Red Rock Report

Return Trip - Day 7 Walpole, MA

2011-05-09T04:43:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning we got an early start. We left by 7am and passed the halfway mark sometime around 11am. The weekend radio shows on NPR were being recycled so we listened to some old podcasts on my iPod. The trip through the farm lands of VA, WVA, MD and PA was very pleasant. We stopped to gas up in NJ at the Service Center at Exit 17W on the NJ-TPK. (they still have people pump your gas in Jersey, no self-service). Then we were shocked back to reality trying to cut across traffic to use the EZ pass lane on the GW Bridge. I had to gas up in NJ because I didn't want to buy gas in CN. The first station in CN on 95 was charging $4.45 per gallon. (I wonder if one day I'll look back on this and think, "only $4.45 a gallon")
Our last stop was to drop in on the Nobles in East Greenwhich. Mike had received great news that his latest scan showed he was totally "clean" and we wanted celebrate a little with him. He seems like the old Mike but we need to fatten him up a bit (Pam too).
We stopped for some groceries, then arrived home to a nice "Welcome Home" sign on our garage door from the Kobeys, unpacked the Jeep and quickly settled into our old lifestye. AAAHHH!

Return Trip - Day 6 PM Monticello, VA

2011-05-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

Stopping at Monticello was really a great idea. This was well worth the little detour. We really got a lot out of this visit.
The actual house is located on top of a small hill ( a Monti Cello, next to Monti Alta). There are shuttle buses that take you from the visitor center up the hill for the tours. We arrived about 3 pm in time to sign up for the 3:20 tour.

The house is very well furnished with much of Jefferson's actual propery. The house is the original house and even some of the windows are original. In the entry way there are many arifacts from the explorations of Lewis and Clark whose expedition of northwest was sponsored by Jefferson. The rooms have many of Jefferson's books, scientific equipment and artwork that he accumulated over time. He was very interested in education. He read most of his father's books at an early age and taught himself to read and speak a number of languages. (He read Don Quixote in Spanish on his trip to France where he would replace Ben Franklin as ambassador)

Although he died in debt and much of his possessions were sold off to pay the debt, the Society has been able to recover a lot of what was originally in the house.

Jefferson was a very interesting man. He was a farmer, inventor, architect and statesman. He was also a bit of a contradiction. As the drafter of the Declaration of Independence, he penned "all men are created equal", yet he owned over 600 slaves during his lifetime. He was convinced that all the work done by his generation to establish the country would be lost if the slaves were ever freed. At his death, he freed 5 slave who had learned some trades on his plantation (like making nails). He paid to allow these 5 to remain in Virginia. Otherwise, freed slaves had to leave the state within 1 year of being freed. Sally Hemmings, with whom he is supposed to have had a number of children, was not freed. She stayed with Jefferson's daughter who finally freed her.
The Jefferson's are buried in a plot not far from the manor house.

This was a very enjoyable and informative side trip. It is always fun to learn more about our history and see how intelligent and complicated our Founding Fathers were.

Return Trip - Day 6 AM Elon, NC

2011-05-09T03:57:00.000-07:00

Despite our long days driving, we were not in the mood to have a 14 hour day behind the wheel. So, we had looked at a map to see what we could hit on the way home and break the trip into 2 days. We always enjoy visiting the Civil War Battlefields and there are still a number we have not yet experienced. But, we decided to stop at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.
The road to Monticello, in Charlottesville, VA went right through Greensboro, NC. Our friend, Hillary Noble, is graduating from Elon University, near Greensborro, so we texted to see if she was available for breakfast. We met Hillary at a local restaurant on campus where the owner seemed to know everyone in the place. We had our usual breakfast supplemented with grits, biscuit and gravy. We were short one biscuit, but Hillary promised to send me one.
Hill gave us the executive, 5 minute tour of campus. What a beautiful place. It is a small school of about 5000 students. The architecture of the campus is uniform with all the buildings constructed with red brick and white trim. The landscape is an actual arboritum, so there are beautiful trees everywhere.
This was a nice little detour and it was great seeing Hillary.

Return Trip - Day 5 Charlotte, NC

2011-05-09T03:49:00.000-07:00

We got a fairly early start from the hotel in Bessemer, passed through Birmingham, headed out of Alabama, cut across Georgia, clipped a bit of South Carolina and arrived in Charlotte by the end of the day.
Although we had just a had a nice visit with Curt and Terry in Sedona, we free loaded off of them for another night at their home in Weddington, outside Charlotte. Curt had texted Judy to ask what we wanted when we got there. Judy replied, "belly dancers and a massage.", but all we got was a warm reception and a great meal.
We always enjoy Curt and Terry. We sat around the dinner table for a while, had a couple glasses of wine and Curt and I solved (or caused) all the world's problems.
We look forward to our next visit with them. Maybe they'll come back to Sedona for some more adventures next year.

Return Trip - Day 4 PM Bessemer, AL

2011-05-06T05:47:00.000-07:00

We left New Orleans about 2pm and headed northeast towards Birmingham AL. We were stopping in Bessemer which is between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Tuscaloosa was an area most hit by the recent tornadoes. Although we did not see any major damage, the remnants of the tornadoes can be seen everywhere. There were large swaths of trees blown down along the highway. One could see a patch of torn up trees a few hundred yards long, then no damage as if the tornado touched down and then took off. There were many trees uprooted and limbs broken off and many of the highway signs were blown over. Ironically, the weather is gorgeous now.

We met a couple of scruffy characters in the elevator and they told us they had come up from Gulf Shores to help cook for and feed the emergency workers. On TV there is a constant scroll with tips about donating, volunteering, insurance problems, how to report gouging and more useful information. There are many utility trucks other heavy duty trucks, like cranes, in the area to help with the recovery.

If anyone is interested, they can send a donation to the Red Cross or to the United Way Tornado Disaster Fund, PO Box 320189, Birmingham, AL 35232. Or check out www.alabamas13.com for other ways to help out.

Return Trip - Day 4 AM New Orleans, LA

2011-05-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

Today, we were spending a little time in New Orleans. On the way, one of the idiot lights on the dash came on. I could not get it to go off, so Judy suggested I call Mike B at his station. I got my Godson, Tim, on the phone. He had me go through a number of on/off sequences to try to get a diagnostic code, but nothing worked. He didn't think it was a major problem but reminded me that it was difficult to diagnose an electical problem over the phone from 1000 miles away. I agreed with him and started up the Jeep and headed out of the parking lot. Before I reached the highway I looked down and noticed the light was off. It was a miracle. Maybe Tim should be nominated for sainthood.

Our first stop was the WW II Museum. This museum was founded by the late, great historian Stephen Ambrose. He wrote a number of terrific books including many about WWII and specially D-Day. We wanted to visit this museum in preparation of our trip to France this June with Mike and Pam. Then, coincidentally, we had great news after we pulled into the museum parking lot. Pam texted us that Mike had passed his latest scan with flying colors, an A+ grade. What great news.
The museum was very interesting. It was loaded with equipment, paraphernalia and photos. Here's one of a cafe in Ste Mere Eglise, a focal point of a lot of the action and a town we will visit this summer.

One of the reasons for the success of the invasion was the amount of deception and mis-information put out by the allies to confuse the German command. The allies created fake camps, fake fleets and even fake parachutists to throw off the Germans.
Here's a photo of the smallest invader.

There is very good 4-D video of the whole war covering the Pacific and Europe. It was a 45 minute multi-media presentation that one could see, hear, feel and smell. Really well done.
Our next stop was the French Quarter. The only thing Judy wanted to do was have a coffee and beignet. The Cafe du Monde is one of the famous spots for beignets in New Orleans, so we hit it. It is right along the river across the street from Jackson Square.

We ordered cafe (I had hot chocolate) and beignets and enjoyed the sights. We walked through Jackson Square

Got up close and personal with "Old Hickory"

Then strolled through the neighborhood to take in the sights, sounds and smells

We both felt that we could spend more time in New Orleans and plan on coming back for a few days in the future.

Return Trip - Day 3 Baton Rouge, LA

2011-05-06T04:19:00.000-07:00

Day 3 was a travel day for the team. We crossed Texas to Baton Rouge LA. We wanted to give ourselves a little time in San Antonio and then get within shouting distance of New Orleans, so Baton Rouge seemed like a good spot. After the tour of the Alamo we had about a 7 hr drive.

Texas is huge. We have now crossed the state on 3 different interstates, I-10, 20 and 40. It always reminds me of the story of the two Texans bragging about the size of their ranches. One says, "it took me all day to drive my pickup across my ranch." The other replies, "Yup, I know what you mean. I used to have a truck like that."

At one point I had to pay $4.10 for gas. I would have thought that gas in Texas would be cheaper but it has been the most expensive. Most places along the highway are about $3.90. Imagine looking for a low price of $3.90. We saw lots of ranches, a huge dairy farm, tons of tumbleweed and one dead armadillo. Other than that, it was a lot of audio books, ipod and satelite radio. Luckily, the Navy SEALS got OBL so that bumped the Royal Wedding stories off the radio.

Return Trip - Day 2 San Antonio, TX

2011-05-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

We got a relavtively early start from El Paso as we headed for our next stop, San Antonio. It would be another long day of driving plus we would lose another hour to a time zone change. There are 2 time zones in Texas and we had to stop for gas 3 times to cross the state. I had been to San Antonio once before but wanted to bring Judy there to check out the Riverwalk and the Alamo. The Alamo is one of the places like Little Big Horn in that there were no survivors to tell the real story so we have to rely on legend. I prefer the legend. Travis really did draw a line in the sand with his sword. We arrived at our hotel in downtown San Antonio while there was still some light so we walked over the see the Alamo. They've done a good job maintaining the Alamo with only donations. It takes up about a whole city block and there are beautiful walkways meandering throughout the fortress.
Then we walked along the RiverWalk.

We stopped in a Crab Shack where I could watch the 2nd half of the C's loss to the Heat. Bummer. But the food was good (Red Snapper with Crab Stuffing) and the atmosphere was fun.
Here's an abbreviated video of the "shack"

We went back the next morning to tour the Alamo. There was a pretty good video along with a ton of artifacts from both the Texan and Mexican armies. There was a Bowie knife from that old "Knife Fighter" (imagine that) Jim Bowie along with Davy Crockett's musket that was given to Fess Parker who gave it to the Daughters of Texas for the Alamo display.

I loved it and I was surprised that Judy did too.

Return Trip - Day 1 El Paso, TX

2011-05-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

We set out from Sedona about 9am. First, I had to stop at the UPS store to drop off a couple boxes that we are shipping home then go back and pick up Judy. We didn't have enough room in the Jeep for the boxes, all our stuff and Judy at the same time.

We were heading for El Paso, TX on the southern route and I planned on taking I-10 all the way via Phoenix, Tucson, Las Cruces, then El Paso. But, our GPS had us taking the backroads across the Southeast of AZ so we stuck with that route. This route took us through little towns like Strawberry and Pine along the edge of the Mogollon (pronounced Muggy-own) Rim. It was a very pleasant ride and we skipped the boredoom of the highway.

The route took us by Roosevelt Lake and we crossed the Roosevelt Lake Bridge.

Also, we passed through the Tonto National Forest which was more like a desert. The landscape in southern AZ is so much different than other parts of the state. We saw a sign for "cliff dwellings", so we took a slight detour to see them. Double click on the photo then click again to see the enlarged view. You can make out some people in the ruin to give you an idea of the size of the dwellings.

We didn't hike to see them up close as we still had a long way to go. But we did stop for a picnic of PB&J sandwiches and checked out the cactus plants that were in full bloom.

After getting on I-10 somewhere in southwest New Mexico, we only had about 150 miles left to get to El Paso where we would lose an hour due to the time zone change. It was a long day in the saddle.

Update to Swimming at Grasshopper Point

2011-04-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday we were at Grasshopper Point watching the kids cliff-dive. This happened the next day...

Sedona Fire District firefighters carry a 16-year-old boy from the swimming area at Grasshopper Point.

A 16-year-old Sedona Red Rock High School sophomore was flown to Flagstaff Medical Center after sustaining a head injury after falling at Grasshopper Point on Thursday, April 21.

The drop into the water at Grasshopper Point is estimated to be roughly 30 feet.

Emergency crews with the Sedona Fire District responded to the call at roughly 1:30 p.m. following an injury report at the popular hiking spot.

According to witnesses a number of students from Sedona Red Rock High School were cliff-jumping in the area when the boy fell.

The extent of the boy’s injuries is unknown at this time.

Tony's Note: He was later released from the hospital.

Once in a lifetime, twice in one day!

2011-04-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

You won't believe what happenned again today.

No need for any words, pictures will suffice.

Zion and environs...

2011-04-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

A couple of things for me to remember when I look back on this blog...

It really is amazing how different the scenery can be within a relatively close proximity to each other. Bryce Canyon is like dripping sand castles, Zion has huge rounded layers like Jabba the Hut, the Grand Canyon is, well, it's the Grand Canyon, Arches has the arches (who knew), Canyonlands has layers of deep canyons, around Lake Powell it is like a lunar landscape and you can't beat the slot canyons in Page only a few miles away. What was going on all those years ago to have so many different layers of different types of sediment? One can easily see how the earth was pushed up and delineate the different layers from one area to another.

The other is how distance is sort of meaningless. With so much open area one thinks nothing of taking off for many hours for another experience. It would be like being in our home in MA and saying, "after lunch, let's go to Montreal."

With that in mind, recently, at about 1pm we decided to head out to go to Zion National Park. It would take about 6 hours to get there. We had planned to go there on our way home, but at this point, we may take a southern route to avoid any bad weather. I don't want to blog about tornadoes.

Once again, we were amazed a the beauty of the national parks in the west.

Coming in from the east, the first formations you see are huge, layered, rounded masses that could look like a millennium's worth of cow pies.

Once you go through a couple of man-made tunnels drilled through the mountains, you come into Zion Canyon which seems totally different.

We stopped at the Virgin River Bridge for a view of the muddy water

And made it through the park at sunset on our way to Cedar City for the night

The next morning we took a quick detour through Kolob Canyon at the north end of Zion. Also spectacular. Then we drove back through Zion in the opposite direction. Things look totally new in the opposite direction.
Judy drove so I could enjoy the scenery

We had our Utah Off-road book with us so we decided to take a few excursions into the outback on our way home. First stop was a place called Paria (pronounced Par-eah, like Maria). This was a spot settled by the Mormons in the late 1800's. I guess they stopped there because there was water but now all that is left is an outhouse and a cemetery where most of them are buried. Those in the cemetery either died from the elements or were killed by Paiutes. It was a tough life back then. We were amazed at the scenery but I'm sure that wasn't high on their mind.

Our last adventure took us into the lunar landscape on the Utah side of Lake Powell. We thought we could make it down to the lake itself, but the trails were not marked and it was very difficult to know where we were. Here I am trying to find our way with my GPS

This place was so different than anything we had seen so far as can be seen by this overhang we drove under.

I had plenty of gas (this time) and there was plenty of daylight left, but it was getting late, so after climbing up and down the trail through deep sand, we decided to find our way back to civilization. On the return, we crossed paths with a couple in a pickup who asked if we knew where we were. Neither of us knew our exact location but were having fun finding our way around.

We got the last room at the Courtyard in Page and spent the night before heading home the next morning.

Note to self...

2011-04-26T07:12:00.001-07:00

For my own future reference...
We have kept the hummingbird feeder going but those guys are going through a couple of cups of feed per day. Some water may be evaporating but still, there are probably a half dozen or more birds that hit it all day long, maybe more. This morning, the feeder was empty again and there were birds checking it out and looking at me to fill it up.
Anyway, Judy and I were on the deck waiting for the javelinas to stroll through the yard. We had left the screen door open. When we came back in the house, I heard some noise and thought something was going on downstairs. It turns out one of the hummingbirds was in the house, flying against a window trying to get out. I tried to shoo it away from the window towards the door, but it was insistant on banging its beak against the window. Finally, it got tired and sat on the sill. I slowly approached it and wiggled a newspaper under its feet and lifted it up. It perched on the edge of the newspaper and flapped its wings a bit, but I was able to carry it across the room to the open screen door and let it take off. Judy didn't dare move to take a picture in fear of scaring the guy but we were both pretty pleased to help our buddy out.

Cleaning out my Camera (Update 2)

2011-04-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

Update 1. Added more YouTube videos.
Update 2. Added photos from Grasshopper Point

It used to be cleaning out a file drawer, but now it is cleaning out my card on my camera. So, these will be random photos or thoughts just for my own keeping to get into my blurb book when this blog is done.

I've also updated the slideshow on the left with a few new (er) paintings. Now that I remember how to do that, I'll try to keep it more up to date.

Have had great luck with the Hummingbird feeder. I've had 5 humming around at a time and 3 at the feeder. I think the females can share the feeder, but when a male comes along, he chases everyone else away.
Here a are a couple of female Ana hummingbirds chowing down

We've had some visits from Javelinas. Here are a couple that walked through our patio the other morning. I wonder where they are during the day.
Mom and baby looking for breakfast

We finally took a hike on the Huckaby trail. This trail runs about 3 miles, one way, from Schnebley Hill along the creek across from our place to the famous Midgely Bridge. If you can't cross the creek at the bridge, you have to go back the 3 miles. So, we just went as far as we needed to see our house from the top of the trail. Probably about 4 miles round trip over an up and down trail with a fair amount of climbing and then going downhill.
Our place from the Huckaby Trail

Judy working her way down towards the creek on the Huckaby

Near our place is a scenic area called Grasshopper Point. It is right along the creek and a favorite picnic spot for locals, especially you kids. I guess the water is deep enought at this point to jump in as these kids can attest.

Grasshopper Point is also the location for the trailhead for Allen's Bend Trail. This short trail is very close to civilization but gives you the impression that you are out in the wilderness. Can you believe that the main road to Flagstaff is only 100' or so above Judy's head?

Here are a few videos I took when Curt and Terry were here. The Broken Arrow trail is a great hike but also a lot of fun to drive on. It is a very popular trail for the Pink Jeep company that runs off-road tours in Sedona. I attached my camera to my windshield and let her rip. The scenery is spectacular.
Check 'em out.

Click Here for Up to Submarine Rock .
Click Here for On top of Submarine Rock .
Click Here for Heading down Submarine Rock.
Click Here for On the way to Chicken Point.
Click Here for Chicken Point.
Click Here for Mushroom Cap.
Click Here for Some Slick Rock.
Click Here for The Staircase. Too bad my camera got jostled out of position on this one, but you get the drift.

Stay tuned for more updates with additional photos.

Fund Raiser for Pancreatic Cancer Research

2011-04-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Judy and I went home to join with Mike Noble and his extended family in a fund raiser for pancreatic cancer research. Mike is not only fighting his battle but is also doing whatever he can to raise funds and awareness for future generations who may have to combat this dreaded disease.
Mike's team raised more than $35000 for this event. The event itself raised about $80000, so the Nobles brought in almost half of that. Thanks to our friend, Bob Coates, for dropping by the starting line to offer his support.

Judy and I thank those of you who donated for this "Noble" cause. Follow this link if you'd like to donate.

Mike was really surprised when we showed up at his house the night before the event. It was a no-brainer for us as we were already planning to come home to celebrate the end of his treatment and his 59th birthday. Walking in the fund raiser was icing on the cake.
It was a great day. What a turnout in support for Mike. He had the largest contingent of any team. Of course, he also had the largest family of any other team.

Here is the team photo

There was a 10K run, a 5K run and a 5K walk. Some of the Noble clan decided to do the 10K run. Here are a few photos of their efforts.
Matt after completing his run

Here's Mike cheering Emily on...

Kyle has us in his rearview mirror

Here's Hillary and friends about to cross the finish line

This walk was terrific. Not only were we raising money for a great cause, but we got to chat and schmooze with friends and relatives along the way. Mike was in great form (having run 2 miles earlier in the week) and looked great crossing the finish line.
Matt joins his dad as Mike crosses the Finish Line

Not to be outdone, here comes Pam

Judy and Jim had a great time chatting along the way

And Uncle Marc came flying across the Finish Line

A number of members of the Nobles team did well in the running events. Here are Kyle, Emily and Matt who all won medals for having pretty good times within their species.

Afterwards, we all went to Pizzeria Uno for a little after-the-fact carbo loading. Mike gave a very warm and heart-felt speech thanking us all for participating. When Mike expressed his gratitude to us for helping out, someone yelled out, "It's because we love you." That summed it up for all of us who took part in this day. The last official act of the day was to celebrate a couple of birthdays with some gluten-free cake.

Then it was back on the plane for our return trip to Sedona for the last three weeks of this year's adventure.

Busy Day today

2011-04-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

I finally got off my butt (or actually "on" my butt) and created 4 new posts today that document some our activities for the past few weeks. Take a look and feel free to add any comments.

Rte 66 and Hoover Dam

2011-04-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

We recently read that there is a road off of old Rte 66 that leads to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It is one of only two roads that can do that, the other being the road to Lee's Ferry where the Grand Canyon officially starts, near Page. We were sitting around sunday morning talking about finding this road and touring Hoover Dam while in the area and enjoying parts of the old Mother Road. Judy said, let's go. I hemmed and hawed thinking it was "too late to start anything new", but she insisted and I'm glad she did. Another fun adventure to add to our memory banks.
We hit the road and stopped in Williams AZ for lunch/breakfast in the Pine Country Cafe. Nice friendly place with good service and food. Then off to Rte 66 starting in Seligman, AZ. Had we not been so hungry, we could have waited for this place in Seligman.
Sound Appetizing? Does anyone remember the old Burma Shave signs on the highways before the interstates? Rte 66 has 'em. From there we headed to Peach Springs which is on the Hualapai (who-wall-a-pie) Tribal land. The road to the canyon is across from the Hualapai Lodge where you need to pay a fee for access to the road. The road leads through a depressing neighborhood of dilapidated homes before it passes through a gate and onto the dirt road that runs 21 miles to the canyon floor. This was really cool. It was a real thrill.
Some photos....

Judy at the Wheel
Judy coming out of the weeds.

I took lots of photos, but I'll try to show the panarama with a video.

BTW, saw these animal tracks in the mud. Put my Swiss Army knife next to them to show relative size (Old CSI trick). Can anyone ID them?

Retracing our path back to Rte 66 was equally impressive.

We spent the night in Kingman before heading to the Hoover Dam the next morning. We had seen the new bridge over the dam when it was under construction, but I wanted to see it completed and walk out on it. Here is a view of the dam from the bridge.

It is called the Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tilman Bridge. I think O'Callaghan was a politician in Nevada and Tilman was the ex-Phoenix Cardinal who quit the NFL to join the army and was killed by friendly fire in Afganistan.
We took a tour of the Power Plant. What a madhouse. Seems like everyone is on Spring Break every week out here. Even the busloads of Italiens and Germans.
Here are the turbines on the Nevada side that help provide electricity to over a million homes.

View of the bridge from the dam.

Finally, we crossed into Nevada and headed south toward Laughlin. Laughlin is a mini Vegas on the Colorado River. It has a paddle wheel casino called the Colorado Belle. We didn't stop there. But, the scenery coming into Laughlin from the west was incredible. Worth the detour. No photos...

We headed into Az and looked for the highway to Oatman. It was a dirt road that crossed through some really stark scenery. There were many tracks leading off the main road. We took one just to see where it went...

Then got back on the main road...

At the end of the dirt road, we found the town of Oatman, named after a family that was massacred and their two daughters enslaved by the local Tonto-Apache.

There are wild donkeys left over from the mining days that wander the streets.

Here's one that actually walked into a shop.

By this time, we were toured-out. So, we bought a couple of ice cream cones and got in the Jeep. We had more than 4 hrs to get home, so Judy took out her needlepoint and I put the pedal to the metal and we were home in time to watch the 2nd half of the UConn-Butler debacle.

I thanked Judy for insisting that we take this trip. It was really fun and fascinating.

Home Draw Tank Trail

2011-04-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

Sarah came up with a Jeep tour from our Off Road book. The trail was called the Home Draw Tank Trail. It was rated fairly difficult at times and had good scenery. It starts on a dirt road east of I-17. The roads work their way up and down narrow pathways over a lot of mud, rocks and creek crossings.
This one looked deeper than it was, but you never know what is on the river bottom until you drive into it.

Here I am waiting for our official photographer to catch up to us...

Almost as soon as we got to an open area, Judy spotted a herd of elk about 100 yds away making their way back into the treeline. I took a quick shot and blew it up so you can see a few elk in the bottom left.

No wonder they head for the trees as it seems that if they are out in the open, they become lunch or dinner for another critter. The open area was strewn with bleached bones.

Notice the skull on the right in this photo

Much of the rest of the trail was in open areas with lots of jagged rocks in the way. The county roads were not well marked, in fact not at all, so somewhere along the line we missed a turn. We ended up among a few shacks and corrals with a solitary bull standing in our way.

We went around him and found the road by going into and out of one of the corrals. Or so we thought. That road eventually evaporated so we back tracked and found another that also evaporated. At this point, I was getting a little nervous about gas. I had plenty, but not if we kept going in circles and if we hit too many gas guzzling mud climbs. (of course, I kept my mouth shut for a while about the gas. No point worrying anyone else).

Just before we stopped for lunch I spotted another elk antler next to the road.

Tony, Sarah and Antler on the Home Draw Tank Trail
What are the chances? We found one 2 years ago and then another one, even bigger, the other day. Now both Judy and Sarah have a souvenir they don't know what to do with.

Finally, by using our garmin and Bill's iphone gps, we got back on the right track. We had missed a turn near the old shacks and bull. If we had only checked the book, it told us to pay attention. Oh well.

The rocky path became a dirt road with beautiful views toward the south on our way back to Camp Verde.

We gassed up, bought a couple of ice cream sandwichs and headed home. I had "made" a pulled pork so we stopped at Basha's supermarket to buy the rest of the fixins'. We finished things off by dining on the Sullivan's porch and enjoying a fire before calling an end to a great day.

Oh, if you are wondering what ever happened to that elk skull from the previous photo. Can you guess?

Check this out!

Soon to be on display on Judy's Artifact shelf in our kitchen. Good Grief.

Le Retour des Bornstains

2011-04-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is the third year that Jacques and Claire have shared time with us here in Sedona. They love the air, landscape, hiking, everything. And Jacques likes to celebrate his birthday here. This year he celebrated HIS birthday by taking US out to lunch at the El Tovar Lodge on the rim of the Grand Canyon. What a way to celebrate. We had a great lunch...

(I guess I could have had them actually pose for this picture.)

and the scenery, Fuggedaboudit!

They both love hiking so we were on the trails a lot. Here are some photos of our hikes.
On the backside of Courthouse Rock

Jacques and I at Chicken Point on the Broken Arrow Trail

Decision making on Cowpie Trail

The hikers coming down from one of the "cowpies"

Page was on Jacque's list this year. So we packed up early one morning and headed north. Unfortunately, Claire had come down with a bronchitis so she couldn't make the trip. It took a little over 3 hours to get to Antelope Canyon in Page. Jacques was astonished at the natural beauty of the slot canyon and only regretted that Claire wasn't there.
Here is Jacques entering the darkness of the slot canyon.

And a great photo of Jacques, Judy and me taken by our Navajo guide, Buddy.
From there we made a quick stop at the Glen Canyon dam which created Lake Powell and controls the eastern end of the Colorado. Our last stop before heading back to Sedona was another amazing natural thing of beauty.
What are these 4 looking at?

or these guys perched on the edge of a 1500 ft cliff?

Yup, you guessed it, Horseshoe Bend

But, the two weeks passed quickly and before you knew it they had to pack up their rental and head to Phoenix for their long flight back to Paris. A bientot.

Bushwhacking at Midgely Bridge

2011-04-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

One day Kaleigh and I decided to investigage the creek that runs near our house to see if it could be crossed below the Midgely Bridge. There is a trail across the creek that can only be reached if one hops on boulders or jumps over logs and branches to get to the other side. As the weather had really warmed up, I wore shorts for the first time hiking (why do I mention that, you ask. You'll see.). We quickly determined that the creek was a bit too high to try to ford it. At least I did, Kaleigh was game to give it a try.

The view of the bridge above was really interesting and so we set out to do a little exploring without crossing the creek.

There was no real trail on this side of the creek so we made our way over some slick rock and rubble from flooding. There was a shallow, man-made aquaduct that carried water somewhere that was partway up the cliff towards the road. Things seemed pretty serene there and we enjoyed a couple of photo ops before deciding what to do next.

At this point we had hacked our way about 1/4 mile from the bridge downstream towards our house. I foolishly mentioned to Kaleigh that we could try to work our way along the creek to the house. She jumped all over that idea. Judy and I had worked our way partway toward the bridge from our place so, even though there was no trail, I felt we could find our way. Big mistake.
We immediately hit thick brambles and thorny bushes. We thought about balancing on the edge of the aquaduct but it was too narrow and we would have either fallen into the water or down into the brush. (the water in the aquaduct was only 1/2 foot deep at the most).
So we struggled on finding lots of rubble that washed down the creek from the camp grounds in Oak Creek Canyon. We even came across parts of cars that either came over the cliff or washed down stream.

As we struggled through the thorns we heard someone calling to us from the other side of the creek. The rushing water made a lot of noise so it was difficult to hear what he was saying. I finally figured he was asking us if were were lost. I just yelled back that we were not lost, just stupid. He shrugged his shoulders and went on his way.
We had no choice but to keep going as we were closer to where I thought our house was than to the bridge. At one point, we could see what looked like beaten down brush that lead back up to the aquaduct. I asked Kaleigh to climb up to see if there was a way out. I didn't want to have to climb up and then come back down. She got to the edge of the aquaduct and stepped into it (remember it was not too deep). I yelled, "how deep is the water?" and she yelled back, "it's dry!". It had dried up a little bit upstream. All along we could have been walking in a little water then a dried up aquaduct instead of bushwhacking our way through the briars and the brambles.
Can you see the scratches on Kaleigh's legs from our hike?

As I was not quite as light on my feet as Kaleigh, I got a few scratches myself. Can you see them?

We made it to the house without further damage but I snuck by Judy to take a quick shower to wash away some of the evidence of our hike before she had a chance to comment on our stupidity.

Kaleigh and Mia's Excellent Adventure

2011-03-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

Recently, our niece, Kaleigh, and her roommate from UNC spent their Spring Break with us in Sedona. I thought they were supposed to go to Cancun or someplace wild but they seemed to want to take in the sights of the southwest. It was clear they were on student budgets as they must have found the cheapest flight to AZ from NC via NY. They got in about 10:30pm and we arrived at the terminal just as they walked out the door.
Later in the week, we decided to take the Mund's Wagon Trail for a good hike. This trail is about 4 miles long uphill (one-way) starting at the Schnebley Hill parking lot. As I was the least conditioned of the 3 of us, I decided that Judy would drive us up Schnebley Hill road and drop us off as close to the end of the trail as possible. We reached the gate that closes the Schnebley Hill road and the 3 of us walked up to the trail while Judy and Dottie watched us from a scenic overlook. We found where the trail ended and headed back down Schnebley Hill. Just after we started, storm clouds blew in quickly and soon we were in the middle of a hail storm. We could see the blue sky off in the distance so we figured it wouldn't last too long. It was really cool to see how quickly water funnelled down over the redrocks. We managed to make it over some of the slick rock and through some mini flash floods and worked our way down the trail taking time for a few photo ops. Sorry about the water on the lens... You couldn't come to the Sedona area without a visit to one of the Indian ruins. So, we visited Hunanki, a very interesting spot. I always include a little off-road adventure when we visit this location, so I subjected the crew to the back road to 89A. There might have been a few puddles along the way. Next on their "todo" list was Antelope Canyon in Page. We decided to do an overnight and include the Grand Canyon in the trip. We went directly to Upper Antelope Canyon. this was a real treat for Kaleigh as she had seen some photos and this was high on her list. The first steps into the slot canyon are a bit intimidating. Pictures don't always do justice to the slot canyons, but maybe this quick video will give it some perspective.

After the slot canyon we stopped by Horseshoe Bend where the Colorado works its way around a 270 degree turn on its way to the Grand Canyon. Here is Kaleigh looking over the edge. I think that is my shadow on the right, but I look a little emaciated.
Unfortunately, Kaleigh lost a memory card for her camera somewhere near the edge. We came back later when she realized she lost it but we couldn't find it. To provide solace to us all, Mia bought pizzas for dinner which we ate at the hotel while Mia studied for an exam. The next morning, we took another look but to no avail. Photos from her whole senior year at UNC were lost on that card.
Oh well, on to the Grand Canyon. We stopped first at the overlook for the Little Colorado River Gorge where we bought a flute for Bob and Evie Saunders and took in the beautiful scenery.
Once again, at the canyon, Kaleigh was in the forefront of things. I suppose she could have gotten closer and given me more goosebumps.

And here is a shot of the 3 of us enjoying this magnificent natural phenomenom.
It took us about 2 hours to get back to Sedona from the Canyon. I was the only one who stayed awake for most of the trip. Unfortunately, Mia was still studying for an exam for a teaching position and she had to leave the next day to get back in time for the test. It was great having her visit and enjoy the beautiful southwest.

Recent Company

2011-03-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

We've had a few rounds of company this year and have really enjoyed them. It is always fun to show people around who love to travel and do things and who have not had the fortune to have visited Sedona.

Henri and Gigi

Our first guests were our friends Henri and Gigi. They were great company and up for anything. Even with a bit of bad weather they still relaxed and enjoyed themselves. Gigi was tenacious with a jigsaw puzzle we brought with us.
But it wasn't all indoor activities. They spent some time in Flagstaff and we had a few good hikes including this one on Soldier's Pass, one of our favorites. Plus they treated us to dinner at our favorite family Mexican Restaurant, Casa Bonita in the Basha's strip mall.
Gigi works as a geologist so she was fascinated with the landscape and we took advantage of her knowledge. She and Judy stopped in some shops in Jerome and picked up some samples of copper. It was good to have someone assure us that the stones were legit.

Bob and Evie
After Henri and Gigi left, we welcomed our friends from Walpole, Bob and Evie Saunders. They jumped right into things by making two large pans of lasagna. We ate one over a couple of days and we are still saving the other one. It was great. The Pear Martinis on the deck weren't bad either.
They were really interested in seeing the Grand Canyon, so that was on their itinerary. But when they saw a brochure for Antelope Canyon in Page, they remembered that one of their daughters had raved about it. So, we heard them leave before 6am and didn't see them again til 8pm when they walked in the door with a pizza. They had managed to cram in a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon and the Grand Canyon in one day. Quite a trip but shows it can be done.
Bob took about 800 pictures (is that a record?). They were in awe of the scenery. There was some snow on the ground when they arrived so we took some photos with snow on the red rocks. Beautiful.
We took Bob and Evie to our favorite spot for a picnic and passed by the remains of a steer that we have been watching for a couple of years. Judy and Evie picked through the bones until Judy found a nice leg bone to bring home.
We continued up the trail for our lunch sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the colorful landscape.

The morning they were leaving, I took Bob on one last Jeep ride to the Broken Arrow trail. I've blogged on this one before so I won't belabor things. Suffice it to say that when we returned to the house, Bob excused himself to change his underwear.
Then they were off for a visit to the Sonoran Desert Museum and the San Xavier del Bac Mission in Tucson. They had a great time and so did we.

Dottie Folino

Next, our friend and neighbor, Dottie Folino, joined us. Dottie was very accommodating as she shared some of the guest facilities with my niece, Kaleigh, and her roommate from UNC, Mia (more on them in another post). She walks a lot with friends at home, so we got her right out on a nice trail called Marg's Draw. It starts as Schnebly Hill and passes beneath such formations as Snoopy Rock. A great way to start the week.
Dottie really enjoyed the Indian Rock Art at Hunanki ruins
and loved the "moderate" off road experience on the way back to civilization.
She capped off the week by taking us all out to dinner at Judy's favorite restaurant.

It was bound to happen!

2011-03-14T22:48:00.001-07:00

It's been a while and I have lots of stuff to add to the blog, but I thought I'd get this one in while it was still fresh.

While our niece, Kaleigh, was visiting ( more on that later ), we worked our way through some back roads to a place called Robber's Roost. Supposedly, it was named that because robbers and bootleggers hid there and could have a clear view across the landscape to see anyone approaching. It was a really cool spot but not for the faint of heart. Kaleigh was ahead of us and had branched off to climb to the top of the formation. Meanwhile, Judy and I hit what looked like the end of the trail as the next steps would bring us along a very narrow, slanted bit of slip rock with a wall on one side and a 150 foot, or so, drop on the other. I said this can't be it. I wanted no part of those few steps as I couldn't see what was around the corner. We eventually found Kaleigh. She wanted to take another look at the narrow path and, after some preliminary scouting, convinced me that it got a bit wider and flatter around the corner. She went ahead and I gingerly made my way across the narrow path behind her and, sure enough, it got flatter and brought us to a unique sight. There was a cave with a stone wall in front and a natural window looking out over the area. Here is Kaleigh making her way along the wide portion of slip rock and then sitting in the window.

On our way back to town, we took another back road and saw a white pickup and yellow tent out in the wilderness. We made a wide circle around it and worked our way up a rocky, narrow trail.
This is when it happened. I must have hit a good sized rock and slid into a tree root because I felt a bump, heard a thump and then SSSSSSSSSSssssssssss. I drove another 10' or so to get on level land and by then my tire was totally flat. I had cut a 2" long gash in the sidewall of the right rear tire. We were about 20 miles from civilization, but luckily I had two terrific helpers who offered all kinds of advice and assistance.

