Sunday May 11, ‘14

I’m back on line, and have a lot of pictures to share that are all a week or more old.   I’m in sunny southeast Arizona, near Fort Huachuca in Cochise County.  This is home to J. A. Jance’s Sheriff Joanna Brady.  Bisbee, Sierra Vista, Douglas, Benson—all of those places that you’ve envisioned if you love those mysteries.

Let’s go back to Friday, May 2^nd.  I checked out of the Meteor Crater campground and took a run up to Meteor Crater itself with the Nikon in working order.  The reason this impact site is so important is that, in this dry desert climate, very little erosion has taken place since the impact.  A great deal of our understanding of meteor impacts comes from the studies done here.

  I followed the pathway down to the viewing platform below the visitor's center on the crater rim to get some pictures.

The area in the middle was mined for meteor pieces, with no luck.

The meteor came in from the east and blew the rock layers up and out when it hit.  This is one of the clues to the fact that it isn’t a volcano—the layers around the crater are upside down—the oldest layers are on top.

You can see the white layer above the red.

The red layer shows up all over this part of Arizona—Flagstaff on down through the Sedona canyons.  

In some areas it forms big wind sculpted boulders.  

The layer is buried under landslides in parts of the crater wall, but you can follow it all of the way around.

Across the crater the red layer is less obvious.

I took a shot looking up at the visitor’s center.  You can see how well-designed it is to fit into the rim of the crater while providing a great view from it’s windows.

The trail around the rim takes off from the center in both directions.

 I still haven't added in the pictures I took on that guided walk Monday April 28th.  You may have to see my computer or phone when I'm home to see them!

By noon on Friday May 2^nd I headed west toward Flagstaff to visit Walnut Canyon National Monument.  This is a canyon where a large settlement of Anasazi built homes, storage and social gathering places into the canyon walls.  It is at 6,000 to 7,000 feet in elevation, while Meteor Crater is about 5,600 feet.  The difference means that the vegetation is arid forest rather than open grasslands.

This is the view from the visitor's center on the canyon rim.

The path to see the ruins takes you down into the canyon, and you begin to get an idea of what it must have been like to trek up to the mesa to tend your crops and to collect water, or to climb down to the bottom of the canyon to collect water.

I climbed well down into the canyon to see the floor.

The amazing thing is to walk down the paths and stairs (hundreds of them) and look at the canyon walls as you descend.  You don't see where anyone could have lived.  But when you simply stand and look at an area of canyon wall you suddenly begin to see constructed walls in many places.

There are walled living spaces in this picture.

The walls are a bit easier to spot in this canyon wall.

Now you can see one set of walls.  There are others in this picture too!

More walls for living spaces.

One of the reasons I particularly like Walnut Canyon is the fact that the trail down leads you to rooms that you can walk into at your own pace to sit and meditate at your leisure.  On this visit, however, the Park Service was repairing and rebuilding parts of the trail and I did not get into any of the rooms. 

I couldn't resist taking flower pictures.  The plants are amazing--they find the most difficult places to dig their roots in and thrive.

Just a dry crack in the wall.

Just about to bloom!

The picture below is my favorite plant.  The blossom is bigger than the rest of the plant!

Just hanging around.

From the canyon walkway it was time to face the climb back up.  It was in the mid-80s with a breeze, but I took my time because of the elevation.  I was going up while a group of Japanese tourists were coming down and resting on the way.  We had some delightful conversations with some English and lots of gestures and laughing  You can see why everyone takes their time!

The visitor's center is out of view at the top.

From Walnut Canyon I headed south and reached my RV park outside of Sedona before dark.  I should mention that dark comes earlier than in the northwest--you can clearly see the difference as we move into summer.

In the morning I drove south toward Phoenix and highway I-10 through some beautiful country.  It was Saturday (May 3rd) so the traffic around Phoenix wasn't too bad.  I stopped about half way between Phoenix and Tucson at Casa Grande National Monument, another kind of old ruin.  This was a settlement of multi-storied buildings in the middle of the valley where the Sinaguan people farmed and lived.  As the climate became drier they built irrigation channels that extend for miles into mountainous country.  This is at a lower elevation, so the temperatures were in the high 80s.

This is one of the unprotected buildings. 

As you can see, the desert wind and the small amount of rain that does fall has pretty well destroyed most of the settlement.  But concerned citizens in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s built a cover over the central building so that there is much more left standing.  Some of you have seen the pencil drawing in my kitchen.

I'm standing in the patio at the visitor's center.

The walls partially stand, and you can see three floors of rooms.

The construction material used to build the walls is simply dried mud, sand, and gravel.  They ceilings were logs and brush, with the upper floor surfaces being a layer of dried mud.  Like ancient buildings all over the world, the walls at the base were very wide (about 4 feet) to support the upper floors.

A spider is taking advantage of the erosion of the wall.

Adult Male Great Horned Owl

There is a Great Horned Owl pair who have been nesting in the protected ruin for several years.  This year they had three owlets--the usual is one or two.  The owlets were just beginning to try their wings the day I visited.  One fell and died while I was there.  A park naturalist and a volunteer were keeping watch on the family.  The parents moved the babies to an inside room so that they couldn't be seen and then kept watch over the dying owlet from the rafters.  I was only able to get a picture of dad.

I again could not resist taking pictures of the vegetation.  The variety of types of plants amazes me.

The visitor center's courtyard.

I wish I knew what these are called.

Any guesses?

And then there are the cacti--I love them because they seem so alien and other-worldly!

Other plants serve as nurses for young cacti.

Must be a prickly pear relative?

This is the real prickly pear!

This one makes me think of the Organ Pipe Cactus.

Saguaros have a tough life.


  

He is part of the reason why.  Gina, do you recognize him?

Despite drought and infestation, they are blooming!

Pretty crazy topknots!

Even the little arms are blooming.