Heading out

It's time to pull out of Tucson. We head to Denver for our annual spring visit. Hopefully the weather will allow for some hiking in the Rockies so I can keep up my conditioning.  In May we'll be going to the Midwest for the summer.

We have to get the Denver to see our little (big) sweetie pie.

Here are a couple final pictures for this years wintering at Sabino.

Gila Monster

Another Gila Monster

Hedgehog cactus in bloom

Hiking in the Catalinas. My last big hike was a 17 mile loop.

 

Very rare Cristate Saguaro

AZ Missions

7 Falls in Bear Canyon

We are still in Tucson working and playing at Sabino Canyon. I've done several hikes in the Catalina mountains since my last post. The wild flowers are out now, not the greatest year for them, but there are some.

View of Cathedral Rock from
5.5 miles up Esperero trail

We had a road trip day last week and went down to Tumacacori, Tubac and San Xavier del Bac.

Tumacacori is a mission dating back to the 17th century. It is about 40 miles south of Tucson off of I-19. The National Park Service has done a great job with restoration making a visit very worthwhile. There is a lot of information off of this link: NPS - Tumacacori

Tumacacori

We stopped in Tubac, just about 3 miles north of Tumacacori, for lunch and to walk around.  Tubac is a community dating to 1752. It has changed a lot since we were last there 20+ years ago. There are lots of new buildings now housing shops and businesses. We did the Presidio tour for the first time. There was a lot of local and area history but no original or restored buildings. Here is a link to the town website: http://www.tubacarizona.com/

We also hadn't been to San Xavier del Bac for a very long time and the last time we were there we couldn't see much because of restoration work being done.  This is another mission dating back to 1783. We were very pleaseed to find it all open and very nicely restored. This is well worth a visit being only a few  miles south of Tucson. Here is a link to their site: San Xavier del Bac

San Xavier del Bac

San Xavier del Bac

San Xavier del Bac

Main event is hiking

In mid-January we moved to Tucson. Specifically, we are staying at Sabino Canyon where we volunteer 3 days a week. 

View from Flatiron. Apache Junction
is down below.

Hoodoos on top of Flatiron.

The main activity has been hiking. Before leaving the Phoenix area I hiked the trail to Flatiron in the Superstition Mountains. Since arriving in Tucson I've hiked the Blackett's Ridge and Phoneline trails in Sabino Canyon. It's a start, many more hikes to be done. 

We'll probably visit the missions south of Tucson again since it has been at least 15 years. We aren't sure what else we'll do from Tucson so come on back and find out.

View of upper Sabino Canyon, Thimble Peak on right,
from Blackett's Ridge.

Year end travel map

We've been staying at our usual spot in Fort McDowell, AZ while visiting doctors, friends and family in the Phoenix area. I've fit in some hiking in the McDowell mountains but mostly we've been really busy.

Four Peaks in clouds from Eagle View
RV Resort

View of Fountain Hills from
Sunrise Peak in the McDowell Mtns

It's time for the annual map with our travel route. Our 2014 route had a lot of similarity to 2013 simply because we had enjoyed our summer of 2013 so much we decided to go back to Montana again and volunteer for the U.S. Forest Service. As blog entries throughout the year reported, we did see new sites in our travels, it was not just a repeat.

We had a great year and are looking forward to getting back to the mid-west in 2015.

Travel map

Back in AZ - Sedona

From Monument Valley we headed down to Camp Verde for a couple of weeks. We visited some friends that we met on the road (in NY) who bought a house in Cottonwood and did several trips to Sedona to hike.

We are now back down near Phoenix for a while before moving on to Tucson in January.

View from Cockscomb trail

View from Cockscomb trail

Panoramic pic from Girdner trailhead

View along Girdner trail

Monument Valley

From Aztec New Mexico we went over to Monument Valley on the border of Arizona and Utah in the Navajo Tribal Park. It had been twenty something years since we had been there so we wanted to go back. This time we did a guided tour (deluxe) through the Goulding's campground where we were staying. This turned out to be a great decision as our guide (Joe) was very informative and enjoyable to listen to. He is a Navajo and gave us great insight into the Navajo culture as part of the tour.

Monument Valley - Mitten

Monument Valley - Three Sisters

Traditional Navajo Hogan

Monument Valley - Totem Pole (left)
and dancers

Monument Valley - wind cave called
Big Hogan

Aztec National Monument

Our next stop is Aztec, New Mexico. We visited the Aztec Ruins National Monument. I must first repeat what they said - the Aztecs of Central America were never here. The first discoverers of the ruins misnamed them, and the name stuck. That being said, the Pueblo people of the area lived here from around 1100 to the late 1200's. The masonry work here is the most impressive that we've seen in the many ruins that we've been to in the Southwest. Plus, they hauled in the stone from up to 3 miles away and the wood supports from 50 miles away without the aid of machinery or pack animals. Wow, what a feat!
National Park Service link

As with all ruins, looting and "re-purposing" of artifacts and materials took it's toll. Even with that, this is an impressive site to visit.  Many walls, and a few ceilings still stand after 900 years. Yikes. I'm glad we stopped for a visit.

View inside compound

What is left of 800 year old yucca
"screen door"

900 year old ceiling still intact

Inside compound