At this point the white pickup came up the trail behind us. I started to wave it around but a woman stepped out to say she had seen us go up the hill and stop and she was just checking on us. She told us her life story in about 15 minutes. She was out camping to meditate and fast, in preparation for doing her thesis on Art Therapy. She said she used to live in Phoenix but got fed up with city life, sold her Harley and moved to Jackson Hole for the peaceful solitude. For someone who wanted a solitary existance in the middle of nowhere, she sure talked a lot.
Last but not least, here is the flat mounted on the back of the Jeep with a pencil sticking through the sidewall. I sent this photo to my brother John, at Sullivan Tire, so he could give me an idea how badly I was going to get screwed when replacing the tire.

Archaeoastronomists in Action

2011-02-27T06:55:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite and most interesting sites in the area is the V bar V Ranch. On this deserted ranch can be found some of the most pristine examples of Indian Rock Art in all of Arizona. We have visited this site with company and on our own several times. There are hundreds of pictographs chipped into a rock face.

Over the years, archaeoastronomers have been studying the pictographs, along with the path of the sun over the wall, to try to determine their meaning. Archaeoastronomy is the study of what peoples throughout history and prehistory made of the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role it played in their cultures. Much of what the symbols mean is still conjecture. One thing they have come to agree on is the potential existence of a solar calendar. This solar calendar would be used by the natives to determine times for planting and reaping crops, for example. Shadows thrown by certain rocks sticking out of the wall would point to symbols indicating activities that need to take place at certain times of the year.
Recently, Judy attended a lecture by a local archaeologist, Ken Zoll, who has been trying to determine if the rocks that throw the shadows are naturally in place or have been placed there by the original occupants. He finally arranged to have several Phd's from ASU come to the site to investigate.
This past weekend, a team of 4-5 experts, including Zoll, set up scaffolding to get a closer look at the wall.
They spent parts of the whole weekend getting up close and personal with each crack and crevice.

After close examination of the boulders and the cracks in the wall where they are lodged, the experts determined that there is evidence that the boulders that jut out were origianlly there, but other rocks were placed there or at least arranged there to hold it in its proper place. This was determined because there are types of rocks in the cracks that are not part of the wall itself and were obviously placed there. This gives more credibility to their theories of a man made solar calendar.

This was a fascinating experience for us. Judy was enthralled with it. We could hear the experts discuss things as they examined the wall and were able to spend time talking with Ken to get his take on this research activity and other digs at this very interesting site.

Painting with Michael Chesley Johnson, et al

2011-02-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

Recently, I went out painting with Michael Johnson and one of his students who was in town for one of Michael's workshops. As his student, San, was adventersome, we decided to take the Jeep down Dry Creek rd to FR 152. Judy and I had already been down that road this year and determined that the name was accurate as the creek, which is normally over my hubcaps at certain crossings, was bone dry. So, as we would not have any water scenes to paint, we stopped at one of our favorite spots with a 360 degree view of the area. Although Judy and I had been to this spot many times and like to bring our company there, I had never painted there. So, we all set up and attempted slightly different views. Here is my 8x10 version of the backlit side of Thunder Mountain.

From there we drove further down 152 to an open spot, had our lunch and set up for another painting. Here is a photo of Michael and San in the process of creating some masterpieces.
This part of 152 was lower in altitude so we had to look up to compose our potential paintings. We all set up looking in different directions but drove out with each of us carrying another painting. Not sure if this has a name, but here it is.

Michael has been kind enough to invite me to join him and his students any time I can. I'll be taking advantage of that invitation.

Back on line...

2011-02-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

It's been an enjoyable week or so here in Sedona. The weather was great for a while, but, of course, when company arrives it is apt to change.

Last week, while waiting for a bay at the local car wash, we met a couple from Manitoba, Jim and Carmen Koepke. He had a Ford 4WD with a winch, so we invited them to take a ride with us out in the outback. First we visited the ruins at Palatki. The site is actually off limits for visitors at the moment. One has to view the ruins from an area about 50 yds away. The docent gives the same spiel but you can't roam around the site at all. A couple of years ago, you could even go into one of the "homes". Last year, that was prohibited as the doorway was collapsing. This year they have heard some cracking noises and fear that there may be a boulder falling soon, so it is off limits.

From there we went to Honanki which has more ruins than Palatki anyway. So, our friends from Manitoba enjoyed that. We took an abbreviated trip through Lincoln Canyon as Jim was a little reluctant to do any damage to his vehicle. (BTW, we heard that scratches in the paint from branches along a trail are called Arizona Pinstripes.)

Our friends, Henry and Gigi, arrived on thurs and we did some of the same things with them. They were blown away by the scenery as you come into Sedona late in the day. The Red Rocks were in their full glory.We also brought them on a hike through Soldier's Pass, which has great sunlight in the morning.

The weather has been a bit of a problem for them, tho. One evening it was beautiful, like in this photo of Cathedral Rock at about 5:00 PM.

The next morning, we awoke to weather like this. It will melt quickly and the scenery will be beautiful again.

Our poor hummingbird had to chip away at the feeder for her breakfast. We really needed the rain/snow as it is very dry here. All the creek beds that I love to splash through are totally devoid of any water. I'm looking forward to getting a little red rock mud on the Jeep.

Our new digs

2011-02-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

Our 2011 digs are at 141 Purtymun Lane in Sedona. Purtymun Lane is named after one of the early setters, as is much of the stuff around the area. We are located about .5 miles north of uptown Sedona on the way up Oak Creek Canyon. This was the first time we actually saw the rental before we booked it. We met with the owner, Linda Cohen, last April and liked the place so much we decided to lock it in then. In fact, many of the places we looked at before finding this one were already booked for the following year. This was a complete change in style of house, neighborhood and location. We thought we would give it a try and we are really happy here. As the weather warms up, we will really enjoy the deck and the sunsets over Cathedral Rock in the distance.

Here are some photos of the place.

Here is the entry way to the home. There is a slight lip to the porch so Judy laid down some stones and a bone we found on the trail as a reminder not to trip.

You go through the French Doors to the living room where we have comfortable chairs and an HDTV.

Through the windows behind the couch we have a perfect view of Thumb Butte or Giant's Thumb. The sun comes up behind it and it is in full glory in the afternoon.

To the right of the living room is the kitchen. It is narrow but has everything we need, even a wine cooler.

Next to the kitchen is a dining area with sliding glass doors out to the deck. The deck has comfortable chairs and a fire pit that we hope to enjoy.

From the deck we have a great view of Cathedral Rock about 4 miles away in the distance.

In the hall behind the kitchen, there is a master bedroom with bath and a guest bedroom with a full bath in the hall. Here is the master bedroom with the sliding doors to the deck.

That about covers it, except for a lower level with a sitting area and small bedroom. We can use this for overflow. Here is the spiral staircase leading down to the level.

Another Government Cover-up

2011-02-09T06:55:00.001-08:00

We stopped in Roswell, NM last Friday night. It was the nearest town to Carlsbad Caverns with a cheap Marriott (98 miles). What we discovered there was shocking.

It seems that in the 40's, a UFO crashed in the desert nearby with aliens on board. The goverenment refutes this fact and claims that it was only a weather balloon and not a UFO. There was no evidence of any weather balloon in the area on that specific day, so I don't know what the government was talking about.

Here is the proof as shown in this giant shoe-box diarama of the analysis of an alien.

At the UFO Museum, you can follow the newspaper accounts of the crash landing as well as do research by watching some Hollywood movies made about the landing. Also, there are many photos of UFO's and accounts of alien abductions.

We were hoping to get a ride in a space craft, but had another 598 miles to go to get to Sedona. Oh well....

Fun Fact

2011-02-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

Fun Fact: Something we learned about the Horsehair worm...

The adult Horsehair worms mate in the small puddles in the cavern. The female lays eggs in the water. The eggs have a coating on them. Then a cricket or other insect comes along and innocently drinks the water and swallows an egg. The cricket hops away to enjoy life in the darkness of the cavern. Meanwhile, the egg gestates and enzymes in the cricket's stomach eat away at the coating around the egg. The egg "hatches" and the baby Horsehair worm eats its way out of the unsuspecting host.

Lesson Learned? Don't drink the water in a cave.

Phew!

2011-02-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

Things started out a little shaky this morning. We were on the western end of the central time zone, so it was still dark at 7:00. We decided to wait a bit for daylight as it would not be a good idea to drive on ice in the dark. The first hour or so was like the day before, but then about 25 miles west of Abilene, the ice started to gradually disappear. Free sailing to Carlsbad Caverns from then on.

Carlsbad Caverns was truly awesome. To get to the caverns, you take an elevator down about 750 feet to the entrance to the Big Room. At first it looks fake around the entrance, but then you walk into this immense cavern which is the size of 6 football fields. There is a paved walkway that takes you on mile or so tour. The cavern was "discovered" by a kid named Jim White in the late 1890's. He saw the bats flying out of the natural opening in the ground and decided to take a look inside. Going down into that void in the dark with only a lantern must have been daunting. Not sure if anyone would know anything about it if I had been the first to discover it.

We also took a tour of the King's Palace cavern. This was a great tour and our guide, Mark, was very informative. He was not only a park ranger, but also a caver and a geologist. So, he could cover all the bases. He told a story of when Jim White left his lantern on the ground while he went off to do some investigating. He heard a slight "puff" as his candle went out. He had 3 matches left to use to find the lantern and make sure he could light it. If he failed at relighting the lantern, he would never have been able to find his way out of the cavern. Here is a photo of what Jim's view would have seen without his candle.....

It Finally Hit the Fan!

2011-02-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. With a storm this massive, we couldn't really expect to miss the whole thing. Actually we didn't hit the storm, just it's remnants.

About 100 miles east of Dallas, we started to run into patches of ice on the bridges and overpasses. Then there were more ice patches than clear pavement. It reminded me of hitting black ice while skiing. When you see black ice, you don't break or swerve, just head through it. Of course, not everyone can handle the black ice. See left. Downtown Dallas.

Then things settled down and looked pretty good with only 395 miles to our destination. But it really went downhill fast about 50 miles west of Dallas. We hit solid sheets of ice in every lane. Trucks and cars were fishtailing and spinning off the road all over the place. (BTW, the photos don't do justice to the ice. The ice was 1-2" thick and where there was no thick ice, there was a shiny ice slick. The last time I saw roadways like this was when we went to the Cotton Bowl with the Bronchuks when Flutie played for BC (1985))

When we travelled another 50 or so miles at 10-15 mph, we decided to rethink our plans for the evening. We were 250 miles from Odessa and figured it would take about 12 more hours to get there ( it was 1:30). So we looked up a hotel in Abilene on the Garmin and made a reservation.

We got stuck a number of times as trucks or cars jack-knifed and blocked the road. Several times, while stopped on an incline, the truck behind me or beside me could not get started again. What a mess. It was interesting to start up on a hill and then look in the rear view mirror and see nothing for a mile or so as the trucks behind tried to get traction on the ice.

Only 97 miles to get to that hotel. So, over a covering of 2 inches of ice, we dropped into 4WD and forged on. It was the most harrowing drive in my driving experience (on a real road), but we made it despite all the slowdowns and stoppages for accidents. Who knows what lurks tomorrow. We'll continue heading west and try to make it to Carlsbad Caverns and then Roswell (we'll skip Odessa this time).

Made it to Texas (Texarkana)

2011-02-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

After last night's meal of catfish and hush puppies, we felt prepared to take the road again this morning. We watched the traffic reports and decided to loop around Nashville to pick up I-40 on the west side of the city. That worked fine for us. It was cold in the morning but the clouds burnt off. The only snow we saw was flying off the trailers of semis. Other than that, we noticed some small convoys of electric utility trucks from Indiana heading west. Probably going to Oklahoma City which was hit pretty hard.

We crossed the Mississippi in Memphis into Arkansas. From there we passed through Little Rock and picked up I-30 to Texarkana. The hotel (Marriott Fairfield) emailed me a pdf of updated directions to the hotel. Thought that was pretty good service especially as the highway was all torn up and the off ramps moved. Despite that I followed my Garmin and got a bit wrapped around the axle trying to find the hotel. I could see it but not find it....

Tomorrow we have a long day as we cross most of Texas. We pass through Dallas and make our way to Odessa which is on the other side of the state. It will take us all day.

Heading West Again - into the Storm of the Year

2011-02-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are again, heading to Sedona. Due to the forecasts of a major storm heading east across the midwest, we decided to head out a little early. After finishing the packing and cramming the Jeep with stuff we left Sunday, the 30th, and stopped at our friend Sandy's house in East Longmeadow. This allowed us to get an hour or so jump on our trip which we used to go about an hour further the past two days to get by the storm. It was 13 degrees when we left E. Longmeadow and the only problem was getting through Hartford at rush hour. Got a bit lost trying to avoid some of the rte 91 traffic.

The first night we stopped in Harrisonburg, VA, home of James Madison University. It was an uneventful trip and we left under cloudy skies. From there we headed to Nashville. The forecast was for a major storm but it seemed to be going a bit north of our route. In fact we had a mostly pleasant ride, even a bit of sun, on the way. We had nice weather until about 2 hours from Nashville. It started to drizzle, then rain and I finally had to actually put on my wipers. So much for the Storm of the Year.
The number one story in the news was the storm with the secondary story the protests and demonstrations in Cairo. It will be interesting to reread this blog in the future to see how things ended up in Egypt and if we actually get to visit the Pyramids in November 2011 as planned.

Thanks to all who texted, called and emailed to express their concern about our travels, but it looks like you guys got the worst of the whole deal.

Whirlwind tour of western national parks (again?)

2010-05-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I read a column by Art Buchwald called the 10 Minute Louvre. In the column he explained how he located the 3 most critical works to see in the Louvre and he could either give people directions or take them himself and they could see all they had to see in 10 minutes. So when we lived in Paris, I did that too and was able to race people through the museum with stops at Winged Victory, Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. What else do you need? (Just kidding!)

Anyway, I felt a little like I was on that tour as we raced through 5 National Parks/Monuments in 4 days (although we had already visited 2 of them)

On our first day out of Sedona, we traveled north, crossed the Navajo Bridge (NM) near Lee's Ferry on our way to Bryce Canyon(NP). We just had time to get a flavor for Bryce and definitely will be back. The Under the Rim trail looks great. BTW, it is amazing how many foreigners are visiting our western national parks. It really is an awesome place. It is different from the other parks with "hoodoo" like formations everywhere. Check it out.

We spent the night in Provo, getting there pretty late, and headed for Jackson Hole the next day. We arrived in time to visit the Grand Tetons (NP). It was cloudy and rainy most of the day and things looked pretty grim. After checking into our hotel, we took off to get a look at the scenery. At first, we could only see half of the mountains, but after a while things cleared up and we got a good view of the sun setting in the west.

The next morning we had breakfast in Jackson Hole and walked around the town. Here is a picture of an archway made of antlers in the common in Jackson Hole. There are a lot of antlers and there are several archways on the common.

Then on the way out of town, we saw our first Moose in the wild. There were a few of them feeding in a field not far from the road.

We headed back through Grand Tetons and through the south entrance of Yellowstone. Once again, like last year, some of the roads were closed, this time for road work.
We stopped at the West Thumb hot springs area. The hot springs empty into Yellowstone lake. There is a definite acidic, rotten egg like smell here. Here is one of the springs. Maybe you can see how deep it is.

And, of course, the obligatory bison....

From Yellowstone, we headed east and passed through the Bighorn National Forest and the Bighorn Scenic By-way. We shouldn't have been surprised, but we were very impressed with the beautiful scenery there. You'll have to pardon the photos as it was pretty overcast and my new camera was in the shop. I had to use the one with the sand blasted lens.

So, what is next on a trip across northern Wyoming? We had to stop at Devil's Tower NP. I was anxious to see this place as it rises up 800 or so feet above the otherwise rolling hills. It was pretty impressive. Maybe you recognize if from a sci-fi movie!

A little closer view...

Can you see the climbers in this photo? It is a well known place to climb. In the summer, climbing is prohibited as the Native Americans, who revere this place, have ceremonies and events during that time. Click on it to enlarge.

Here are a few photos of some of the local wildlife...

There were tons of these guys.

And, loads of these too.

And isn't this guy cute?

From the Devil's Tower we had a 4 hour drive to the Badlands NP in South Dakota. On the way we passed through towns like Sturgis and Spearfish, SD. We checked into a very rustic cabin inside the park near the visitor center. It is the only accommodation inside the park so it doesn't have to compete with anyone. No phone, tv or internet, although I glommed onto someone's wireless network. Probably a worker, nearby. We noticed tissues wedged between the window frame and the rotted screens, not a good sign. So I dug out our packing tape and made it official by weatherstipping the whole screen. It seemed to work. Judy was dying to get back here as she really finds it "otherworldly". It really is. We took a nice hike up and down the rocky formations. The trail was wide open but had yellow metal posts in the rocks to mark the way as you could get disoriented and it would be difficult to find a clear way back to the trailhead. Some more photos of that stop.
First, another critter outside our door.

Our cabin....

Judy on the Door trail...

On leaving the park..

Then off to Wisconsin. We ate lunch in Al's Oasis on rte 90 a couple hundred miles east of Wall. Al's seems to be a poor man's Wall Drug, but it filled the bill. We got into La Crosse in time for dinner at Piggy's and some great entertainment, see previous blog...

I'll have another post about our last tourist spot on this trip, Taliesin in Rock Springs Wisconsin. See you then.

Mississippi Blues

2010-05-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

So, today, we had a long drive from the Badlands of South Dakota to La Crosse WI. I will do another post with photos from our trip from AZ to SD. But, I wanted to get this one in so I don't forget.
I had made reservations at a Marriott right on the Mississippi to, at least, have one night in a nice hotel. It is in a great spot situated on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi. Here's a photo from our room.

So, we went across the street to a place called Piggys for dinner. We had a glass of wine at the bar while waiting for a table. We were finally seated right next to a keyboard and drum set which I hadn't even noticed. But Judy said maybe we'll be gone before the band starts to play. It was 10 of 8.
At 8pm, on the dot, 3 guys came out of the kitchen with beers in their hands. Now, I've worked in a lot of restaurants in an earlier life. I've worked as a waiter, busboy, dishwasher and short order cook. I know what kitchen help looks like. These guys looked like the dishwasher and his 2 friends who came in for a free meal. The dishwasher was about 80, one friend had his Harley t-shirt on and the third had his hat pulled down over his eyes. When they sat down at the instruments and started to play, I was pretty shocked. The 80 year old was the keyboard player, the t-shirt sat at the drums and the hat played harmonica. Wow, these guys could play. They were the ultimate old time blues professionals. I'll bet this was one of the first time they actually played together as they had to pass the musical key down the line and were deciding what to play on the fly. But they didn't miss a beat. The keyboard guy did a sound check by asking me if they were too loud and could the guys in back hear OK. They played Louisianna, Chicago, Mississippi and Georgia blues and sounded as good as could be. All had played professionally for years with local and national blues bands. When their set was over, the keyboardist (octagenarian)came by and shook our hands and said, "thanks for hangin' in." It was our pleasure.

