Trip #32: Phoenix, AZ - Last Trip of 2010

November 3 – 7, 2010

PETRIFIED FOREST, PAINTED DESERT, PHOENIX & PAYSON

Low: not very  Hi: at least high 80s, quite warm using a/c in the Valley of the Sun

969 miles

With Colorado's weather cooling off as it does about now, the only direction to go is south, so we took a leisurely drive to Phoenix, hitting lots of stops along the way.

Petrified raven

First stop was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, and it was every bit as exciting as it was 33 years ago when I last saw it (yawn). Such unusual landscape with its colorful petrified logs laying around here and there just as they fell over millions of years ago when the dinos were around, or something like that. Not sure which came first, should have read the sign. And then came the water, and today the erosion. Or something like that. Incredible. And incredible that there is any left -- aside from present day visitors, they used to pack out loads of it by train car back in the 1880s. I saw a HUGE slice hanging on the wall at, of all places, the butterfly museum at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The stuff gets around. And it's all over this area, shops, the La Posada, embedded in building walls, in front yard gardens. But it will cost ya by the pound these days.

The Painted Desert

Petroglyphs at the Petrified Forest

A petrified log juts out of a cliff. Erosion at its best.

Of course we had to stop and see what might make a good fountain in the courtyard. Guess we'll wait until we hit the lottery.

 

Wish I remembered the weight and price tag on this baby, but I don't. Imagine the shipping. Then installation.

This area with dinos is like Orlando with a mouse.

Just outside the Petrified Forest is a very life-like natural history display, by the rock shop.

Next stop: Meteor Crater. This proved to be far more interesting that I had imagined. Really. This is a private operation, and it had quite a good museum. We pooped out on the rim hike but saw enough to satisfy our curiosities. Here's the story of the crater:

And the Lord said, "This looks like a good place for a meteor strike." And it was good. (That slight rise on the left horizon is IMPACT: GROUND ZERO.)

The crater was formed approximately 50,000 years ago when an iron mass, weighing over 60,000 tons entered the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the formation which is about 4,000 feet wide and 570 feet deep.

Now that's a crater.

(Who knew there'd be so many points of interest in a big hole in the ground?)

We stayed at a campground just a few miles from the crater (absolutely nothing else around as you can see). By the way, this area was where the movie Starman with Jeff Bridges was filmed. Same building as in the movie is still there, though updated. So's driving back from the crater I noticed ruins out in the distance. I asked the campground peeps about it and was told  it's the ruins of the old crater museum from (guessing) the 1930s or so. "Drive on out and see it," she said. That's all we needed to hear.

Old crater "observatory" ruins.

During the hey days of Route 66 a man named D.M. Barringer built an observatory just off of the Mother Road so that the many travelers passing by the area could see the crater without having to travel the additional six or so miles to the site. For just 25 cents, travelers could stand from the observation tower and see the crater through a telescope.

Before we hit the crater we made another quick whizz thru Winslow. I like this little town. We were there long enough to take some pics and have dinner at a little Mexican dive that turned out to be very good. But then I haven't met much Mexican food I didn't like.

Excuse me, pardon me, coming thru...

Next Stop: Cave Creek

We camped quite a ways from Phoenix "proper", out in the sticks, near Carefree and am I the only one who remembers the Dick Van Dyke show that was filmed there? Dick and Hope Lange, walking thru the desert when the ending credits were rolling? Am I alone here? Must have made quite an impression 'cuz to me, Carefree says Dick VD. Below is a real sunset; ok, maybe the camera was set for vivid, but it's the real deal.

So we shopped and shopped, sat in traffic, and drove around, visited Bill's friends, went to the Heard Museum for more indian stuff, and then....

Score!

Last Stop: Payson. There we were, enjoying a nice campfire as the sun was setting, when we hear the bushes moving and out pops the first of many of these: Javalina! wild pigs! They scared the bee-jeebers out of me so out goes my arm and splash goes the Cosmo. dang pigs.

Here a pig, there a pig, everywhere a pig pig. There musta been a dozen come snorting thru, bold as brass, headed for our picnic table, looking for food. GROSS, I ran for cover while Bill held his ground in defiance. Finding no scraps or human flesh they continued their march of destruction. From here we headed home, after the pig roast.

 In closing, I leave you with half a message of wisdom from La Posada's back doors: