What & Where is this?
Category Archives: Arizona
Another photo Challenge
According to the paper this is the “World’s Largest Photo Contest”.
Since I entered a few photo contests last year I get invitations to enter photo contests all the time. I seldom do because they all have that “popularity” part and I’ve never been one of the “In Crowd”. I don’t have 1000+ Facebook friends and of the friends I have on Face book probably only about a dozen are active and of those maybe 5 will actually take the time to vote.
In this case my friend Nancy gave me the paper with the details on this contest.
But this contest seems different. This is a juried contest. In other words there are real judges. They do have a popularity portion but it’s not for the “Grand Prize”. So I figured ..Why Not… so I spent the afternoon submitting photos. I may submit some more..who knows?
Anyway, I have a link that I believe will take you to my contest page. I’ve uploaded 12 photos so far. I think you can vote for one or all or any combination. I would really appreciate your support. It would be fun to win one of these competitions.
http://metrophotochallenge.com/profile/30030/df1f8a74c7e0f508d3de53ebf90e6a6b
Sedona Vacation 2011, That’s a wrap!
As is my habit, I am including a summary of my vacation. I like to fill in any gaps I missed or answer any questions that came up during the series of posts and just give you my final take on the vacation as a whole.
This was my 2nd trip to Sedona and Northern Arizona. The first trip I traveled alone. This trip with a companion, my sister. The first trip was really unbelievable because I had the freedom to do what I wanted , when I wanted and didn’t need to think about anyone else. This trip required that I be a bit more considerate but seeing my sister’s reactions and sharing her observations as a “first time” visitor made it totally worth it.
That’s the thing about vacations. I love going alone but when I do I wish someone was with me so we could oooh and aaahhh over the sights together but when you travel with someone you have to balance the things you want to do so that everyone stays happy and satisfied. After all, vacations don’t come cheap these days. Luckily my sister and I usually get along pretty good as far as agreeing on what to see and do.
So I will rate this vacation as an A for me. I didn’t give it an A+ because I’d seen a lot of the stuff before but even seeing it a 2nd time was great.
The Grand Canyon Railroad is always a fun ride and now I know the best seat is the Observation dome car.
The Petrified Forest is interesting but doesn’t take long unless you’re a real “rock hound”. The Teepee formations and the painted Desert were more interesting to me.
The wildlife wasn’t much better this time than last time. We saw a mule deer this trip. Sandy saw 2, one as we were driving down 89 A and one from the train. I saw a mule deer family last trip in the Grand Canyon National park but not outside the park.
We saw a Roadrunner this trip and I saw one last trip. We didn’t see a live Pronghorn this trip but I did from the Grand Canyon train last trip. We had to settle for the mounted head at the Blazin’ M ranch this time.
Speaking of the Blazin’M, the show was just as good, maybe even a little better this time but the food was nowhere near as good as it was in my first visit. But food aside, I would go back to that show in a minute. It’s great fun. Of course leading up to the show was the Verde Canyon railroad and that was special with two great views of bald eagles!
As for new stuff, I think for me anyway, seeing the Pueblo at Tuzigoot and the cliff dwelling at Montezuma’s castle were the high points right after the Grand Canyon of course. The Painted Desert was pretty cool too.
As for the Grand Canyon, I love the breathtaking views from the rim but I can’t help feeling pretty special to be one of the 1% to make it to the bottom of the canyon.
I also have to say that the tour guide (Joe) from Native American Tours proved to be the most thorough guide I’ve had in Arizona. What he shared in his one tour came up over and over in all the rest of our adventures.
Back to wildlife…we didn’t see any javalinas this trip but we saw a “flycatcher” and I got a picture of that. That little red and brown bird was pretty neat.
There were the little lizard things too. Just like Florida they are everywhere!
The desert was beautiful too. The cactus was in bloom from all the rain. 
That’s not something that happens all the time and the Red Rocks of Sedona are always beautiful. The color is just so rich and vibrant.
It’s “dark sky” too so with the minimal lights at night you have awesome viewing for the stars and the night sky.
Enjoy a little vino and who knows, you too can believe in aliens! 🙂
I’d like to make one more trip basically as a photo-op. If I can I think I would like to spend a full day at the Grand Canyon and just work on pictures…maybe camp there one night so I can hit sunrise and sunset. I’d also include a trip to Monument Valley and Canyon De Chelley, again for photos. There’s also the slot canyons up near Page, Arizona that are known for awesome and unusual pictures.
So that’s my thoughts. I hope my sister enjoyed the trip as much as I did. I’m looking forward to our next joint adventure. With any luck it will be Alaska in 2012. (have to get there before the glaciers melt or the end of the world arrives in Dec of 2012)
Our last bit of vintage Sedona was the Hot Air Balloon we were able to watch from the balcony of our time share unit on Saturday morning before we left. That just made the trip complete as I saw Hot Air Balloons on my last day on my other trip. 🙂
Painted Desert
The transition from Petrified Forest to Painted Desert was almost seamless. One minute the tour CD was talking about Petrified Logs and fossils and the next the Painted Desert. There was a brief transitional tract when we crossed the railroads tracks that was all about Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls. I have never seen so many railroads before either. I think it was Joe (Native American Journey’s again) who told us the trains run at 15 minute intervals. The trains are very long, most with flat cars loaded with containers either bound for port on the west coast or coming in to the area with goods. The tracks we passed on the border of the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are the tracks of the Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe.