Final Hike of the Season and Last Coffee Break

2010-05-20T19:59:00.001-07:00

We checked out of 125 Tranquil Ave on Saturday morning and headed for Bill and Sarah's place. The last thing we did was pack up some of the leftover liquor that we could not throw out. We had some booze left by our visitors plus I had what was left of a bottle of gin I bought on arrival. I packed the bottles to bring to the Sullivans house and Judy suggested I just put the gin in a water bottle and throw out the big bottle. I did that and we brought the remnants to the Sullivans.

For our last hike, Sarah had done a little research and found an interesting place north of Flagstaff called Red Mountain. As it turned out, it was 60 miles from Sedona, but, in the west, that is just around the corner. This was a real "find". It was a 1.5 mile hike into the partial crater of a volcano. There were many volcanos in Northern Arizona that erupted around 1000 AD. This may have been one of them. Anyway, the ash from the volcano gave way to a soft sandstone-like rock that made for a beautiful and interesting formation with the grey ash merging with the light tan sandstone. Here are a few photos of the Red Mountain trail.

Here you can see the grey volcanic ash with the lighter sandstone in the background.

This one shows Bill climbing into the sandstone layer.

Now, I suppose you are wondering why I brought up the liquor... Here goes. Judy made coffee in our downstairs guest suite from some of the water in our leftover water bottles. Day one, the coffee was fine. On the second day, she told me to taste the coffee, but to do it over the sink. I should have been suspicious, but I just drank it anyway. I nearly gagged and did a spit take and said, "did you make this out of some old medicine?". She said she had just used the water in one of the water bottles. Click! I knew instantly what was wrong. She had made the coffee with the gin. Not something I would recommend.

"Well my bags are packed, I'm ready to go"

2010-05-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

Just a couple more days before we leave so we are getting things packed. It's hard to pack things while you are still using them, but that's what you've got to do. I needed to pack my paints so I finished off one last work before I put them away. If you read in an earlier post about the perils of plein air painting, you may remember that I started a small painting along the highway that leads up to Flagstaff along Oak Creek. The creek was high at the time so it made it difficult to get to the edge. But there was a snow-melt runoff coming down from the opposite side of the canyon from the creek. I decided to try to find a place to set up, out of the severe wind, to try to capture a small scene. After trying a number of spots, I finally crawled down to a location where a drainage pipe carried the water under the road and into the creek. I was below the road and just a couple of feet off of it at this point so I thought I would be sheltered from the wind. What I didn't count on was the amount of dirt/sand and debris kicked up by cars as they barrelled along above me. I got my easel set up (actually one that George Ransom loaned me)and balanced myself on a few small, shakey boulders to try to capture a very small scene of the water running over the rocks on its way under the road to the creek. As the conditions seemed to worsen as the wind and traffic picked up, I blocked in the composition, took some references photos and climbed out of the drainage ditch to paint another day. Here is my 8x10 attempt at capturing falling water....

Bonnie and Chelle's Excellent Adventure

2010-05-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, cousin Bonnie and friend Chelle arrived for a few days. Judy, Bonnie and Chelle usually get together for a weekend, normally cultural, somewhere around the country. This time it was to be Sedona. They started their cultural weekend with margarittas then dinner at the Enchantment resort. Ladies Only. I stayed home to watch the Bruins. They had a great time catching up.
The next day we had a pretty full schedule. We started the day at the Airport Cafe for breakfast then drove to Walnut Canyon which is another National Park noted for its ruins of cliff dwellings. Unlike Mesa Verde, you are able to walk along and through many of the ruins (once you hike down the 240 steps to trail). There are ancient ruins in more or less good condition all over the area. Many are in parks but there are still many just out in the wilderness. You may have heard me say that before.
Here they are inspecting accomodations for next year. Looks pretty solid.

Later, they posed with their friend Barbie who always joined Judy, Bonnie, Chelle and their friend Cathy on their trips. Sadly, Cathy passed away recently but her daughter sent Barbie on to continue the tradition.
The cultural excursion continued at the Museum of Northern Arizona. Besides its permanent exhibit of the history of the settlement of the southwest, there was a terrific exhibit of water colors and oils by Gunnar Widforss, a Swede, who painted the southwest landscapes in the early 1900's. There were excellent paintings of the Grand Canyon and other notable landscapes of the area. (no photos allowed). Then lunch, of course.

The next day, the ladies went to Jerome for part of the day. Having been there a few times already, I stayed home to finish a painting I had started earlier. This was one I began one morning looking across towards the east near downtown Sedona. (if you've been here, Snoopy Rock is just to the right). The sun was coming up and all the formations were back lit. The photo isn't the greatest. I was pleased the way it turned out.

Saturday was the highlight of the trip. It was just packed with adventures. Bonnie, who won the NCAA pool took some of her winnings and she and Chelle booked a sightseeing flight in a red bi-plane. Here are the two Red Baronesses all ready to take off.

This is a great shot from the plane of Cathedral Rock from the air.

This is what Cathedral Rock looked like later in the day from ground level.

Here is another great shot from the cockpit. I love the look of this one.

Finally, the three pilots make their way back to the hanger after a tough flight.

But, the day was not over. We planned on a picnic at our favorite spot out near Sycamore Canyon. We passed by our favorite cadaver which was still there, although less of it. We set up our chairs to read/sketch and things went well until Chelle stood up and walked into a Prickly Pear Cactus. She nearly fell into it but regained her balance. I would have taken a photo but I had to go get the first aid kit to find the tweezers. Chelle and Bonnie pulled out dozens of big and small cactus spines. Blood was flowing everywhere...well not everywhere, but it was flowing. The bleeding stop pretty quickly. Things were getting back to normal when Judy came back from her hike with a big needle sticking out of her surgery scar. I figured we needed a photo of that. Curt Schilling isn't the only one with a "bloody sock".

Otherwise, the landscape was beautiful as usual. We really like this spot. This spot is where we normally turn around and then "park" on the side of the dirt road near the little canyons.
We finished off the day with dinner at Heartline. Normally, a great place to eat but we are finding that it is slipping in quality and service. However, Barbie enjoyed her dessert.
Alas, the trip was too short. The next morning, after breakfast, Bonnie and Chelle headed to the airport for their trip home. One final check of the directions was fortuitous as they would have been headed in the opposite direction from Phoenix. But, they both made it home safe and sound, although Bonnie's luggage did not.

4 Day Road Trip -this is a long post....

2010-05-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

A place that we had not visited but was on our list, was Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. Bill and Sarah hadn't been there either, so Sarah did some research and put together a 4 day Road Trip for us that would take us to interesting places on the way up and back from Mesa Verde. Mesa Verde has the greatest number of Native American cliff dwellings in North America. The trip would take us all around the 4 Corners of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. (BTW, I overheard a guy say in the hotel lobby that he had been to "4 Corners" the previous day and it was CLOSED. Seemed funny as it is really just a spot on a map. But, they have found out that the marker for the intersection of the 4 states is in the wrong spot and they are changing it. Oh well.)
Day One - we left Sedona and headed up Oak Creek Canyon to pick up I-40 in Flagstaff. We headed east and got off the highway in Winslow, Arizona. Route 66 goes through the town and there are spots that highlight the line from the Eagles song, Take it Easy, "I was standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see." There's a huge logo of Rte 66 in the center of the intersection.

From there we found a nice little town picnic area along Clear Creek, which has a boat landing but doesn't live up to its name. Our first adventure was a visit to Rock Art Ranch located somewhere down a territorial road (read "dirt" road) east of Winslow. One needs an appointment to visit the site as the owner is not always there. We arrived at a locked gate with a threatening "No Trespassing" sign and had to call the owner to let us in. We interrupted his lunch but he showed up about 15 minutes later. (The mailbox at the gate had a sign that said, "US Male". We thought it was pretty clever until we saw some of his other spellings. For example, "thanks for comming!"). Click on the photo to read the signs. BTW, the mailbox is sitting on petrified wood.

Brantely Baird was the owner and he brought us and another car load to his museum, a large open floor building that contained tons of cowboy and pioneer equipment, clothes, furniture, etc. He then let us into a locked room that contained ancient artifacts that had been found on his ranch. He had a picture of himself with the first pot he found when he was 12 in 1948 (you do the math). He probably had millions of dollars worth of artifacts in that room. He also had some antique guns. One caption was, "Indian said only used to shoot one white man."

He raises some cattle and buffalo on the ranch and sells them for meat once a year. He rode his horse to and from school as a kid. He's the last of a dying breed.

Anyway, from there we headed to the Chevellon Canyon where the Rock Art is located. His dog hung out the driver's side window with a paw on the rear view mirror and looked like he was about to fall out, but didn't. We stopped at an old ruin that had its own sweat house, looked more like an oven but I'll take his work for it. He also pointed out "loco weed" which I didn't think really existed, but evidently does. On the dirt road to the canyon, we stopped to see the buffalo that were grazing. Brandy, the dog, jumped out of the car and started to chase the lead bull. The bull charged the dog and Brantley jumped in front of the buffalo with his hands in the air. The buffalo stopped in his tracks. This was all about 10 feet from us (we were still in the car though). That was pretty amazing. To us it seemed either heroic or stupid, but I'm sure Brantely knew what he was doing.

Does this guy look threatening?

We arrived at the Rock Art site. We had to descend a home-made, rickety, metal stair case that was so shaky that OSHA probably wouldn't even bother to inspect it. It took the place of the hand holes in the rocks so I guess it was the lesser of two evils. But once down the stairs and across a swaying, sagging metal bridge across Chevellon Creek we were amazed at the number of petroglyphs carved in the rocks.

This site has the most rock art in all of Arizona. They were so many, so varied and so clear. Brantely and Brandy led us over the rocky shore to point out the artwork on both sides of the narrow canyon. The art work, along with the artifacts, dated from 800-1000AD. This site was a very nice surprise and a real treat.

From the ranch we headed to the town of Snowflake to stay in a B&B there called the Heritage Inn. I told Brantely that we were heading there and he asked if we had any relatives there. I said no, but it turns out he did. In fact, the B&B used to be his uncle's house. Brantely is related to the Flakes (Flake as in Snow and Flake, the two men who founded the town) Snowflake was founded as a Mormon town in the late 1800's and is still 60+% Mormon. Brigham Young had sent out some men to find suitable, arable land and after finding no water in much of the area of NM and AZ, stumbled on a large ranch with water and land for sale. They bought a large parcel of land and then sold plots to church members who farmed the land and lived in the town of Snowflake. The Inn is owned by a nice couple. She is a Brit and he is from Las Vega, an unlikely duo.
Day Two - We left Snowflake and headed towards the Petrified Forest National Park (once again, the only thing good about getting old is that lifetime get-in free pass for the national parks. I'm sure we've already saved enough to buy a walker and a wheelchair.) I was not sure what to expect, except the unexpected. When I think of a forest I think of standing trees. Well, in this case the trees may have been standing at one point, but were all knocked down over the millennium by wind and oceans. When covered with layers of sand and water, silica seeped through the bark of the submerged trees and converted the cellulose in the tree to stone. Other metals seeped in too and converted to stone, so you have slices of tree that contain different types of stone. They are laying all over the barren area (looks like the Badlands) and some can be seen sticking out of the sides of formations still in the process of being exposed. Many of the petrified trees had been carried off before the area was protected and they say that they still lose 1 ton of petrified wood per month now. Their video of the area shows a guy getting arrested for picking up a stone. Outside the park you can buy petrified wood that was found on private land.

Bill took his life in his hands to take this one of the Agate Bridge.

From there we headed east into Gallup, New Mexico, stopped at MacDonalds, then headed north to Colorado. All day the wind had been fierce and we had heard the I-40 had been closed between Flagstaff and Winslow due to sand storms. Luckily that was in the opposite direction from where we were heading. But, we still hit tremendous sand storms blowing across the highway. At times we could barely see and had to almost come to a stop. It was like a snowy white out with sand. It wasn't til after we got home that Sarah noticed that the painted logo on the hood of their Beamer had been sand-blasted back to bare metal.
But we finally reach the town of Cortez, CO, then up to the top of Mesa Verde to the lodge. It was so windy and cloudy that we couldn't see much scenery. We ate dinner in the lodge and could hear and feel the wind rattling the windows. The whole room seemed to shake from the wind. Bill and I both had rather chewy buffalo steaks. I had eaten buffalo burgers before. I was expecting a nice tender cut, but it had a little too much gristle, even for me. Then off to bed for our tour of Mesa Verde the next morning.
Day Three - Day three started out a little confused. The lodge had just recently opened and the new help really wasn't up on the different packages that were offered for tours. We finally got everything squared away and were met by our tour guide, Marty, a semi-retired veterinarian. We got into his van, he stopped at the exit of the parking lot and told us that he normally starts the tour at that point for people to see the layout of the mesa but we really couldn't see much because we were in the middle of a BLIZZARD. The weather changed all morning from windy to snowy to sunny to snowy to windy, etc. It gave the whole tour a different ambiance. Marty was very knowledgeable about the history and archaeology of the area. He explained the damage done by a series of forest fires (caused by lightening) from the mid-90s up to 2002. The types of trees that burned, mostly Junipers, take hundreds of years to reach maturity and that the reseeding of the trees was only done naturally by the wildlife in the area. We will not see these trees again in our lifetime. The elevation was between 8100 and 8400 feet so getting around took a bit of an adjustment.
The main part of the tour was to visit and understand the dwellings and to see the progression of life from living in underground pit houses, above ground stone houses, adobe walled houses and finally the large cliff dwellings that dot the walls of the canyons.
Here is the Square Tower house. A moment after Bill took this picture the wind blew a snow storm up the canyon.

The most impressive part was climbing down off the mesa top to the cliff dwellings at Cliff House, climb up and down replica, wooden ladders to get to the different levels of the "town" and then climb out over a chain of rocks and wood ladders that took us through a crevice for about 100 feet back to the top of the mesa. Bum leg and all, Judy made it through all these descents and climbs.
Here's a view of Cliff House from the top of the mesa.

Getting out was a bit of a challenge.

It was really fascinating to stand on one side of the canyon and look across to the other and see numerous cliff dwellings everywhere up and down the walls on the other side. Click on the photo to see the people standing on the top left to give an idea of the size.

Like the Sinaqua in the Sedona area, the Anasazi, just sort of moved out of their homes and headed somewhere else around 1300 AD. We don't know why, for sure, or where they went. They probably left due to a prolonged drought and eventually merged with other tribes further south in NM, AZ or Mexico. As an aside, the name Anasazi, means "ancient ones" or "ancient enemies" in Navajo. The Anasazi descendants, the Hopi, Zuni and other pueblo Indians wanted their own term to describe their ancestors, so they tried to come up with a better name. Unfortunately, the closest thing that archaeologists could come up with, that not everyone likes, is "Ancestral Puebloans".

Day Four - The storm cleared overnight and the moon was so bright I thought the sun was coming up. I stood on our balcony for a while at 3am to see if I could spot any of the deer who had passed through earlier in the evening.

From Mesa Verde, we headed west to another Anasazi site called Hovenweep in southeast Utah. On the way, we passed through some beautiful countryside which was a combination horse country and mesa country. Hovenweep was one of the last sites of the Anasazi sites constructed. It is mostly made up of towers that were probably used as lookout towers to protect and defend their crops. There are some residential sites but mostly towers. It is felt that by this time, late 13th century, there was actually warfare between tribes and that defense was more of an issue than before. There is a very nice walk around the canyon.

Then it was only 275 miles or so to get home (but we did pick an hour due to time zones). It was pretty uneventful until I had to use the facilities at the MacDonalds in Tuba City. This is in the middle of the Hopi Reservation which is in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. I waited a while for the stall to free up until we realized that it was unoccupied. Some kid had locked the door from the inside and crawled under the door to get out. I had to get another kid to crawl under and open it up for me. Everything is an adventure out in the wild west.

Rafting the Colorado (OK, floating the Colorado)

2010-04-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons to go to Page was to take a 4 hour easy float down the Colorado. Had we not gone to Antelope Canyon in the morning, this would have been the absolute highlight of the trip. As it was, it was very impressive and we enjoyed it. It starts with an underground bus ride down to the base of the Glen Canyon Dam. We had a pontoon boat that held about 25 people sitting in the middle and on the pontoons. The guide, Kyle, pointed out wildlife and explained a bit about the geology of the area, although he had trouble pronouncing the word "geologists". He also regaled the audience with tales of his wild high school days camping, swimming and sort of trashing the area. The trip ended at Lee's Ferry where the Grand Canyon officially begins. There is a line across the river with orange balls on it indicating mile zero of the canyon. Lee was a Mormon who was implicated and convicted of involvement in the Mountain Meadow massacre of Arkansan pioneers by a group of Mormons and Paiute indians. The Mormons were retaliating against anyone from Arkansas for injustices against them in Arkansas. (there was a lot going on at the time between the rest of the US and Utah). John D. Lee and a couple of his cohorts dressed as Paiute but were recognized during the seige so they decided to assasinate all the pioneers, about 120 men, women and children, except for a few very young children. They attempted to cover it up but were eventually exposed and brought to justice. But, I digress.....

Here are some pictures that either Pam or I took. In fact, some of the photos from Antelope were Pam's too.

Beautiful views of the Navajo Sandstone walls in Glen Canyon as the Colorado works its way toward the Grand Canyon.

Our intrepid guide, Kyle.

Cleveland Rocks....

2010-04-23T15:32:00.001-07:00

We are in Cleveland for a wedding. I've made a bunch of posts lately. To read them chronologically, scroll down to April 21 and read up from there.

BTW, just to prove we were actually in Cleveland, here are a couple of memories of the trip.

Russell and Christina leaving the church to a shower of bubbles and a bit of rain.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the "Mistake on the Lake" next to it. (I think they still call it that...) Anyway, they have two major league stadium in downtown and we have a beautiful waterfront in Boston with a new courthouse.

Antelope Canyon - Page, AZ

2010-04-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

After the hike to the ruins, we decicded to take off the next morning and go to Page, AZ. Page is about 160 miles north of Sedona at the edge of Lake Powell where the Colorado river really begins to work its way through the Grand Canyon. We made a quick plan to visit Antelope Canyon and take a leisure river raft ride down the Colorado. This post will deal with the Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon is defined as a slot canyon. I guess that means it has been carved out over the millions of years and can barely be seen except for a slot or slit at the top. In fact, these were not even discovered until relatively recently. There are two Antelope Canyons, the Upper and Lower. The Upper has more of an opening at the top so light can come in and bounce off the eroded walls. The Lower has a more narrow opening at the top, so briliant spots of light can come in, but only when the sun is strong and high in the sky. We visited the Upper Canyon. Below are some photos. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

You enter via a "slot" to get into the canyon. It's a little intimidating at first.

There are little stairways that take you from one level to another. Kind of a tight squeeze and looking into the darkness is a bit scary. But it opens up.

Sometimes you have to take a ladder to get to another level. The holes on the left of the ladder were the hand-holes used before the ladders went in during the 90's. They only had the holes and ropes to make their way through the canyon. There was a flash flood through the canyon in the 90's and about 12 tourists drowned. Now, they have ladders for quicker entry and exit.

