Sedona, AZ

Great hoodoo-type red rock formations or monoliths rise high above the mountain tourist town of Sedona in all directions. Sedona is located at the mouth of the stunning Oak Creek Canyon in central Arizona about one hour south of Flagstaff. History tells us that this city developed from the Zane Grey characters from The Call of the Canyon (Oak Creek Canyon) with its rugged canyon rock walls and fast rushing waters beneath whispering pines. Settler after settler arrived, creating cow-paths which would become future roads, raising cattle and planting orchards. The name Sedona, was the namesake of the wife of one of the first homesteaders, J J Thompson. Today, it is a mecca for artists, archaeologists, spiritualists, outdoor enthusiasts and shoppers.


We walked about the town after our drive up Oak Creek Canyon to Slide State Park and back. A variety of shops from western wear to western art to jeep tours to time share solicitation lined both sides of the street. Art Galleries and studios abound; Tlaquepaque is an art and craft centre that mimics the markets of Guadelajara, Mexico. Easter Sunday brought many tourists into town to buy a souvenir or book an outdoor tour or just browse.


This amazing structure, The Chapel of the Holy Cross, is an architectural marvel and thought to be bold and daring for its time. Built on a twin pinnacled spur about 250 feet high, jutting out of a thousand foot red rock wall, "solid as the Rock of Peter" the building of the Chapel was completed in April 1956. Perched between the rocks, the church has a small sanctuary backed by a floor to ceiling wall of glass, through which more red rocks can be seen. Of course, the Cross, the focal point, appears to be the support for the structure, much like Christ is in our lives. Entrance is gained from the rear and all are invited to spend some time in reverence to God.

Montezuma's Castle, Tuzigoot and Jerome

Southern Sinagua farmers began building this 20 room dwelling in the early 1100's. It stands in a recess 100 feet above the valley below. It was assumed to be an Aztec structure by the early settlers and hence the name. A short distance away is Castle A, once an imposing six storey apartment with 45 rooms; however, it has deteriorated badly as it was built at the base and against the cliff and not protected from weathering and was also ravaged by fire which burned the wooden portion of the structure. Beaver Creek was a reliable source of water and the land fertile for these farmers to survive. They vanished in the 1400's for unexplained reasons. The public cannot physically visit the inside of this structure, but Parks' Service has constructed a diorama to depict Sinagua life within.

Today, we visited the Tuzigoot ruins (Apache for "crooked water) another remnant of the Sinagua, a village constructed in 1125-1400. It crowns the summit of a ridge that rises 120 feet above the rich, fertile valley below. This pueblo was 2 storeys high in places with 77 ground-floor rooms. There were few exterior doors; entry was by way of ladders to openings in roofs. The village began as a small cluster of rooms inhabited by 50 persons for a 100 years but soon doubled and doubled again, so that the population grew to about 400. A very well preserved, enormous structure!

We visited Jerome today, too, an old copper, silver and gold mining camp, established in 1883, named for a New York investor, Eugene Murray Jerome, who never visited his namesake. Jerome is known as the mile high town, built on the side of Cleopatra Hill and can be reached by a canyon road that snakes its way up the 5246 feet. As you travel higher, the road gets narrower. In its mining heyday, it became "the wickedest town in the west", a hotbed for prostitution and gambling. Jerome had three major fires between 1897 and 1899, burning out much of the town. In 1918 fires spread out of control over 22 miles of underground mines, burning the inflammable massive pyrite. One of the mine fires continued to burn for twenty years. This prompted the phasing out of underground mining in favor of open pit mining. Mining survived the war years, but declined when copper devalued to 5 cents a pound; mining was finally phased out in 1953. The population dropped to 50. Today, the town, with a population of 343, is a haven for artists, galleries and many eateries. Unfortunately, being the Saturday of Easter weekend, there was no room to park the truck(there were a good many more people than 343), so we will be back next year to explore the shops and cuisine and do our own walkabout! This has been an outstanding Easter weekend! Life is good!


For more pics of these amazing visits, copy and paste below:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/brenda.southwood/MontezumaSCastleTuzigootAndJerome?authkey=Gv1sRgCPv1ru2F-sjWbA#

The Desert in Flower

Roadsides have become desert gardens with a profusion of yellow, orange, blue and mauve. While the smaller cacti are just beginning to show colour as in the hedgehog's bright red and the strawberry's magenta, the stately suguaro are not showing even their buds, although the tops do look lighter to me; maybe just wishful thinking. The sun is bright, the temps are warm and the air is dry...beautiful for travel. Oh, and the nights? They are cool which is great for sleeping. Life is good!

More of Arizona, the Canyon State

The Arizona Sunsets are something to behold! This was taken from our campsite at Canyon Vistas, where we met friends Rick and Gladys for a whirlwind week of Square Dancing with callers, Jerry Junck, Dale Dockery, Tom Roper and guest Gary Shoemake. What a fun week we had! We have missed sq dancing so much this winter...glad we got our "fix" here with great friends, in Mesa and Apache Junction.
Not a clear picture, but an example of the farm marketing in Yuma. Water from the Colorado River fills an elaborate system of canals and irrigation ditches and the fields are flooded regularly for quick growth and 7-8 crops in a year. Amazing! Field hands, usually Hispanic, arrive in busses to plant, weed and harvest crops such as lettuce, onions, cabbage, broccoli, carrots. Watch for some of this produce in our Canadian supermarkets.

My namesake, right here in Arizona! A few cafes(and I do like to eat), three RV parks and a few residents and that's it! Blink and you miss it! BUT, it is here and it is a quaint little town to just pass through or stay a night, close to the popular Quartzite, home to the biggest Rock and Gem show and RV show each January. Many Rvers, just find a spot in the desert to boondock for the winter. Not many left here at the end of March!

This was the night sky over the Harcuvar Mountains, seen from our campsite last night. Apparently, the pilots liked it too as many con-trails could also be seen. Harcuvar is in the middle of the desert, 2 miles west of Salome, about 35 miles east of Quartzite and 5o miles west of Wickenburg, a quaint cowboy town of the Old West.

Escapees Alberta Chapter 44 Rally

What a wonderful group of RV Escapees! Forty-nine rigs boondocked together for a wonderful week at Usery Pass Regional Park in Mesa AZ under sunny skies and 75 + temperatures! This Chapter knows how to put on a rally. Bill and I packed lots of water and early in the morning, hiked up to Wind Cave and another on the Merkel Loop. I say early, as it was too hot later in the day for hiking and there would be a greater chance of snake appearances. Yes, the snakes have emerged from their winter's hibernation.

Our lunch at the Organ Stop Pizza was a real treat! Pizza was delicious, but secondary to the World's largest Wurlitzer Pipe Organ with its 6000 pipes and percussion instruments played by a world class musician! Amazing! This is a theatre organ designed for the silent movies. Because an orchestra would be too costly, the theatre organ could be played by one musician and the organ made to sound like an orchestra with all its stops. It has been described as part military band, part symphony orchestra and part special theatrical sound effects. The console has 4 manuals(keyboards), 276 keys and 798 stops and controls. Four huge turbine blowers produce the wind required for its operation. And the sound? Unbelievable!

This is Wind Cave, our hiking destination, one thousand feet up and two miles long, taking about three hours to complete. Spring breakers made it a very busy trail. We were thankful for the coolness of the shade at the top. We had a wonderful view of the city of Mesa in the distance and the camp below. Patches of wildflowers, lupins and yellow buttercup type flowers greeted us along the way.

Sunsets in the desert skies, roasting marshmallows over an open campfire and singing and kazooing (a new word) were fitting ends to the day! A wonderful week! Thank you, Chapter 44!

Date Shakes and The Slabs

Date Palms grow in groves and produce many different types of dates, our favourite being the Medjool. If you look closely, to the right side of each tree, there is a ladder hanging from the foliage. This is left to make pruning, manual pollination and harvesting much easier. I am told that one male date palm can pollinate up to one hundred female date palms; the date palm is considered mature at 7-10 years and can produce up to 275 pounds of dates in a season, not all ripening at the same time, so many harvests are required. To protect the fruit from birds and storm damage, the clusters are covered by fan-like sheets of papers or shrouds. We visited The Oasis near Indio, CA, for the taste-testing of many varieties of this very sweet fruit, purchasing a pound of medjools and enjoying a date shake. Delicious!


This is the entrance to the Slabs or Slab City as it is known, Salvation Mountain, a three storey hill of sand and adobe festooned with Bible Verses. It is said that "oops" paints were poured upon the sand dunes for this creation and ongoing project by long time resident, Leonard Knight. Slab City takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II base Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap, where General Patton trained military tanks. A group of servicemen remained after the base closed, and the place has been inhabited ever since. The site is both decommissioned and uncontrolled, and there is no charge for parking. It is a winter haven for snowbird RV boondockers and about 100 permanent residences, about 3 miles east of Niland, CA on the east side of the beautiful Salton Sea.

There is no water or electricity here, so many use generators or solar panels for power. All transport water in large drums or fill their rig tanks from the grocery store in Niland. Shacks to tents to expensive motorhomes can be found at the Slabs; there is a library and a church and the school bus transports to nearby Niland and Indio.

Dean Edward Elliott

July 9 1946-Feb 23, 2010

It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we sadly said "Farewell" to Bill's long time, public school friend, Dean, who passed away from complications from an appendectomy while vacationing with his wife, Cheryl, in Cuba. Dean was a fun-loving, generous, life-of-the-party guy whose presence could "light up a room". He will be sadly missed. Our condolences to Cheryl, daughter Cherie and her family from Brantford , Mr. Elliott, Dean's 92 year old father and sister, Joyce who live in Victoria BC. Bill and I feel very privileged to have had Dean in our lives.