Arizona Excursions – Two Scorpions, a Snake + more

This week we had our first scorpions of the season visit the Visitor’s Center, plus we encountered our first snake along the road … it was just a gopher snake, but it did get our hearts going a little.

Later this week our friend Karen came to Phoenix to accompany her friend Joann who was going to a conference.  The four of us had a fun day:

Goldfield Ghost Town

Goldfield is one of several old mining towns in and near the Superstition Mountains (the “Lost Dutchman Mine” is in the area – see external link for more about the Lost Dutchman Mine).   It is now a fun (if a little bit hokie) tourist attraction with shops, a “brothel”, Jail, saloon, etc.

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Dolly Steamboat

Then it was on to Canyon Lake in the Superstition Mountains.  Canyon Lake was formed when the Mormon Flat Dam was constructed on the Salt River in 1925.  The boat cruise included sightings of Desert Bighorn Sheep and Bald Eagles, as well as interesting juxtapositions of desert cactus plants adjacent to this huge lake.

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Bighorn Sheep

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Two Eagle Nests

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Coot (the birds, not the people kind)

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A Mastedon & a T-Rex (use your imagination)

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Petrified wood & stone varnish

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Cactus next to the lake

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And beautiful views.

 

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3 thoughts on “Arizona Excursions – Two Scorpions, a Snake + more

  1. Gorgeous pix, great narration, and what an adventure! Enjoying living vicariously thru u both! Love your leopard ribboned hat, Jude! Hope u wore it in the bordello pix! You know and are learning so much about flora, fauna and sites…not to mention “personal” composting! Who’d have thought that “Frizzle” would trade in patent leather shoes worn to meet Ms teenage America for hiking boots and a solar powered RV? Love your ambition, organization, sense of adventure and how much fun you are having! Thx for sharing it- keep up the great blog!!! Love Carol (Adelson)

  2. Loved your pictures. Reminds me of my life in England & “Balloon Rallies” there!
    I now write of various locals here in Santa Cruz. (Below is the latest)

    Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Santa Cruz, Ca.
    Greeted by four deer that disregarded my intrusion.
    Stop to take pictures as cars behind hitting their horns.
    Now, .04 of a mile around.08 loop I sit on a bench in awe! Deafening quiet amongst these redwood trees. No, can’t see the wood for these majestic behemoths trees! Feeling enormous sorrow for all my loved ones I shared this phenomenon with that are no longer living. These trees scream laughter at my petty feelings. Sun radiates through tiny openings thin beams of light proving it is daylight. Easy to feel insignificant among these trees exceeding 2000 years of age. As I sit I feel serenity. This view at this place has not changed at all for two-thousand plus years. Can one absorb this fact?
    Despite feeling cold I feel like I am in a 2000 year old European Cathedral. So thankful that native Americans as well as white men understood that this must be preserved temporarily and much later forever! Here under the canopy of these living majestic profound trees are people coming and going. Fires every few hundred years. Earthquakes and thousands of seasons coming and going. Yet they defy death by Mother Nature.I feel a strong sense of hope and sanity here, now. Humanity has elected to preserve these miracles which proves true care for nature herself.
    Many children just arrived to snack as my body feels tense! They are our future so me must excuse and understand. Suddenly awaken by another fact of life, change. These living things all around is defiant against these seconds of intrusion. So I learn by their modeling.
    Now I hear the sound of a steam engine railroad that comes and goes up the mountain to another grove of redwood trees. One day, maybe fifty years from now some of these children will come back here and shed a happy tear remembering what I also feel. Remembering their friends. They too will feel privileged to have been to such a special place on planet earth. It is cold here. Even mid summer it is cold and damp.Hence life for redwood trees. They shelter from the sun and provoke moisture from the atmosphere. Hence life and longevity. I feel proud that these wonders are preserved for human kind. That my children and theirs can come here and understand the best of humanity.

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