This and That!

6 Mar 14--On Monday we took a ride out to "Old Town Scottsdale", basically a suburb of Phoenix, with this area of it geared to tourists and 20-somethings. It was cute to visit for a little while, with lots of eating/drinking establishments and shopping to be had.

 
   

There was a short self-guided walking tour that we followed for a bit, but the only thing remotely interesting were these olive trees planted by the towns founder in 1896, the flowers and the church below.



These are bougainvillea and are planted all over Phoenix and the surrounding suburbs.  They are even in our RVpark and all along the highways.  We thought they must be the state flower, but they aren't...they are just very hardy bushes, very drought resistant, and look and smell great!



An old mission along the walking trail.



And some of the stuff in the shops.  I love the colored horses and the skeletons.  We 1st saw the colored horses in a lot of shops in South Dakota I think, and the skeletons in the Big Bend National Park area of Texas.  Love how the 2 ladies on the ends coquettishly place their hands over their mouths.  haha



A couple t-shirts, a sign and some HOT sauce!


 

A local bar that started out as a bank back in the day.



On Tuesday we headed to the Phoenix Mountain State Park for some more hiking, to what is now called Piestewa Peak.  It used to be called Squaw Peak, but was re-named after the American Indian woman who was killed in Iraq at the beginning of Gulf War II.  Lori Piestewa was the woman killed in the same battle with the better-known Jessica Lynch.

This hike was 2.4 miles round-trip, and although different from the one we took the other day in the Camelback Mountains where it was all climbing of red rock, it was equally as taxing.  Started out, as usual, pretty flat, but it got steep quickly.



If the rock is there, you just gotta climb it!  That's Cathy up there, followed by pics looking down into the valley.  Notice how in the 4th pic there are groups of houses separated by mountain peaks.  It makes for very nice views out your backyard!




It's pretty surprising how different all the mountains here look.  I am drawn to the big, red boulder-like rocks more than anything else, but they are all very pretty.



Almost to the top, I take time to enjoy and contemplate the scenery below.  haha



And the ever-pretty flowers.  Look at the thorns surrounding them, especially around the purple flower!!!  Yikes!



Enlarging the 3rd pic here will give you a better idea of  how steep this is.  The lady at the top looks so small.



This is really pushing it!




And we finally make it.  Took us an hour and a half to get up here.



A little dicey in spots coming down.  haha



And on Friday, our last outing in the Phoenix area, to the Ostrich Festival in the suburb of Chandler. This is basically a small county fair with rides, local bands and a few events you don't see often at an amusement park.  We started at the Women Loggers of  Maine event, where they had power saw log cutting followed by ax throwing.

 


The dark-haired lady won this event...not surprising when you see how intense she looked.  haha



And she also won this event.  Now they made a point of saying how razor-sharp these ax blades are, but I wouldn't care if they were rounded...to plow down into that wood, when you can see how close she comes to her foot in the 2nd picture, is madness.  They said they wear chain mail on their feet (like the old gladiators did) inside their shoes to protect themselves if they "miss", but I would be more concerned that I would sever a leg if I caught myself higher than that.



A little log rolling anyone?

 

You can't have an Ostrich Festival without ostrich races, I guess.  An ostrich is surprisingly fast...they said they can run up to 42 MPH!!!  And they grow pretty fast also...about a foot a month until they are about 7 or 8 months old.



They had both chariot and bare-back races.  The chariots were more fun to watch.  None of the riders lasted long on their backs.  And the final fun-fact on an ostrich...did you know they live between 50 and 75 years???  Bet you didn't!  haha



I thought the Watusi was a dance, no?



They are big into guns here, too.



And how adorable is this baby sheep?  Wouldn't you love to have one?



Pretty weird looking.  Didn't see any with 6 horns though.



So the festival wasn't exactly leaving Phoenix with a bang, but it was different, so we enjoyed it.  We go to Nevada on Tuesday for 2 weeks, so next stop Vegas!  See ya there!

What a Ride!!!

6 Mar 2014--It took us 2 full days, and it was well worth it!  The Apache Trail is a 120 mile loop around the Superstition Mountains, is rated the best scenic drive in Arizona, and is the 2nd-most photographed area of the state, after only the Grand Canyon.



We started on Friday at what they called a museum, but was really a gift shop with a couple historical buildings.  Check out the picture of the cactus surrounded by all those flowers...hope to see something like that on our way back from California in May.  And Chris and I always joke about the "dry heat", laughing about 110 degrees as it sucks the air right out of you!  haha



Several old-time westerns were filmed with some of these buildings in them,  the most important of which was "The Elvis Chapel" where the movie called "Charro" was made.  Looks like a postcard, doesn't it?




Further along the trail was a much bigger town, called Goldfield Ghost Town, that was another tourist trap, but you just have to stop anyway, I guess.  haha  They even included the bordello and staged gunfight.

 

Now we are getting to the good stuff.  On the northern part of the drive are 3 lakes, with this one called Canyon Lake being the first.  They have riverboat rides here, so Cathy and I thought we would come back another day an  do that.  We had spent so much time just getting here, probably 20 miles into the 120 mile long trek, we decided to call it quits and get an earlier start one day the following week.



Here are a couple videos and stitch pics to give you a better idea of what everything looks like.  I am amazed at all the colors and beauty.



So on Wednesday we headed out to the trail again, intending our first activity to be the boat ride.  Unfortunately, it never occurred to us that we would need reservation in the beginning of March and in the middle of the week, but we were dead wrong.  There were a ton of people when we got there, almost all of which had reservations, and even though we were 7th in line for the people who didn't have reservations, there were only 6 tickets left!!!  So Cathy and I were the 1st people to be left stranded!  haha



Despite our disappointment, we pressed on, figuring we would get the jump on the rest of the trail.  Just a little background; The Apache Trail was built originally to make it possible to get goods and services to the people building the Roosevelt Dam, named after Teddy Roosevelt, that you will see later.   Our next stop after the non-boat ride stop was in this little town, Tortilla Flat, established in 1904 to help with supplying the dam folks and then in 1905 becoming a stagecoach stop for the US Mail.  It's now another tourist trap.  haha



I love the "hanging man" touch.



And that was the end of the tourist traps.  The next 30 miles or so were just one beautiful scene after another.  As we drove to the bottom of the canyon on a dirt road, all 30 miles, we had to go maybe 10-15 mph most of the way, so it was slow going.  But notice how different some of the rock formations are.  You would think they would all be pretty much the same in the same mountains, but they are markedly different.  By the way, I am talking on the videos most of the time, so you can hear me if you turn up your volume.  






This is Apache Lake, the middle lake on the map.



And finally the Roosevelt dam.  When it was built it was the world's largest stone dam.



And looking from the dam out onto the Roosevelt Lake.  This bridge had to be built to make modifications to the dam.



Our 2nd day on the trail took us 9 1/2 hours, so it might have been a Godsend that we couldn't go on the boat ride, and it was absolutely beautiful out there , so it was definitely worth the drive. Off into the sunset we go!!!