Our guide, Curtis, brought his guitar along and sang. The sound in the canyon was mystical and sort of comforting. The evening before we had stopped at the entrance and the woman at the booth, whose name was Dixie, told us it was too late in the day to get good photos of the Lower canyon and we should just come back in the morning to visit the Upper canyon. She told us to ask for Curtis. I asked if she was related to Curtis and she said they were in the same clan. It turns out Curtis' girl friend's brother is dating Dixie's daughter. Got that?

The actual canyon is indescribable, so I won't try...at least not at this point.

36 hours in Sedona

2010-04-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

After dropping the Bronchuks at the shuttle for Phx, we planned how we could cram as much as possible into the next 24-36 hours for Matt, Emily and Mike and Pam. Matt and Em had plans to head to Monument Valley on the next afternoon, so decided on a hike and a couple of Jeep adventures.

We started with Soldiers Pass trail. This is a beautiful trail with several unusual features, like the Devil's Kitchen and the Seven Sacred Pools. It has great views of the canyon walls and meanders over the red rocks along a wooded path.

From there we quickly jumped into the Jeep for a ride to the Honanki ruins. These are a set of Sinaqua ruins that are maintained by the Pink Jeep tour company. There are no docents, just the guides from Pink Jeep. We had the impression that the Pink Jeep guide at the reception office thought that I was an illegal guide. (Maybe Pam saying that I was a great guide gave her that impression.) Anyway, she followed us all the way up the trail to the ruins, eavesdropping on us and pretending to sweep the path with a broom. Pretty weird.

The next morning, we got an early jump on the Pink Jeep tours that populate the Broken Arrow trail. We climbed Submarine Rock, got up to Chicken Point, went around the Carousel and then down the Staircase. We all had a great time and there was hardly any damage to the skid plates.

After Broken Arrow, Matt and Emily headed out for Monument Valley and the rest of us made a lunch to join Bill and Sarah on a search for ruins in a canyon near Honanki. It was an up and down sandy, trail for about a mile until we reached the old dead tree. This told us to go off the trail and climb to the base of the ruins, high up in the Loy Canyon walls. We stopped for lunch under a shady overhang.

After lunch a few of us tried to climb up to investigate the ruins. First we had to find the trail. After a couple of false starts we found a trail that climbed over some slick rock, then one would have to find which crevice to work through to get to the next level, etc. Needless to say we did not all make it. Mike was the only one to get to the ruins. The rest of us chickened out. Congratulations, Mike. Here is a photo of the cliff. If you click on the photo you may see the ruins beneath the overhang and just above the tree tops.

Verde Valley Railroad and the Noble Invasion

2010-04-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

When Mike and Jane Bronchuk visited us, we were looking for something different to do. We had heard that the Verde Valley Railroad trip was fun so we decided to try it. Prior to that, our friends from Walpole, Pete and Ann Brundrett spent a couple of nights with us too. It was Pete's 60th b-day and he wanted to see the Grand Canyon. So, we invited them to use our place as a rest stop on their way up/back from the canyon. They really enjoyed the canyon and Pete and I took a nice hike in Sedona while Ann did a little shopping. When they left to spend a few days in Scottsdale we gave them a list of things they could do like visit the Desert Botanical Garden to see the variety of flora in the southwest.

Meanwhile we did a little off-roading with Mike and Jane. We took them to one of our favorite picnic areas up near Sycamore Canyon. This is the road where we saw the dead steer from a previous post. Jane was a little nervous being in the passenger seat and looking over the edge of the dirt road. She didn't want to get too close to the rim of the little canyons we enjoy. But they were blown away by the scenery.

So, we decided to take the railroad trip. This is a 4 hr train trip from Cottonwood to Perkinsville along the Verde River through the Verde River Valley. The train originally existed to get miners and ore back and forth between the two areas. It was converted into a tourist attraction a while ago and is really worth the trip. The scenery is spectacular and we were able to spot turkey vultures and golden eagles (too high for a photo). We even saw a school of fish in the clear waters of the Verde River. Here are a couple photos that may not do it justice.

Before the Bronchuks had left the building, the Nobles arrived. Mike, Pam, Matt and fiance, Emily arrived friday evening. We invited the Sullivans and had a birthday party for Mike N. A nice round number of 10 for pizza. Judy sat on Mike's cake (old story. if you don't know it, you haven't been listening.) It was a great night. Then 8 of us crashed around the house. Mike and Pam in the pullout couch, Matt and Em on an air mattress, Mike and Jane in their BR and Tony and Judy in theirs.

Mike and Pam had met Matt and Emily in Phoenix thursday afternoon. Matt and Em came from LA. After getting their luggage, they went directly to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. On their way out, they bumped into some people who sounded like they came from Boston. They started a conversation and found out a little about each other. It turns out the other couple was from Walpole. They found out that the other couple had just come from Sedona and that the Nobles were on their way to Sedona. The other couple eventually decided to take a shot at the coincidence and asked if the Nobles were going to stay with the Donovans. Mike and Pam said "Yes!", and the other couple shouted "we just left there!". Yes, folks, it was Pete and Ann Brundrett. They couldn't believe it and I'll bet all of Phoenix heard their shouts of amazement. Unblievable. It wouldn't be too much of a surprise to run into someone and have common friends, but to actually run into someone, pretty randomly, who had just occupied the bed you would sleep in that night.....now, that's an amazing coincidence.

Judy's Amazin' Coincidence

2010-04-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

Recently, our friend Sandy visited for a week. Most of the time I was off painting with friends while Judy and Sandy tooled around in the Jeep. On one of their tours they were parked in a trail head parking lot when a couple in the next car asked how Judy liked the Rubicon. The conversation ensued and at one point the guy asked where they went to college. Judy and Sandy responded in West Virginia. The guy asked was it WVU. The ladies responded that it was a small college named Bethany. At that point the air was shattered by the cries of excitement. The other couple, about 8-10 years younger had both gone to Bethany. Harris and Barbara Bucklin knew all the same places, same professors and it turns out, Barbara was in the same sorority and Harris worked with the husband of Judy's college roommate. They had such a great time remeniscing that they decided to get together for dinner. Judy and Sandy told me that they were coming for drinks and we would go out to Casa Bonita, our favorite little store-front Mexican restaurant. I said, "Man, am I going to have to listen to Bethany stories all night?". Judy reminded me that she has put up with Weymouth stories for 44 years. Anyway, they were a great couple and we had a terrific time. Judy and Sandy are planning a road trip to visit them in VA and reconnect with other old friends. Who knows, maybe we'll look them up on our way to the Outerbanks one of these years.

Another Critter

2010-04-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Linda commented that she'd like to see more wildlife photos. Here's one from the rim of the Colorado high above Horseshoe Bend. It blended in with the red rock there so it was not immediately obvious to the eye. I checked my guide book but couldn't really see what kind of lizard this was. It was about 10" long, head to tail. It didn't seem too skittish as we approached it.

Also, a very interesting thing happened tonight. John and Pat Cooke, friends from high school, were passing through Sedona on their way to a conference in Anaheim. We took them for a quick ride around sunset to see the red rocks in their glory. Unfortunately, we dwelt a bit too long over margaritas to get the full effect of the sunset, but we did end up driving home on the wooded dirt road in the dark. We saw one jack rabbit, then later another jack rabbit being chased by a coyote. It veered toward the Jeep while the coyote headed in a different direction. I think we gave that jack rabbit a reprieve to live another day. It all happened quickly but it was pretty cool to see, (strictly from a "true life adventure" point of view).

BTW, if you are not familiar with Horseshoe Bend, here is a shot of it. The Colorado is 1500' below the rim where I took this photo. This is a mile or so below the Glen Canyon Dam. It is a very sandy, sluggish walk from the highway to this overview, mostly uphill on the return trip. There are no guard rails or fences at the edge. It is pretty scary trying to capture the full effect of the horseshoe. Not for the faint of heart.

Local Wildlife

2010-04-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

There is plenty of wildlife out here in Sedona, although much of it keeps to itself during the day. We've seen coyotes, jack rabbits and deer but I thought I'd post a few photos of other critters that I, or our guests, took.

This is a photo of a Gambel Quail that Peggy Wilfong took one morning. We have a covey of quail walking around the yard every day and she chased this one down the street in her PJs to get a good picture. They come through in the morning and afternoon scrounging for seeds and leaves falling off the trees.

While on a hike near the Sacred Pools on Soldier's Pass trail with the Nobles (Mike, Pam, Matt and Emily), we heard a fairly loud noise that sounded like a sheep or goat. It was some kind of critter. We decided to investigate. As we got closer to the pools, the noise increased but as we passed the pool, it decreased. So, it had to be coming from the pool. The light wasn't great but we finally made out the source of the racket. Pam took some pictures and Matt is trying to use the noise as his ring tone. Not sure what type of frog it is, but it was noisy.

One day on one of our Jeep rides to Sycamore Canyon, we noticed what appeared to be a dead steer and a dead calf off the trail. A week or so later, we went through the same area and the steer was still there but the calf was gone. We figured the calf was either alive and kicking or was dead and dragged off by coyotes. A few weeks later we drove through again and decided to check out the steer a bit more. There is not much left after the birds and animals were through with it.

However, fear not, there are a lot of healthy steers and calves out on the range. This is the calving season in the spring, so there are plenty of them out there roaming around with their moms. I think all the calves we have seen were black. They must take after their old man.

Here is a photo of a great blue heron that Pam took on our latest excursion in a raft down the Colorado near the Glen Canyon dam. I'll post something about that trip later. There were 6 or more herons on a couple of trees along the banks of the Colorado as it cut its way through Glen Canyon. There were several nests which accomodated a number of off-spring

This is also the time when the snakes start to come out to warm themselves. This gopher snake was stretched across the road on one of our back woods trails. It was very sluggish and we couldn't get it to move off the road. It covered the whole road so I didn't want to run over it. We tossed a few small rocks at it and it finally started to slowly slither off into the brush. This photo doesn't really show it, but others show clear bulges in several places in the snake. We think it was in the process of digesting its lunch.

Lastly, we are seeing more lizards now. We have a few living under the back steps that scamper around but we see bigger ones out on the trails. The photo below is a Black-Collared lizard that we saw on a hike with the Sullivans and Nobles. It was sunning itself on the red rock. According to our Audubon Guide book this one grows to 6-13" long. So, if that includes the tail, this one is full grown.

Works in Progress (WIPs)

2010-04-12T08:30:00.001-07:00

As usual, we are having a lot of fun with guests and other local friends and I haven't had too much time for painting. But, I have squeezed in some time and and have posted a few new works in the slide show.
When Curt, Bill and I made a trip to the Grand Canyon in late February, I was determined to try my hand at a landscape of the Canyon. The work below is from a photo I took. It was quite a challenge getting this far with it and it may be done. I will stare at it a bit for a while to see what I would need to do to complete it. I am anxious to try another one, but I think I would go with a bigger canvas. This one is 12x16.

The next painting is one I did in "plein air" along Oak Creek at Grasshopper Point. This is a spot just at the beginning of Oak Creek Canyon north of Sedona. Painting outdoors has its Perils (I'll post a few other examples later). The perils for this one were crossing the creek over rocks while carrying my equipment and ferocious wind. The creek is very high now due to snow melting and flowing downhill from Flagstaff. There was a log partway across some water to a rocky island where I wanted to set up. But the log was pretty shakey and didn't go all the way across. I couldn't see myself jumping with my paints, easel, etc. So, I had to jump from rock to rock to get across. It wasn't far, but when you are carrying stuff and the rocks are shifting, it was far enough. I pictured myself crashing into the rocks in the creek and breaking a few bones. Once on the little rocky island, I had to hold the easel so it wouldn't blow over. But that's what painting outdoors is all about.
This one still needs some study. But, at least you see that I haven't thrown my paints out.

The Wilfongs Arrive

2010-03-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

This week, Judy's cousin, Tom Wilfong and his wife, Peggy, are enjoying the sites of Sedona. Tom, Peg and their two daughters, Rachel and Elizabeth visit us every Thanksgiving and we spend a week together at the OBX, every other summer, so this is a nice change for them to experience the southwest. After a "welcome" margarita, we took them on a ride to a couple of our favorite spots. For example, Cathedral Rock at Red Rock Crossing.

As JeepN and Hiking are big parts of our life out here, we took them on a ride and up some dusty trails. Tom and Peg really enjoyed the Jeep trek across, down and up the Diamondback Gulch. The scenery is just outstanding. Besides the fun of the gulch there are tremendous vistas and views of some of the local wild life.

We've been taking some hikes too. Today, Tom and I did the Upper Chimney Rock trail and encountered a number kids working on the trail as part of AmeriCore. They were doing a great job. While we hiked, Judy and Peg went shopping. The other day, we all took the Little Horse trail. Judy, Tom and I wanted to get to the top of the trail at Chicken Point. Peg decided to catch some rays and wait for us. The views were great from the top. Tom was anxious to tell Peg that there were horses at the top tied to some wooden thing that had branches attatched to it. I guess being from New Jersey, he'd have trouble recogonizing TREES.

Below is one final photo of the Wilfongs on the trail to the Twin Buttes. Remind you of SNL?

Stanton Arizona - Ghost Town

2010-03-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Last friday we took another road trip to check out the old ghost town of Stanton, Arizona. Because Stanton is my middle name, Sarah Sullivan thought it appropriate that we visit that town. The trip got off to an unauspicious beginning in the town of Clarkdale when I saw the flashing lights of an on-coming cop car at the same time I saw the sign for the 15 MPH speed limit. Needless to say, the cop made a quick U-turn and pulled me over. He said I was going more than 20 MPH above the speed limit which meant I could do jail time in Arizona. After he checked me out for priors and saw that my rap sheet was clean he let me go with a written warning. Then he proceeded to comment on the Jeep and he suggested a back road route to Sedona that I should try.

The road to Prescott and beyond was a beautiful trip over the Mingus Mountains and then across Pleasant Valley and over another mountain range. There were tons of switchbacks and great views over the valley. We finally made it to the road that leads to the ghost towns of Stanton, Octave and Weaver. It was a maintained dirt road that passed by herds of cattle and horses.

The town of Stanton has been converted into an RV camp whose owners have stabilized the three remaining buildings and allow visitors. They even left the bullet holes in the wall of the Opera House. Stanton was originally named Antelope Station until Charles P Stanton came along and devised his plan to take over the town and the mining activities. Stanton managed to cause dissension amongst some of the local business owners, got one to kill the other and then the killer was sent to jail (3:10 to Yuma?). So Stanton took over the town, became its post master and named it after himself. That lasted only a couple of years until he was shot for allegedly insulting the sister of a gang member named Cristero Lucero. The town's life span was about 20 years. There are still posted claims for mining in the area and there is a little mining activity among the people living in the area.

From Stanton we tried to find Octave, but it appears that the remnants of the town have been fenced off probably due to some new mining going on. Up the road from Octave is the old town of Weaver. All that remains there is a cemetary full of unmarked graves of miners and claim jumpers along with a delapidated house and some rusted out mining equipment.

It really was a fascinating look and reminder about a time in our country and about the people who settled the west.

3 Days of Plein Air (outdoor) painting

2010-03-19T07:14:00.000-07:00

This past week I was able to join Michael Chesley Johnson's Plein Air workshop. As I mentioned last year, Michael runs Mentoring Workshops in Sedona where he provides lodging, lessons and an artistic environment for his students. I was able to join them as a day-student. He had two other students, Merrill from Shutebury,Ma. and Randy fron San Diego. Merrill worked in pastel and Randy and I worked in oils.
On the first morning we meet at Michael's house where he introduces the students to all aspects of painting outdoors, including dealing with the elements, equipment and approach. The most important thing, whether you are just looking for future references or going for a finished product, is to relax and have fun.

The first morning we went to the creek by Cathedral Rock, which you may have seen in previous posts. Michael did a quick demo looking down the creek away from the rock formations. After that we spread out around the area and worked for a few hours. I worked on a similar scene looking down the creek while Merrill and Randy tackled Cathedral Rock. They both did a good job capturing the colors and structure of the formation. I'll post my results when I finish it.

The next day, Michael did a critique of the previous day's work in his kitchen. Very cozy. Then we went to a spot high above Cathedral Rock called the landing area. Michael did a quick demo and then we all found a spot out of the wind to work on our own masterpieces.
On the third day, we met at the library and packed everything into the Jeep for a day of painting and a bit of off-roading. I took the group out to the Diamondback Gulch area as there are some good views of the many of the well known formations, but from the reverse side. After painting for a few hours near the old cattle ramp, we took off on a ride through the gulches. If you remember my post from the first time I took this trail, I'll just say that it comes much easier now. I know the trail and I know what my Jeep can do. I think everyone had a good time and I look forward to taking another group on a ride.

Seeking the Sun

2010-03-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

For those of you who may be jealous of the great weather we normally have here in Sedona, I will say that it was so lousy the past number of days that we headed to Tucson to find the sun.
So, Judy, Jacques, Claire and I decided on the spur of the moment to head south. The road from Sedona towards Phoenix is normally very beautiful with great mountain views and plenty of cactus. On Tuesday, it was raining and snowing very hard and the huge semis threw tons of water on our windshield making it difficult to see anything. But once we made it through Phoenix we could see the sky brightening a bit towards Tucson.
From our hotel, we walked to a well known Mexican restaurant called El Charro. The portions were huge and we walked out thinking we would never have to eat again. That thought ended with our free full breakfast at the hotel.
From there we went to one of my favorite places, the San Xavier del Bac Mission on the nearby Indian reservation. This is an absolutely beautiful, white-washed mission that was once the northern most jewel of a string of Spanish missions in Mexico. It has undergone a major restauration by a number of local and international artisans and is in great shape now. It is only a few miles outside of Tucson and is always worth the trip to visit.

Next we found our way to the Sonoran Desert Museum. This is an outdoor combination botanical garden and zoo. It is loaded with all types of plant life and many animals that are indigineous to the area. It was very crowded with a combination of school kids and old timers (I guess we are in the latter group). This "museum" is in the middle of the Saguaro National Park which has millions of those giant cacti that we saw so often in the old cowboy movies. I loved it. Another highlight was a demonstration of the habits of Harris Hawks who are the only raptors that actually live and hunt as families or teams. It was fascinating as well as very informative.

Michael Chesley Johnson Pastel Workshop

2010-03-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

On Saturday afternoon, we completed the 2nd half day of a 2 session Intro to Pastel at the Sedona Art Center. The workshop was lead by Michael Chesley Johnson, a well-known and highly regarded artist and frequent contributor to such magazines as Artists Magazine and the Pastel Journal.
This was an "intro" course and Michael did a very good job in explaining the basics without getting too basic. Bonnie and Alexandra were the other two students. All of us had experience with other mediums but we were relatively new to pastels. Bonnie used acrylics and like to paint animals and Alexandra painted on fabric.