Near the railroad tracks we crossed an old Highway. Maybe you’ve heard of it, RT 66. The same RT 66 where we stopped for Ice Cream with Joe the Guide from Native American Journey’s. Wow, that tour and guide seems to have influenced our whole trip! Anyway, Rt 66 is 2200 miles long but Petrified Forest National Park is the only park in the National Park System that contains a segment of this iconic road. A road trip exploring the remnants of this famous highway might be an interesting vacation trip.
By now we were in the Painted Desert. This is the northern end of the Petrified Forest National Park. You can see the massive erosion that has sculpted and created amazing formations of buttes, mesa, hoodoos, and bluffs all in lovely pastels of red, green, purple, blue and other combinations. This type of erosion creates landscapes that are collectively called “Badlands”.
There are a series of well maintained pull offs where you can explore and take pictures. The colors are most intense in the early morning or late afternoon as the mid-day sun tends to make them look washed out. We had the opposite problem since shifting cloud cover was casting dark shadows over much of the landscape.
The pull off points have names like Lacy Point, Whipple Point, Nizhoni Point, Pintado Point, Chinde Point and Kachina Point.
Lacy and Whipple Points are named for individuals that influenced the park. Nizhoni Point is the Apache word for beautiful. Certainly fitting as the park is very beautiful.
Pintadao Point is one of the most famous views in the park. Pintado is Spanish for painted. You can see the highest point in the park , Pilot Rock from this location.
Chinde Point is a Navaho term. It means evil spirit or ghost. It is also famous for a nearly complete fossil found in 1985. “Gerty” was a small meat-eating dino that roamed the area about 200 million years ago.
Kachina Point is the location for the Painted Desert Inn. As it was starting to get late, we simply drove past the Inn but we did stop at the Visitor Center at the Northern End of the park. The rain caught us again so we headed back to RT 40 for the long drive back to Sedona. We arrived in Winslow too late to visit Meteor Crater this trip but if we were able to do everything in one trip we’d have no reason to come back.
We crossed in and out of rain showers and some pretty heavy downpours followed by patches of sun as we headed west toward Sedona.
I don’t think I’ve visited anyplace where I can say that I’ve seen everything I wanted to see. I have a bucket list for a return trip everywhere I’ve been. Look at the Sedona Area/ Northern Arizona. It’s only the upper part of the state and I’ve made 2 visits but I still have a long list of places to see, things to do and of photographs I want to take and that’s not even taking into consideration everything there is to do south of Phoenix!
I’m pretty sure I’ll be back again, probably not for a couple of years. Other locations and trips are calling me but sooner or later I will return.
Castle in a Cliff
After we left Montezuma’s Well, we got back on the interstate for another exit or two until we saw more signs. This time for Montezuma’s Castle. Both Montezuma’s Castle and Montezuma’s Well are National Park locations so I was able to collect park passport stamps at both locations. It was nice to have such well-marked parks. Often when I’m looking for a location the signs are vague or missing. These were right there in your face. No way to get lost! 🙂
As we were driving on the access road to the Castle parking lot a roadrunner crossed right in front of the car. Those little guys are fast! I could imagine the ” Beep-Beep”! As I was the designated driver there was no camera handy so Mr. Roadrunner escaped without a portrait.
The parking lot is paved and lined and in excellent condition. Once you park, your path takes you past the restrooms to the visitor center. The whole walkway is like a covered portico. The visitor center had a small gift shop and several rangers available to offer suggestions and answer questions.
Passing through the 2nd set of doors sets you on a shaded , paved path that is very easy walking. As you round the first bend in the path the Castle is right there in front of you. What an amazing sight! There is this huge adobe building clinging to the cliff face. The living area extends backward into the cliff itself. This is the best preserved cliff dwelling in North America.
Unlike Montezuma’s Well, I had seen pictures of Montezuma’s Castle and even watched a documentary at one time so I thought I had an idea what to expect. Boy was I wrong. Nothing in my experience made me ready to see this building clinging to the side of this cliff. It made me think of the nests swallows build that seem to just hang on the side of a cliff or barn. It is mind-boggling that these ancient people were able to accomplish this gravity defying feat.
The “castle” clings to a Verde Valley limestone cliff. The workmanship demonstrates the skill and tenacity of the Sinagua. They were very daring builders to put it mildly. Access to the dwelling would have been by ladder, with entry to the individual “apartments” through entry holes in the thatched roofs.
The building itself is 5 stories of stone and mortar that contained about 20 rooms and housed as many as 50 people. It’s precarious location perched as it is on the cliff, provided some protection from their marauding enemies. As you can see from the photo with the people at the base of the cliff, that structure is pretty far up there!
A natural overhang offered protection from the elements and provided shade from the hot desert sun. The ruins were so well-preserved when discovered that there were many artifacts still in the building. These artifacts supply archeologists with many clues about life at that time but it hasn’t answered the most burning question…Where did they go and why did they leave?
Farther up the path and still within sight of the “castle” there are more ruins. These were not as well-preserved as the main building, possibly because access was much easier. Built on the same pattern as the cliff dwelling most of the artifacts have been removed over the years by looters.
As the path turned back toward the visitor center leaving the ruins behind there is a small kiosk with an interactive display of what the cliff dwelling might have looked like in its hey day with the people performing the tasks and climbing the ladders in pursuit of their daily life.
The dwelling and the surrounding area has been a National Monument since 1906. Access to the dwelling has been denied since 1950 to preserve what remains of the site and to prevent further damage and looting.
The visitor center includes a small museum with many of the tools used by the Sinagua to build the dwelling as well as other stone tools used for grinding grain, bone needles for sewing and ornaments. The Sinagua were talented artisans.
Over 350,000 people visit the monument annually. I am pleased to say I am one of them. A very interesting and worthwhile stop on our itinerary.