to ride mules down into the canyon.
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“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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It is the morning of April 27, 2005, and we are getting ready to ride mules down into the Grand Canyon.

These are wranglers, preparing for the descent.
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This is Casey, the "Chief Wranger." He gave us a great speech on what to expect. I wish I had a copy of his words. His main point was that this may be the most difficult thing we will ever do. It is hard work. He told us we could back out now with a full refund, and a few folks did just that.
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Son and husband are the soon-to-be riders on the left.
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Awww.
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One more shot of the canyon before we go down.
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You can see the tail end of a previous group of riders as they work their way around the first "corner." (I like this picture.)
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This 80-year-old lady really wanted to go, but she simply could not do it. You can see why there is a 200-pound limit on the riders. The mules can handle more weight, but the wranglers cannot, or they prefer not to.
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Here is my son, on his very well behaved mule, Sugar.
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Here is my husband, on Mutton, who preferred to drag behind most of the time. (My son took a picture of me, but it is in another folder. Too bad.)
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We are on our way! It was a little tricky to manage the reins, a "whip," a water flask, my wits, and a heavy camera.
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Everybody had to wear wide-brimmed hats and sip water from provided flasks to avoid having to be air-lifted out of the canyon.
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Periodically, the wranglers would stop the descent so the mules could rest. We'd all turn toward the canyon, side by side.
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More next week.
“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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We stopped halfway down for lunch.
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The group of mule riders just before us had finished their lunch and were getting ready to leave.
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The picnic area had--YAAAY--restrooms.
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Lunch over. Back on the road.
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This is my favorite picture. Beautiful flowers growing right out of the rock.
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Stopping for a rest and a view of the Colorado River.
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We're close to the bottom. The river looks more like hot chocolate. There had been a lot of rain that year.
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If anyone drops anything, the whole mule train has to stop, and the wrangler has to find it and return it to the culprit or put it in carry-along trash. Someone had dropped something here. Notice the narrow bridge across the river. We would eventually have to cross it. Incidentally, the left part of the picture is the full, portrait-oriented picture. The part on the right is a larger view of the bottom right part of the picture. I feathered the edge and cloned out the wrangler's knee.
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One last pit stop before our destination.
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We have arrived at the Phantom Ranch, and this is our cabin.
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The door leads to the bathroom. Notice the little plastic bag on the chair? Each rider had to fit all of his necessary belongings in that bag for an overnight stay. It was a challenge.
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Here is where we slept. Sleep came easily after a long day of riding.
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“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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Now it is time for the mules to go to their "cabins."
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We had time to explore the bottom of the canyon. This is Bright Angel Creek.
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Another view of the creek.
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If I have a camera and time on my hands, you will get flowers.
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Dinner! We had steaks. You would not believe how good those were. All the food was amazingly good.
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After dinner, time for more exploring.
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My son is maybe thinking about going over the bridge over the creek.
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I know. But there were so many of them, and they were beautiful.
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It doesn't look like we were at the bottom of a massive canyon, but we were.
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This is another view of the Colorado River. That's the same bridge we rode across on the mules. I think it might have been a little scary. Now, it's just pretty.
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Nice memories.
“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
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Re: Southwest, 2005

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Brings back some vivid memories:  we hiked on foot to the bottom of the canyon.  It was a pleasant alpine day on the rim, by the time we got to the bottom it was a blazing desert inferno.  Going down was easy, uphill was a nightmare.  About a third of the way up I got shin splints and had to rest every 20 yards or so.  I wanted to drag someone off their mule passing us and hijack the beast.  Going down I was careful not to step in any mule droppings, going up I was doing good just to get a foot in front of the other, so I plodded through many a pile. Then about 2/3 of the way up a thunderstorm hit, it was like the music from Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite.  Wind about to blow me off the ledge, lightining strikes all around.  Finally make it up and back to the campground and my tent had blown over. 
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