Michael spent the first hour or so explaining the different types of paper, use of washes, types of pastels, mounting, framing, storing, etc and answered all of our questions. He also provided numerous resources for any other questions we would have.
For the rest of that session and through the following session, we would paint using Canson paper, Wallis paper with an alcohol wash and, finally, art spectrum paper. This was a very good exercise to give us an idea of the texture of the different papers, how to use the wash and the feel of the soft and hard pastels on the different surfaces.
For each painting we followed his basic process of: Analyze the Shapes, Outline the big shapes on the paper, Block in the Average color and value, Adjust big colors and values, Establish extremes, Break big shapes into smaller shapes, and Refine and adjust.
I found this to be a very helpful and concentrated workshop. Michael got a lot across in the time frame and we all picked up a lot of information and got started on 3 pastels.
Here are my feeble efforts.

Cabin at Slide Rock Park - I should probably start this one all over again.

Red Rocks - I can probably make some more progress on this. This is the one with the alcohol wash.

Still life - My severest critic, Judy, said, "That pitcher is awful!" Did she mean she was full of awe?

Chimney Rock Loop

2010-02-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

We had a few good days this past week between rounds of company. We took advantage of the weather to try a system of trails nearby that we had not done before. At the end of our street is a trail head that leads to a number of other trails. The Thunder Mountain trail runs along the base of Thunder Mountain which runs parallel with the main road through Sedona. These trails are close to neighborhoods so you may see some roof tops and power lines, but around the next bend is wonderful scenery. They are fairly popular with tourists.

Anyway, we took the Thunder Mountain trail to the Chimney Rock trail. There are two loops one can take, the upper or lower Chimney Rock trail. We took the Upper loop the first day. It had some spectacular views but I forgot my camera (even though it is on Judy's list by the garage door). What a shame. Chimney Rock is sort of between the formations near downtown Sedona and the formations toward the south, so you get great views in both directions. It was pretty muddy and fairly steep at times so it took us a couple of hours to make the loop.

The next time we took the cut-off for the lower trail. This trail also had great scenery and was a little easier on the thighs than the upper trail. We've done the lower loop again since the first time and it will definitely go on the list of trails to do for our company. Here are a few photos. Remember, you can double click on the photo to zoom it...

Snow Day

2010-02-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well, it's cold and snowy today so it's time to blog. (If "google" is a verb, then "blog" can be too).

We've had a fun few days since the last blog. Curt and I have taken a number of great hikes - Boynton Canyon and the old ruin along with a hike up Doe Mountain. We also took another drive down the Diamondback Gulch road (see last's years blog). We encountered 3 people who had rented ATVs, one of which broke down halfway up the last climb out of the gulch. We helped him shove it to the side of the trail and offered him a ride to the rental office but they decided to stay together and double up. I'm sure they had to walk up some of the other climbs.

My sister Carol, from California, arrived on saturday for a few days. She flew into Flagstaff so we drove up there to pick her up. She had a pretty bumpy flight as the weather was pretty bad. She is leaving today and Flag is snowed in, so she'll take the van to Phoenix and fly home from there.

On Saturday afternoon, I took a half day workshop on Intro to Pastel at the Sedona Art Center with Michael Chesley Johnson. It will finish up next saturday so I'll let you know how it went next week. I like the approach he is taking. We are all working from the same reference and following a process to get to completion. So far, so good.

Despite the shakey weather we had a great day on Sunday. In the morning we took the Jeep over the Broken Arrow trail. Carol and Curt had a blast (as did I).
Then, the 4 of us took the short hike into Fay Canyon and ate lunch on the boulders at the trail end. We got hailed on when walking out. It was an interesting experience. From there we went to the Sinaqua ruins at Honanki. Got hailed on there too. We had the place to ourselves. Who else would go out in this weather? As usual, we took the back trail home from Honanki and encountered lots of slick rock and mud (see Jeep photo).
This back road gives us great panoramic views from the Red Rocks of Sedona to the snow capped mountains to the south. Although it was a bit stormy, from time to time an opening would appear in the clouds and throw sunlight across the landscape and light up some of the red rocks. It was really impressive. Here are a couple of Curt's photos.

A GRAND Day!

2010-02-18T06:22:00.000-08:00

Where else can you just decide on the spot to go to the GRAND Canyon just to take a few photos. That's what we decided to do Tuesday night. So, Bill Sullivan, Curt and I got up at 5am the next morning to catch some of the morning sun on the Canyon. We drove through Oak Creek Canyon in the pitch black. It is so dark here as there is no light from any populated area and all lighting in Sedona must be pointed downward. The night sky is unreal. (but I digress). We stopped in Williams for a quick bite and then north to the Canyon. Using my Senior Lifetime pass we saved the $25 entry fee, what a deal.
We were able to drive the Jeep along the Rim Road and stop wherever we wanted. (After March 1st, this road is only accessible via shuttle bus.) Sunrise was 7:15 and we got there about 8:45, so the sun had come up a bit but there still plenty of shadows cast in the canyon. We all took about 60 photos. There were just so many opportunities around every bend. I'll include just a couple. I am determined to try to do a large landscape of morning at the Grand Canyon.

From there our GRAND tour went to the Grand Falls. We were there last year and it was such a surprise that I wanted to detour there while we were in the neighborhood (an 80 mile round trip was in the "neighborhood"). The Little Colorado is fed from snow melt and run-off so we were glad to see that there was some water there. It is an amazing site way off in the middle of the Navajo Reservation. I'm still not sure how the river flows NORTH to the Grand Canyon.
A road just above the falls led across the Little Colorado. I wasn't sure what was under the water, mud or ledge, but figured the only way to find out was to drive in. Curt jumped on some rocks in the river to get a photo of the attempt. It turns out it was pretty solid ledge and pretty shallow. Later when the snow melt fills this river, it is fairly trick to cross.

Day 1 on the trails

2010-02-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo of the new Rubicon's first day on the Broken Arrow trail. It was a good initiation ride. I took Curt out for his first trip on these trails. I bottomed out a number of times on the Staircase and smashed the wiring connector for the trailer hitch. I took off the broken connector and duct taped the lose wiring harness to the trailer hitch. It is a Jeep after all.

End of the road

2010-02-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

We left Amarillo before dawn and got to Sedona before sunset. It was a long day in the saddle. At the end, the Jeep looked like it was "rode hard and put up wet". We were glad to toss back a couple of beers on the Sullivan's deck and watch the sun go down.

We got up early to get a good start and got on I-40 before 7am. The Garmin said next turn in 560 miles (or something like that). It is a long haul across North Texas and all of New Mexico. Not much to comment on as the scenery looks a lot like the picture.

We gassed up in Albuquerque and decided to take an early lunch at the Laguna Reservation. Like the Whistle Stop in Texas, we wanted to stop at an off-beat place. We saw hand-made signs on the highway directing us to a place where we could get Fry Bread and Indian Tacos. So we pulled off the interstate and found the little building. The Laguna woman slid the screen window open and we ordered our lunch. She was very nice and friendly and 10 minutes later she slid the window open again and handed us our lunches. Check it out in the photos. It was terrific, if you like that kind of stuff.

We took a little side trip near the town of Grants, east of Gallup, NM. We saw on the map that there was a National Monument called El Morro nearby so we went to check it out. It was such a nice surprise. It is a rock formation in the middle of nowhere that had a deep pool of fresh water that was runoff from the top. The settlers and Indians used to stop there as it was one of the few spots on the trail that they could find water. There are Indian pictographs and settler's carvings in the walls. Two of the women who etched their names in the wall were attacked on the trail and had to return to Santa Fe before trying again. One had actually been shot with an arrow. And I thought our trip was an adventure.

After we left El Morro, we passed through the Zuni Reservation. No photos allowed on the reservation. The highway runs through town so one can get a look at the homes. Pretty rough looking accomodations. We did see a number of mud-ovens with people cooking their Zuni bread outdoors.

BTW, we did 3076 miles from Walpole to Sedona, via the southern route.

Riders on the Storm

2010-02-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it from Tyler to Amarillo without too much trouble. As expected, it snowed overnight and dumped 3+ inches on the ground. Curt cleaned off the Jeep as Judy and I finished our coffee and we left around 7am.

We had the roads pretty much to ourselves as we headed towards Dallas. The road was beautuful but we saw many cars and trucks in the ditch. The bridges were very iced over. It was pretty intense for a few hundred miles.

We circled around Dallas and headed north then northwest. About 40 miles north of Wichita Falls we stopped for lunch at a local road house called Whistle Stop. The parking lot was loaded with muddy pickups, the dress code was overalls, the waitress knew everyone there and the smoking room was bigger than the non-smoking room. We ordered fried catfish, chicken fried steak with gravy and baked potato with chili and devoured it all. We thought we would never eat again, but we had room for margaritas and chips when we got to Amarillo.

BTW, does it look like we are crowded in the Jeep? So far, we are still speaking but we still have another day.

Winter Storm Advisory

2010-02-12T03:39:00.000-08:00

The forecast yesterday was for a storm to come in to Louisianna from the west leaving a 3-6 inches of snow. We figured we could still visit the national park and head west and not be in too much trouble and that most of the snow would come at night. It worked out fine for us. We ran into some snow on the way across Louisianna but it didn't really start coming down until we were almost to Tyler, Texas. It is snowing pretty good now (5:45 am) but I think we will drive out of the storm as we head NW to Amarillo today. We seem to pick the weeks with storms to travel west. Last year I-40 was closed for a few days due to snow/ice. This year it is I-20 that has the problem.

Vicksburg

2010-02-11T19:02:00.001-08:00

The main reason to head further south on our voyage west was to visit the Civil War Battlefield at Vicksburg. We have hit some of the key battlefields in the east but this was the first time we stopped this far west.

The battle of Vicksburg was key to the North because whoever controlled Vicksburg controlled the Mississippi. Lincoln wanted it taken as the highest priority. The Confederate general, Pemberton, surrendered on July 4th 1863, the same day as Confederate defeat at Gettysburg. It wasn't until fairly recently that the folks in Vicksburg actually celebrated Independance Day.

The city itself is fairly run down. We took the Scenic Route around the town and ran into a few seedy neighborhoods, some right next to the upscale B&B's. Can you see the cannon on the lawn in the picture to the left? The town is nestled among many rolling hills and ravines which made it nearly impossible to conquer. Grant finally won the battle after many unsuccessful attempts by locking the city down in a seige.

We toured the national park using a cd we bought for our self-guided tour. Unlike some other battle fields that have been cleared of trees to replicate their original state at the time of the battle, Vicksburg is heavily populated with trees that were planted in the 1930's before it was a national park. This makes it a bit difficult to visualize some of the individual battles that took place. But, it was still worth the detour and it was easy to imagine what it took to bring about a northern victory.

A very interesting display was the Union gunboat, Cairo, which was sunk by a mine before the battle started. It was lost in the Mississippi mud until the 60's when it was raised to the surface and reconstructed.

On the Road Again, again!

2010-02-11T03:50:00.000-08:00

Well the time to get on the road had come. The Super Bowl was history, the Jeep was loaded to the gills and the tank was full. We set out monday morning for New Jersey where we visited with Judy's cousin, Jim, his wife Deb and their son, Andrew. We had a very good, although short, visit. We all played Wie and had a blast. It was my first time playing. It is very humbling to be skunked by a 4 year old.
From there we headed south to NC to freeload off the Hathaways. We were picking up my brother-in-law, Curt, who is coming with us to spend a week in AZ. The drive to their home was pretty uneventful despite the record snow that had fallen in the Mid-Atlantic states, until Lady Garmin had us take the loop road around Baltimore. This is where we saw that the snow plowing leaves a bit to be desired. Lanes would just disappear as the plow must have meandered along the highway. Traffic was crawling and we lost a lot of time taking the safe route. We then encountered some driving rain before arriving in Weddington, NC around 6:30.
Curt and Terry had prepared a great meal of pasta with broiled tomatoes and great steaks. Kaleigh was away at UNC. She just got back from a full semester at the University of Ghana, yes, Ghana as in Ghana, Africa. And, guess what, she made the X-country team and competed in meets. What an experience.
Kelsey is a junior in a new high school. There is a new HS at the end of their street, so she had to go there. ALL of her friends are at the old HS. She is pretty despondent about it. But I think we cheered her up by saying, "Who needs friends" and "Friends are overrated". She has submitted some of her art work to be accepted in the Governor's School program this summer. She's pretty talented. Here are a couple of photos. The one on the left looks like an intreresting exercise and the one on the right is a Klimt.

We left NC at 6:45. After a stop at Starbucks we made our way through SC, GA, AL and into MS. We will visit the battlefield at Vicksburg today. The forecast is for a winter storm coming through, so we will hightail it to Texas around noon and hope we miss the brunt of the storm. More to follow.

Coming Back to Life

2010-01-26T06:58:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while since the last post. We are now in the process of packing for our next adventure back in Sedona. I've had such positive feedback on the blog that I'll do it again. I had no idea so many friends and relatives were following our adventures and antics.
This year we have rented a place from 2/15 to 5/15 so we can skip a bit of the Sedona "winter" and be there for a bit of the warmer weather in May. We leave Walpole on the day after the Super Bowl. We would have liked to watch the Patriots play but, alas, wait til next year. We'll stop in NJ to visit Judy's cousin Jim and family. Last year we saw them in Scranton where young Jim goes to college. From NJ we head back to Charlotte to visit the Hathaways, Curt, Terry, Kaleigh and Kelsey. We'll only spend one night there as we are anxious to get to our final destination. Curt will come with us for a week and share the driving. That will allow us to go a little further each day and keep it to 3 nights.
This year we've made a couple of changes/additions to augment our adventures. First, we upgraded the Jeep. We bought our 3rd "last" Jeep. Our off-roading may not be as harrowing as we upgraded to the Rubicon, the ultimate Jeep off-road vehicle. Also, this year we will finally try Geo-caching. Geo-caching is from the Greek for Geo (compact car) and caching (exchange something for money). So we bought a hand held GPS and will look for stuff as we abandon our vehicle and walk in the wilderness. We were set to try this before Judy broke her leg a few years ago. Should be fun. Check it out at www.geocaching.com.

Well, that's it for now. Stay tuned for upcoming posts.

From the Blackhills to the Badlands to Boston

2009-05-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

After leaving the Little Big Horn Battlefield area, we stopped in Fishspear, SD for the night which is just at the edge of the Blackhills of South Dakota. One of the towns in the area I wanted to visit was Deadwood. Custer had some impact on this town as it was members of his troops who discovered gold in the area which eventually led to the rise of Deadwood, the influx of white miners into the Blackhills and the elimination of the local Indians.
I loved the HBO series called Deadwood which also has been eliminated.
Besides gold, Deadwood is famous for being the place where Wild Bill Hickok was murdered by Jack McCall. Wild Bill was playing poker and holding Aces and Eights when he was shot in the back (of the head). As Deadwood was a territory at the time and there was no real law, a quick trial ensued. McCall was acquited claiming revenge for the death of a brother. The verdict was later overturned and he was eventually hanged for the murder. Calamity Jane is buried next to Wild Bill.

Next on the Badlands tour was the Crazy Horse Memorial near Custer, SD. This is mammoth rock sculpture of Crazy Horse on a horse pointing to his land/people. It has a long way to go to be completed. The work began more than 60 years ago by Korczak Ziolkowski who was from Boston. The face was completed in 1998.

As there is no known photo of Crazy Horse, the image is meant to represent all Indian Warriors. He will be pointing to the land of his people. When asked "where is your land?", Crazy Horse said "my land is where my dead lie buried." The image on the left is the model and the right shows the progress. I don't think I'll live to see it completed.

Not far from Crazy Horse is Mount Rushmore, another place I've always wanted to see. It is pretty impressive but smaller than one might expect. In fact, all of the presidents can fit into Crazy Horse's hair on the Crazy Horse Memorial. Maybe we can add another head someday.

Next we headed for Wall SD for lunch, which gets its notoriety from Wall Drug, a 4 square block, one story emporium. Picture all the tourist shops from any tourist town all crammed into one building. Seems to be a destination spot for some people. I don't get it. But it is near Badlands National Park, so we took the Badlands loop road to get one last use of our lifetime, senior National Park pass. What a surprise. This place was amazing. The landscape really was from another world. The area had been a sea, then a jungle then a desert. Very little vegitation and rock formations that looked like dripping sand castles. Even though we had a 6 hour ride to Sioux Falls ahead of us, we kept stopping at each overlook. Here are a couple of shots.

Then there is the obligatory rainbow shot. This one is a double. You can just see the colors of a second rainbow to the right.

Well, folks, that will about do it for this particular tour. By the time some of you read this we will be home. The whole 3+ months has been an unbelievable time for us and I'm glad some of you didn't mind me sharing it with you. I was reluctant to do a blog, but I got into it and enjoyed it myself. I look at it like a reverse answering machine, you can get messages from me without having to actually talk to me. See you all soon. By the way, I will have a showing of any paintings I did from this trip in a gallery in Norwood in October. I'll keep you all posted.

Little Big Horn Battlefield National Park

2009-05-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today's history lesson concerns the Little Big Horn Battle, formerly know as Custer's Last Stand. The lesson started when we saw a sign for the Little Big Horn Battlefield Trading Post with logos for Exxon and KFC. Judy said, "I didn't know Colonel Sanders was at the battle of Little Big Horn." We needed to brush up a bit on our history.
I love these things where one never really knows what happened like the Alamo, Little Big Horn, the 17 minute gap in the Watergate tape. I prefer to just go with the myth or legend. But archeologists have done a lot of work in identifying what troops were in what location and how the battle evolved. For example, they can tell from shell casings they found whether they were Indian of soldier shells, whether the soldiers were in an organized line or chaotic retreat and they can associate casings with a particular rifle to know where a soldier travelled on the battle field. It is really fascinating what they are discovering. A good book that includes a lot of the forensic analysis of the battle is "Son of the Morning Star" by Evan S. Connell. A bit dry but fascinating.

I've always wanted to visit this place and try to relive the battle. We bought an auto-tour cd at the visitor center which was really worth it. The park is laid out pretty well with a loop that brings you to where Reno made the initial attack to where Reno and Benteen tried to find Custer and finally to "Custer Hill" where 200+ members of the 7th Cavalry met their demise. It is pretty desolate but there are many hills and "coulees", which I think are like drainage gulches, that led to the Little Big Horn river. You can see that a lot of the action would have been hidden from view because of the rolling terrain.

Here are a few photos of key areas in the area.

This is the view of the Little Big Horn river from a knoll on the battlefield. The Indian camp would have been just beyond the trees. Custer had sent General Reno to attack the Indian encampment. Reno's men were repulsed and this is the view that he would have had as the Indians attacked and attacked his retreating troops. Those are the Big Horn mountains way off in the distance.

This pictures shows the markers where soldiers fell when trying to rejoin Custer and the remaining troops on what is now Custer Hill. You can see the monument in the top left. Custer had split up his troops and a group of them were trying to regroup, but to no avail. Some made it to join Custer, but, you know the rest of the story...PS, I love the Big Sky you get in the west.

In the 90's, the park was renamed from Custer's Battlefield to Little Big Horn Battlefield and a memorial was set up to honor the native Americans who died in the battle. They were just trying to defend their way of life. I guess they didn't get the memo about Manifest Destiny. It is a beautiful monument. There are names of all the Indians who are known to have died there. They are listed by the tribe they belonged to along with Indian drawings of parts of the battle.

The national park is in the Crow Reservation and there are some horse ranches interspersed throughout the battlefield. It is really cool to see the horses grazing freely throughout the park.

Also, the place was very quiet, partly because there weren't many people there. The only sound we could hear came from a variety of song birds. There were no trees to be found but the birds were hidden in the long grass so we couldn't see where the sounds came from.

I really enjoyed this stop on our return home.

For more information on the Little Big Horn Battlefied, click here

Lewis and Clark Trail

2009-05-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

When we left Yellowstone Park, I found myself driving north then west. This didn't seem like the right direction to get home. But, we were trying to experience a little bit of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I've always been amazed at the courage and determination it took to venture into an unknown land with very little knowledge of where one was heading. However, we did feel a bit like Lewis and Clark as we weren't sure where we were heading or where we would find food. We were starving, hadn't eaten in a couple of hours, and had no idea where the nearest MacDonald's was. And yet, we persevered and did what any good explorer and adventurer would do to find food, we settled on Pizza Hut.

So, we visited a few places along their route. First, Great Falls, Mt is a place of importance for them. They were following the Missouri and had to take a few forks in the road so they weren't always sure they were on the right path. But when then hit the falls, which the Indians had told them about, they knew they had taken the correct course. What they didn't count on was 5 sets of falls that forced an 18 mile portage of all their boats and gear. Here are a couple of shots of falls (there are dams there now but they have kept the integrity of the falls)

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The next spot we stopped at was Three Forks where we find the headwaters of the Missouri. In the photo at the right, the Madison River is on my right, the Jefferson River is behind me to form the Missouri on my left. They named the rivers, which previously had not been named, after the president and secretary of state. There wasn't much there but it was still great to stand in that spot

The last stop on this Lewis and Clark 101 tour is a place called Pompey's Pillar. It is a large rock formation along the Yellowstone River which Clark spotted on the return trip and named it after Sacagawea's son, Jean Baptiste Charboneau. Clark had nicknamed him Pomp which might be Shoshone for "little chief". This is the only spot on Lewis and Clark trail that has existing physical evidence of their presence at the spot. Clark carved his name into the rock with the date. See below, left.

OK, that concludes the lecture portion of this blog. But a great book on the subject is Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. Some of you may have read it. I know Kim has.

Yellowstone National Park

2009-05-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

Although the weather has been pretty poor here, Yellowstone park is really outstanding. Some of the main roads are still closed and most of the roads leading to trails are closed due to snow. At the high elevations there are several feet of snow. At the lower elevations, there is very little snow. We experieneced all kinds of weather. Here are just a few photos of what one can see here.

Objects in Mirror are Closer than they appear! A little rain can bring some beautiful scenery. These thermal hot spots are all over the park. This is "Roaring Mountain". Bison grazing in the snow... How about a herd of elk grazing? Looks like they were planted there.

Did you know there was a "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone? These are the falls. So, we are at the ranger station at Old Faithful, and the next eruption is going to be at 4:11, give or take 10 minutes. So, at 4:10, I started my video and this is what I got. BTW, it was blowing snow and we were freezing. Too bad the sky was the same color as Old Faithful.

Re-Surfacing

2009-05-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a busy last week with packing, cleaning and trying to get a few more paintings off the ground. So, I haven't been too good at the blogging. . Anyway, we took one last off-road adventure with Bill and Sarah to one of our favorite loops through cattle ranches, up into some little canyons near Sycamore Canyon and back over to the Red Rocks near the Hunanki ruins. It was a great day and I took many photos of things I had already photograhed. Just so many photo-ops. We finally got to see a reasonable sized snake in our travels. We think it is a gopher snake and Judy saw a few Javelinas before we left Sedona on Monday morning. We left Northview Rd at 7:45 with a destination of Moab, Utah. We wanted to explore Arches National Park and do some more Jeep'N before settling down. We arrived in time to spend a number of hours touring the park and visiting some of the many natural arches. What incredible scenery.

The next day, we took the Jeep over the Gemini Bridges trail. This was a relatively easy trail but we took a few side trips to play a bit on the slick rock. Remebering I had about 3000 miles to cover, I didn't do anything drastic, just a little fun. Here is a photo of the Gmeini Bridges. From there we stopped at a few interesting sites in Canyonlands National Park before taking the Shafer Rd trail back to Moab. Here is the Mesa Arch in Canyonlands NP. The trip down from the very top of the mesa was pretty scary. The swithbacks were very tight and VERY steep. It was the most nervous I had been on any trail, but once through that first 30 minutes of terror, the scenery was absolutely breath-taking. Here is brief video of the landscape after dropping down from the top of Shafer Rd.

We tried to get up early to head for Yellowstone today. It was a long drive. We crossed Utah from south to north, then a bit of Idaho, Wyoming and stopped in Montana. We passed through parts of Yellowstone on our way to our lodging in Gardiner, Montana. Parts of the park are still closed. I never thought of that. The bad news is we can't go all over the park, the good news is that there are very few people here. We almost have it to ourselves. Have seen lots of wild life already and some beautiful rainbows. This is the first thing we saw upon entering the park. Then this guy appeared. There are elk and bison everywhere.

Pastel Session

2009-04-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

When Judy's cousin Bonnie and husband John were here recently, Bonnie and I tried to get out painting one day. Bonnie is an accomplished watercolorist and wanted to try her hand at some plein air red rocks. But, alas, we were having too much fun touring to squeeze that in.
So, instead, Bonnie and I sat down for an indoor pastel session. She had never tried them before and was anxious to do so. We picked a photo of a subject that wasn't too complicated to draw and both did "studies" of the same location on 5x5 pastel paper. As she had never used pastels and I had already done 3, I was the master. Actually, I just took her through the process that Kim took me through to create a quick piece and frame it (thanks, Kim). It was very rewarding to complete something and see the results in a frame. Of course, we could have worked them to death and then not been happy at all with the results.
Here they are. Quite a difference in styles. It is always fun to have several people work on the same scene and see the results. Guess who did which one.

New Photos

2009-04-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some new photos you might find interesting. No real blog, just photos.

Is this where designs for Navajo rugs come from?

Mike Noble had to get in some exercise in Monument Valley

Pam and Judy help me get over a major hump on the Broken Arrow trail.

This view of the Little Colorado River Gorge was impressive.
Here is the first view of the Grand Canyon from Desert View.

Bonnie needs some help getting the close-up shot in the Canyon.

Close up view of the Grand Canyon (sorry about the wind noise in the video)

Road to "Nowhere". The back road to Jerome from Williams, AZ.

Turkey Butt(e)

2009-04-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Friday, we went out with Bill and Sarah on a search for the fire lookout at a place called Turkey Butte. According to our topo maps, this location would give a good overlook of one of the many canyons in the area. To get there, one had to go north to Flagstaff and then come south on backroads. So, we headed to Flag, took route 66 west for a few miles and then went down Woody Mountain road in search of the lookout towers. The first part of the way was on a maintained dirt road. The secondary roads were described as "unmaintained, upaved roads". None of the roads posed a problem for the Jeep or even any SUV. The only problem was when the road turned into a washboard and the Jeep would bounce sideways.

We found the access road to the fire lookout tower at Turkey Butte. It was gated, so we had a quarter mile hike up a steep grade to the tower. At 7500 feet, the air was a bit rare and we were sucking wind. On the way up, we came across an intersting discovery. More on that below. Once at the tower, we were treated to a great view across Sycamore Canyon as well as a view of the Sedona area all the way to Jerome. It was very clear and we could see for miles.
As the travelling was easier than expected, we set out in search of more vistas. Along the trail, we spotted an opening to the right and pulled over and walked to a cliff. What a great surprise. A panaramic view over a rocky ledge toward Sedona. See the photo on the left. We then continued to East Buzzard Point for another terrific view across the canyon to (for those who know the area) Hardings Point and Oak Creek Canyon in the distance. See photo on the right.

We did see a lot of wild life while on this trip. Here are some of the more dangerous critters you could come across.

Speaking of critters, we saw a lot of mule deer, elk and wild turkeys. Some of the mule deer were quite large and one male only had one antler. It really was a place where the "deer and the antelope play". Except for one deer. Above, I mentioned something interesting on the climb to the Turkey Butte lookout tower. On the path up, I noticed in the distance what looked like very white branches sticking up. As we got closer they looked more and more like ribs. Seeing the fur spread all over and the skull and verterbra, we quickly deduced that, sure enough, it was bones. Probably a deer, but it was hard to tell. Most of the body parts were missing. A CSI agent would probably say they were carried away by coyotes. Not sure what attacked the deer, but it was pretty good size as the deer seemed pretty large. The bones were picked clean but the fur looked relatively fresh, so we don't know how long ago the attack took place. Double click on the photo to see the skull and the ribs at the top right.

We kept our eye out for more animals on the drive back. We saw lots of tracks on the road we were on, so we were searching the forest for that one-antlered deer. Judy had spotted most of the animals, so when she told me to stop the Jeep and back up, I figured she saw some more deer. When I didn't see any, I thought she was looking for rocks. But, look below to see what she found along the trail. Not sure what we will do with it, but it makes an interesting souvenir.

Plein Air Painting Postponed

2009-04-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Today, I was supposed to meet local artist Dawn Sutherland to paint at one of the area's many spectacular locations. Dawn is a founding member of the Arizona Plein Air Painters Association. I had met her at the Sedona Art Center and she invited me to go along with her on some painting excursions. She has a gallery in the old high school in Jerome and recently won top awards at the Sedona Art Center and at APAP shows and plein air painting competitions. This is the second time we were supposed to meet, but the weather has been a problem. Today it was overcast and cool, so we bagged it. (The rocks are much better with sunlight and shadows. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) The artists I've met have been very friendly and welcoming. I was looking forward to painting with Dawn. Oh well, next year.

So, I decided to finish off a painting of one of our friends that we met a few weeks ago on one of our Jeep trips through a local ranch. I also finally broke out the pastels that I bought before coming to Sedona and took a crack at one of the iconic rock formations of the area, Cathedral Rock. Just to prove that I am actually doing something besides abusing my Jeep, here are my latest works.

The pastel is mounted in an Ikea frame (thanks for the idea, Kim) and is about 4 3/4 inches square. Pretty small. I'll try to tackle another one today while I feel inspired. As for my friend, I'll let that one percolate a bit to see if it needs anything before I claim victory.

Southern Utah

2009-04-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we planned to go to Monument Valley in southern Utah with Mike and Pam. The day began auspiciously when we heard that snow was forecast for Flagstaff. We left Sedona in a drizzle but by the time we got half way through Oak Creek Canyon, the rain turned to snow and almost white out conditions at the high point in the canyon. We were driving in the clouds. Once we got past Flag, though conditions improved.
We drove through the Sunset Crater loop again and the Nobles were equally impressed with the mile long field of lava that looked as fresh and craggy today as it must have looked 1100 years ago when the volcano erupted. That is a fascinating place.

But the goal was to get to Monument Valley in the early afternoon so we could take their 17 mile self-guided tour. So we carried on.
We got to the new Navajo hotel called The View . It was aptly named as the view was stupendous. However, it is a new hotel and not quite ready for prime time. The food wasn't great, the service was slow, but the staff was very nice and friendly. All that can be accepted when you take a look at the view from our room in the photo on the right

We drove the Jeep on the loop. The previous time we were here with the Bronchuks, we took a guided tour with a Navajo. This time we did our own tour. The weather changed a lot while we were there. From the restaurant you have a view of the valley from horizon to horizon and can see all different types of weather. A band of snow move in and dropped a white cover on one formation while others nearby were in the sun. Really amazing. Here are just a couple of photos to show what I mean.

I just about filled my camera with shots from Monument Valley, but I won't bore you with all of them (now!).
We had my Utah Off-Road book with us and found a couple of trails nearby that looked interesting. So, after a quick trip back through Monument Valley in the morning we set off to find the John's Canyon trail about 25 miles north. We found the trail easily enough. There is not much out in this part of the country. The dirt road led over a flat mesa where the only other occupants were the cattle grazing. I have a ton more cattle photos now. The book said we would enter the Glen Canyon recreaction park but all we could see was the mesa we were on and cliffs leading up to higher mesas. Until we went around the corner of one of the cliffs and we all let out a collective, simultaneous "WOW!". To our left appeared Glen Canyon, below us. What a sight. The road led right along the cliff at many points that made the ride interesting. Here are just a couple of shots of the canyon. Notice the rear view mirror in the one on the left...

The book also said there were petroglyphs to be found along the route, so we made it our goal to find them. We succeeded and found the etchings on boulders that could be more than 1000 years old. Just laying out in the wilderness.

On the way to actually enter into John's Canyon, we rounded a blind corner and found a herd of a dozen or so cattle in front of us on the road. We crept up on them to kind of egg them on to move out of the way. As there was no place for them to go, up or down, they just walked along the road stopping to look back at us and then continuing until they found a place where they could get off the road. I wasn't sure if one of them might turn and charge us, but we made it safely by.
John's Canyon was also spectacular, as we came in on the canyon floor and looked up at the walls. It went on for miles. We headed back for our next adventure.

We needed gas, so we stopped at a station to fill up and we ate our Easter Dinner at the Shell Food Mart in Mexican Hat, Utah. We enjoyed rice cakes, crackers, peanut butter and some banana bread.

Our last tour, and the last entry in this post, was The Valley of the Gods. This area is north or Monument Valley and just about its equal in beauty. The loop through the valley is an upaved road that is pretty suitable for passenger cars. There are lots of named formations. At different times we had the impression that we were looking at ancient Roman ruins or parts of a cathedral. Parts of Planet of the Apes were filmed there. It was really stunning.

Chihuly at the Desert Botanical Garden

2009-04-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we picked up Mike and Pam Noble at Sky Harbor airport. We decided to take advantage of the trip to Phoenix to take in the Chihuly exhibit at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. This was a fascinating exhibit. Chihuly, a native of Washington state who studied and taught at RISD, has exhibited all over the world. He recently had an exhibit at RISD.

His work is interspersed with the native tree, wild flowers and cacti. The place is very interesting on its own, but was really spectacular with the blown glass. We went late in the afternoon, so there was a lot of good lights and shadows on the glass. They are lit up at night which must really be something. Here are a few photos.

Today we start a forced march of tourism with Mike and Pam. They are only here for a few days so we will cram in as much as humanly possible.

Sycamore Pass Road

2009-04-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Looking for some more back road adventure, Judy and I decided to try some of the "difficult" trails leading toward a place called Sycamore Canyon. The main access to the canyon is from the north. But that would mean going west from Flagstaff, then south. We thought we would take the short cut.

We took the first dirt road we found once we got off the highway and it lead us through a cattle ranch where we were getting up close and personal with a lot of hefty beasts. They seemed to be pretty used to humans. They just turned their heads toward us, stared at us and continued munching away at the sparse grass. We took lots of pictures and I've started a portrait of one of my favorites. Maybe she'll buy it. I think it is a she. It had udders, but also horns. So I guess females have horns on this breed.

We kept going further and further off the beaten path. There were spectacular long range vistas as well as some flowering cactus we came upon.

The trail took us part way up Sugarloaf Mountain. We circled around the back of the mountain and could see a trail winding steeply up the hill, when we ran into a metal gate that blocked the trail. I think we had gone far enough anyway. I needed an excuse to turn back. See Judy scoping out the trail.

The next day, we decided to go again and take Ian McEwan, a friend of Woody and Margaret Flowers, with us. He is here with his wife, Connie, who is on a plein air painting trip. Ian seemed to really enjoy the ride. He is retired from the GM truck division so he was used to rough riding. We drove to a great spot just below the gate. Then we tried to cut across the landscape going through ranches until we could get to a trail that runs along the red rocks, giving Ian a closer look at the formations. At one point we were a bit lost/confused on one of the connecting dirt roads when we saw a UPS truck and asked directions. Yes, a UPS truck was out there deliverying to the ranches. We finally found one of the smaller trails and dove back into the outback and made it through Outlaw Trail and back in time for Margaritas and a great dinner with the painters. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

Demo at Sedona Art Center

2009-04-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

Today, we attended a demo at the SAC given by Jerome artist, Cody Delong I had seen him doing his "plein air" thing during the Plein Air Festival in October and met him the other night at the Sedona Art Center opening for the Arizona Plein Air Artists show. He won best in show, by the way.

Anyway, Cody was doing a 16x20 recreation of a study he had done recently. It was of a winding creek with a small waterfall. The scene had a lot in it. Underwater red rocks, bushes and small trees, bigger rocks on the shore and a background bank with a wooded area beyond that. For this type of work, Cody's approach is to tackle the focal point first. But, to begin with, he uses a charcoal to sketch in the drawing. He took an old paint brush and drilled out the ferrule (?) and inserted a piece of charcoal. That way he could draw as if he was painting. On location, he might use a pencil while in the studio he uses the charcoal.

After roughly sketching in the drawing, he started by laying in the color and value of what he was seeing beneath the water. He did not want to paint the top surface until he had the correct feeling for what was beneath the surface. This started with a warm green in the background, then a cooler green and then a warmer red-ish color for the foreground where one could see the rocks under water. He laid in a dark area which would be at the base of the little falls. He wiped out some of the red area with a paper towel to make the underwater rocks. He'd go back later to add more detail. He feels that by laying blues over the green water gives more interest to the creek instead of starting with blue and adding highlights. It definitely worked.

As he added the blue to the water, he used directional strokes in the foreground to indicate movement in the water. Some of these would be his final stokes. Economy of brushstokes?

He then went to the background and put in a mid-tone gray on top of which he added darks for tree trunks and lights for some of the foliage. He added the river bank in front of the trees and was able to drag wet into wet. He works top to bottom so that he can drag the new layer into what is already there. He is meticulous and takes his time with his painting. He wasn't going to finish the whole canvas, but we got the point. See the photo for how he was approaching his work.

Cody uses a pochade box from Openbox.com . Actually, it is the panel and pallette holder. This attaches to a normal camera tripod. For a panel, he uses a Pintura panel that he primes with liquin and light ochre. He also uses a light coat of liquin to varnish his work when it is dry.

He can fit everything he needs into his backpack as he hikes into the back woods of Arizona in search of something that stikes him that he can put to canvas.

Sedona Wildlife

2009-04-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

After going on a bird watch recently and seeing some hummingbirds and seeing some at Taliesin West in Phoenix, we decided to pick up a hummingbird feeder at the local hardware store. I made up a mixture and hung it on a nail on the deck. When a few weeks went by and I hadn't seen any activity, I was about to return it as a faulty feeder. When lo and behold a couple of Anna hummingbirds (at least that is what I think they are) started to show up. There are a pair of them now and they dart in an out during the day. They hit the feeder then buzz off to hide in an apple tree then come back for more. Today, I stood by the feeder and waited for a few minutes til I heard the hum, then looked up and snapped this picture. Pretty Cool, huh! Double click on the photo to blow it up.

Another fascinating landscape

2009-03-31T07:51:00.000-07:00

Last week we took another drive northeast of Flagstaff with Jacques and Claire. We planned on visiting Sunset Crator and the Wupatki Ruins. We packed up a lunch and made sure we had our Senior National Park pass and took off. This pass is the only thing great about getting old, so far. It costs $10 and it gets us, plus 3 people and a car, into any national park FOREVER. The only snag is that if we lose the pass we have to go to the place where we got it to replace it for free. That would be Scranton, PA. I don't think so. I'll pay the $5 to avoid Scranton.

Anyway, we stopped at the visitor center and got a map and headed to the first scenic view. As we drove along, out of nowhere, we noticed a huge, long pile of what looked like torn up highway from the Big Dig. It was a thousand year old lava field from the volcanos that existed in the area. The lava rock still looked very jagged and rough. A park ranger said it is because there is so little topsoil and rain that there isn't much erosion of it, if any.

At Sunset Crater, we parked and took a 1 mile walk through a lava field. There are many volcanos in this part of Arizona. There are several explanations for why there are so many in this area. You'll have to read the guide book to get the explanation, but it has something to do with the fissures between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province to the south. Got that? There are also different types of volcanos which are also explained in the guide. Speaking of which, the guide can be borrowed and returned or bought for $1. Pretty good deal. The San Francisco Peaks,seen in the background of the photo above, are the remnants one type of volcano. They are about 12,500 feet high now but were probably over 16,000 feet before erupting.

There is very little vegetation in the ashes from the lava. But what there is has adapted to survive. In this photo, you can maybe see the roots of a Ponderosa Pine that has toppled over. The trees face challenges of finding enough soil to root in and in capturing enough water as it drains out of the soil. They do this by spiraling the grain so it can bring enough water to all the branches and leaves evenly. It makes them more flexible but also reduces their strength. So, the are susceptible to toppling due to wind and soil erosion.

From here we drove out of the lava field and ash covered hills into a part of the "Painted Desert". It was an amazing site to see the grey ash end abruptly and see the multi-colored layers of rock in the distance. This is where the Wupatki Ruins are. They are one of a number of ruins located in this area. It appears that this area was built and occupied after the eruption of the volcanos. Maybe the eruption drew people to the area. Wupatki was settled by the ancestors of the Hopi and had 100 rooms, some for collecting scarce water, some for storage, some for community activities. They lived by farming and trading. There was no irrigation system so they may have carried water in some of the many pots found at the site. Archeologists think that upwards of 2000 people lived within a days walk of the ruins. Evidently, this ruin is more typical of the homes of the time as compared with the cliff-dwellings of the Sedona area.

Jerome Junkers

2009-03-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Just in case some of you are wondering if I am doing any painting at all, here are a couple that I did in the old gold mine/junk yard in Jerome. The place is full of stuff like this which I enjoy painting. These two were next to each other and I may do one with both. I had to cram myself between a few other junks to set up my easel and by the time I was finishing up, a sand storm blew up and nearly knocked everything over. Another one of the plights of plein air painting.

A Unique Discovery

2009-03-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since the last post. We've been busy with company, touring, painting, snoozing, eating, etc.

However, today, we "discovered" something really unusual and impressive. Our friends, the Sullivans, told us about the spot where the Little Colorado River flows over some falls on its way to join the Colorado and go on to the Grand Canyon. We had to find our way from Winona, east of Flagstaff, off of I-40, to the Navajo Reservation. Bill and Sarah had given us directions to follow like "turn left where there is no marker, go 8.5 miles and turn left again between two piles of basalt." The landscape was absolutely barren. I had figured if someone needed to use "facilities", they could go behind a tree, as usual. But there was not a tree nor blade of grass in sight. I was wondering when we would come to the falls as the land was totally flat and we could see no indication of any water. Finally we found the path between the two piles and I drove down the path in 4WD as it was quite bumpy. We saw what looked like a litte viewing area in the distance and headed for that.

When we got there and got out of the Jeep, we were presented with this awesome sight of tons of muddy Little Colorado water pouring over the rocks and making a hard right heading to join the Colorado. We had no idea what to expect and it was truly an amazing sight. The wind was fierce, but we manged to get out of the Jeep without having the doors blown off and took a bunch of pictures.
This is something that only lasts for several weeks before this section dries up. So, we feel fortunate that we were able to catch it in this small window.

Did I mention the wind? I thought the finish on the Jeep was going to get blown off and we didn't dare get too close to the edge of the canyon as the wind was blowing us off balance. We kept our distance. Here are a couple more photos of the area. One of the falls and maybe you can make out the sand storm in the other.

Ancient Graffitti

2009-03-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

Back to tourism. My boss from our days in Paris, Jacques, and his wife Claire are visiting us. Some mutual friends from Chicago, Syd and Mitzie Eisen, have also come to Sedona to see Jacques and Claire.

We decided to visit one of the best sites for petroglyphs in all of Arizona. The petroglyphs are rock carvings made by the natives up to 1200 years ago. This place is in an old abandoned ranch, called the V-V (Vee bar Vee) ranch. All that is left of the ranch is a chimney from the house. A short walk along a Sycamore lined trail leads to a wall of petroglyphs. A guide there explained the significance of many of the carvings as well as explained how the natives had created a solar clock to mark the seasons. The wall is just a few degrees off of due north. There are a couple of rocks that conveniently stick out from a crevass on the wall which causes light and shadow to appear on the wall when the sun hits it right.

The natives carved images on the wall when the sun hit at times of the year to indicate the season they were in. For example, when the sun hit a certain spot on the wall, it was the season to plant the corn. So, they put a symbol for planting corn on the wall. Then they would know when to plant the corn the next season. Here is the symbol for planting corn. It looks like fish bones. Can you find it in the larger image? There are many other symbols that represent animals, festivals etc.

Next we stopped at Monezuma's Well which is close by. This is a huge sink hole that contains a constant level of water at a constant temperature and a constant outflow of thousands of gallons per minute. They are not sure how it works. The white people who first stumbled on it thought they were in Mexico so they named it after Montezuma. The water has a high concetration of CO2 so there are no fish in it. The life cycle in the well seems to be plankton, algae, insects and leeches. Yikes, no skinning dipping at night here. They natives used the water to irrigate their crops and lived around the well or in cliff dwellings in the wall of the well. This was a very interesting surprise.

Full Disclosure/Self Exposure

2009-03-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

In the interest of self-exposure, I feel obliged to post these semi-candid photos that our friend, Sarah Sullivan, took of Judy and me at the Tucson rodeo. I say "semi-candid" as Judy seems to be aware that the phot is being taken and I am either reacting to a guy getting thrown by a bucking bronco or have just sat on a prickly pear cactus someone slipped onto my seat.

This photo shows the depths that some companies will go to entice customers. Yes, guys, you too can get a gal like this if only you'd dip a little bit of Copenhagen chewing tobacco. Makes me almost want to stuff a pinch between my cheek and gums.

Over the last few days...

2009-03-09T17:26:00.001-07:00

I guess you all figured out that we went to Vegas last week. Our friends, the Kobeys, who live across the street from us, were visiting and we decided to make a quick trip to Vegas and take in a show. We got a great rate at the Belaggio Hotel and got tickets for Cirque Du Soleil, "O". The show was an unbelievable display of technology, athleticism, grace, strength, creativity, you name it. It was terrific. This was the second one we have seen and they both were great. On the way to and back, we passed over the Hoover Dam. What a sight and the scenery around it is other-worldly. We may go back to take a tour of the dam.

We got back to Sedona by 4pm. David did his best to take 18 minutes off of the GPS systems's estimated time of arrival. Nice job, David. While Judy, Lynn and David went to the trendy shopping area called, Tlaquepaque, I went to the Sedona Art Center. It was First Night for galleries in Sedona, so I stopped into their gallery. I met a woman who heads up a plein air painting group and she invited me to join them on thursday. I was already commited to go back to Jerome with Michael Johnson and Bill Cramer, who won the best in show at the gallery. Check out his web site at http://www.billcramerpaintings.com/ . After I left the gallery, I picked up the 3 stragglers who were at a real nice gallery where Dustin Payne, a western sculpturer, was in residence for the month. He is 26 years old and already a very accomplished sculptor, like his dad. http://www.dustinpayne.com/ . What a nice kid. He was on a rodeo scholarship to college. His event was the team roping.

Saturday, I stayed back to paint/noodle while the other guys went to Jerome for the afternoon. They had a great time and so did I.

On sunday, we decided to take one last Jeep ride and then go on a hike. I took the Kobeys to the Broken Arrow trail. They, especially, Lynn, loved it. It is a pretty grueling trail in places and has some great vistas to soak in the scenery. Here is a photo of Lynn on the "stairs" that you have to come down to exit the trail. I bottomed out a couple of times here as I really couldn't see over the hood to pick my way down.

Lynn took this photo of the Jeep after climbing over some slick rock to get to the top of this little hill. It was a tight squeeze around the top to go out the "trail" on the left. A little further from this spot, I actually had to get out of the Jeep to walk over the rocks to find where the trail went.

Our last hike of the week was to Devil's Bridge. It is a fantastic rock formation not far from a main hiking trail. It got to be a fairly difficult climb to get the top but it was worth it. The trip down was a bit tricky too. Sliding on your butt was helpful at times. This is a popular place so there were lots of people coming and going. Definitely a good way to end up the week.

Where in the World.....?

2009-03-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros - aka Tucson Rodeo

2009-03-03T21:22:00.000-08:00

We had an interesting weekend. We drove to Tucson to take in the Tucson Rodeo. It was the 84th time for this terrific event. It is held in a rodeo grounds that holds about 14000 people. It is the largest outdoor rodeo. There is a pretty nice carnival atmosphere with all kinds of food and clothing for sale. Of course, we had to buy hats (to protect ourselves from the sun.) There were plenty of events like the bucking bronco, right. A pair of announcers kept a running dialog of what was about to happen, what was happening and what just happened to keep things interesting. The riding skills of the people is truly amazing and the strength to hold on to either the horse or an ornery bull is incredible. I must admit, I didn't quite get the scoring system but most people did seem to understand what was going on. They even booed some of the results.

While, the bucking broncos and bulls were something, we especially like the team roping where one guy lassoed the head of a bull and the other guy lassoed both the rear feet of the bull (the same bull). About half of the teams succeeded in this. Pretty impressive. ( I forgot to mention, the bull was running at the time.) Even more so was the women's barrell racing. The control these women had over their horses and the way the horses reacted to their direction made me want to take up horseback riding.

Our neighbors, the Kobeys, arrived in Sedona on Monday afternoon. They left Boston a day early in anticipation of the storm. Good move on their part. When they arrived, we went out for a little ride and took in the setting sun over the red rocks. Today we took a leisurely hike, ate lunch in Fay Canyon and then went for a "joy ride".

Tomorrow, I am going back to Jerome to do some more painting. I got an email from Michael Johnson letting me know that he and Peter were going back to Jerome and asked if I wanted to tag along. I jumped at the chance. Not sure what I will do, but there are plenty of choices. I have worked some more on the two I started last week and feel pretty good about them.

Plein Air Painting

2009-02-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

Plein air painting has its plusses and minuses. Getting something from real life is always better than trying to recreate something from a photo. But we all know there are problems associated with painting outdoors. There is the wind blowing over your easel and your canvas lands in the dirt. There's chasing the shadows or the tide. There's dealing with people and traffic. There's trying to paint with the sun in your eyes or directly on your pallette or canvas. Etc, etc. I added another one today when we went to Midgley Bridge to paint, falling into a canyon. Check out the photo. To get a good view of the bridge, I had to set up fairly close to the edge of the cliff. I was not dangerously close, but I didn't have much room to back up to check out my progress. I did get a queezy feeling in my gut if I got too close to the edge. I was trying to block things in as quickly as possible as the shadows change quickly on the rocks and I wanted to get away from the edge.

Jerome had its own set of problems. Jerome is a former mining town not far from Sedona. It has tons of great locations to set up and paint. There are also tons of people, lots of traffic passing through and, depending where you set up, lots of dog poop. Here is a photo of "downtown" Jerome and the quick underpainting I did. Using the reference photo I should be able to finish this one. I was mainly working on perspective and can see a few changes that need to be made. I started another one (while waiting for Peter to finish his 4x4 foot canvas) that is off to a pretty good beginning.

I plan on returning soon to paint more buildings plus there is an old "gold mine"/junk yard where you can find lots of abandoned old cars, trucks, buses, etc to paint. I'm looking forward to that.

Another day another ruin...

2009-02-27T05:59:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, we decided to check out another one of the many ruins in the area. It is called Honanki. It is another site occupied by the Sinaqua Indians about 1100 years ago. It is not in the same condition as the site of Palatki and it does not have a guided tour, but in some ways it is more interesting. There are perhaps a dozen remnants of homes nestled under the overhang of the cliff walls. You can walk along a short trail to go from home to home. There are also many pictographs that are hundreds of years old, as well. The trail up to the ruins was not as steep as Palatki as it winds through the brush and over and behind boulders to end up at the cliff dwellings. There is a very pleasant walk back to the parking lot.

Judy said that when I quickly agreed to go to Honanki, something else must have been up. In one of my off-road guides, I read that there was a Jeep trail next to the outhouses at the ruin. The person at the information booth said it was a well marked, relatively easy trail if one had enough clearance. That's all I had to hear.

This trail led up and down through the rolling hills around the red rocks. It had enough excitement to get the blood flowing and some unbelievable 360 degree views of the area. It led through some cattle ranches so there were plenty of cattle sitings. The guide said there would be some difficult sections and, once again, we thought we had gone through the difficult stretches when we actually hadn't. This photos shows what looks to be a difficult section, but actually was a breeze.

As we got further along this trail, we finally came to the more difficult part. The trail led over a large boulder and down into a dried creek bed. On the other side of the creek bed we could see a pile of rubble leading up a hill, but no real discernable trail. The rocks were pretty large but there was enough room to snake our way up the hill to find the dirt path.

This was a fun trail as there were great views, some easy parts and some difficult parts. Despite what the person at the information booth said, we saw no trail markers anywhere. We just kept taking lefts at all the forks in the road and made it back to civilization intact.

As mentioned, there were lots of cows out there. There were barbed wire fences that kept them on the ranch and the cattle crossings on the roads kept them from roaming down any streets. They seemed used to people and just stared at us and then slowly walked into the brush. What do you think these two are thinking?

Painting the town.

2009-02-25T05:10:00.000-08:00

The past few days, I joined Michael Chesley Johnson and a couple of his students in painting some of the beautiful landscape in the area. This week, Rob and Peter, both from Canada are participating in Michael's mentoring workshop. I will join them on a day to day basis. Rob and Peter are both oil painters. Rob is from Winnipeg and Peter is from Newfoundland. They were glad to get out of the "great white north" and into the comfortable Arizona weather. It is beautiful here now.

On Monday, we set up in a field at the base of Bear Mountain. We had a number of different vistas to choose from. Look in any direction and there was something to paint. We all were relatively close to each other so that Michael could visit us from time to time to offer his critique and/or suggestions. That was very helpful. Here are Rob and Peter set up at the base of the mountain.

On Tuesday, we decided to spend some time at Red Rock Crossing, where the icon red rock formation known as Cathedral Rock can be viewed. I'm sure some of you have seen pictures of this formation before. Normally, the creek that runs by it is fairly calm, but melting snow in Oak Creek Canyon has caused the creek to rise quite a bit. Here's Rob with one of his large canvases at the edge of the creek. You can see the rapids in the water. The rocks were backlit in the morning so one had to block in the shadows quickly so as not to chase the sun. In the afternoon, especially late afternoon, these rocks are flooded with light.

Michael paints with us. We can either watch him while he gets in his under painting (he allows about 30 minutes for that phase) or we can paint ourselves. As Michael gets to each phase of his painting, he will take a break to visit each of us to check on our progress. This is very helpful in getting us to the next phase too. We have enough time to just about finish a painting or, at least, get it to the point where we should let it sit for a bit. At Cathedral Rock, Peter was working on such a big canvas that the rest of us had time to start on a second painting. Here are a couple of rough photos of my work so far.

Tomorrow we will go to the town of Jerome, an old mining town hung off the side of the Mingus Mountains about 2o miles away. There should be great opportunities there. I'm really looking forward to it.

Broken Arrow Trail

2009-02-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning we decided to take the Jeep out on another adventure. One of the most scenic trails in all of Az, according to our Off Road book, is the Broken Arrow trail that leads to a place called Chicken Point. We had been there before on a hike and had seen the Pink Jeep tours driving over the red rocks so we decided to give it a try. The first thing you run into is a wall of rocks at the very beginning of the trail. This is meant to discourage people in their rental cars from getting in over their heads. Once you get over that obstacle, you soon find yourself on a huge slab of red rock. We got out of the Jeep as we had the place to ourselves for a few minutes and we strolled around.

From this spot, there are great views into the canyon and then panoramic views across to the red rocks around Sedona. We were there in the morning, so the sun was shining on the formations towards Sedona and the rocks in the canyon were back lit with lots of nice shadows.

The guide books rate this trail a 7 of 10, mainly because of a very steep, ledgy slickrock hill. The trail itself is one-way and this stairway is near the end. You pass this end of the loop when the trail becomes one-way. You are advised to walk up part of the stairway to determine if you want to continue or not, because you will need to exit the trail by that stairway. Onward we plunged.

A bit further there is a side trail to a large sink hole called Devil's Dining Room. There is another such sink hole in town called the Devil's Kitchen. The sink holes are caused by water leeching thousands of feet down into the soil and finally eroding a layer of limestone deep under ground. Once the limestone leeches away, there is an empty space that needs to be filled. (Nature abhors a vacuum). The ceiling of that hole collapses, then the ceiling of the hole above collapses, and so on and so on until the last ceiling near the crust of the earth collapes causing the sink hole. Got that? This one is about 100 feet deep and you can see all the many layers that make up the red rock formations.

We left the Devil's Dining Room and ventured further up the trail. Soon we encountered a 4WD club called Flagstaff4Wheelers and decided to follow them. They seemed to be up to no good. We were the last of a parade of 13 Jeeps that made their way to Chicken Point where we were treated to a great view towards the Village of Oak Creek. From there we tagged along as they went to "play" before they were to head out for another trail.

As the trail was One-way, I had to follow them.

The first playground was up a slickrock, around the very top of a rock called, The Roundabout, and then to the exercise of climbing the rock in the photo on the right. Believe it or not, I made it up this rock with relative ease. I just put it in 4L and let it crawl. I had to goose it a bit a couple of times to get over the first few boulders, but once I had all 4 wheels on the big boulder, it went smoothly. The path I took was a bit different than the guy in the photo. I went up the light grey path where the two guys are taking pictures.

These guys were mostly young and crazy, except for their leader who was not young but was crazy. He wasn't satisfied with his playing until he just about got wedged in a groove between two boulders. He got out of this without a tow. Needless to say, I didn't try this particular stunt.