The Palmer Express

Painted Desert, there are many overlooks to stop at to soak in the spectacular views.

Blue Mesa, beautiful, there’s a hike down and around the mounds along with some petrified wood.

Petrified wood, the variety of colors come from the different minerals it was immersed in.

Agate House, believed to have been originally built between 1050 and 1300. It was an eight room structure which was large for the time period.

Agate Bridge, a 110 foot log, looks like they have put some cement under it to help preserve it.

Don’t pick up the petrified wood, someone from New York found out that these rules apply to them too.  There were three Park Ranger vehicles and one city cop there to search their SUV, collect evidence, and write them a ticket.

 

Horseshoe Bend, busy place, it was about a mile hike from the parking lot.

Glen Canyon Dam, tours were full so we just walked around.

Toadstool Hoodoos Trail in the Grand Staircase Escalante.  One could walk around this area for hours.

A toadstool.

Entering the Wire Pass slot canyon.View when your coming out of the Wire Pass slot canyon to connect with the Buckskin Gultch.  We started to hike it but only got about 1/2 mile before we ran into a big water puddle.  It was about a foot deep and we weren’t up for the challenge.

Climbing back up the 10 foot drop. On the way down, the space between the top of the rock and the first step down is a doozy.

Since we didn’t win the lottery for the Wave we opted to go to White Pocket.

There is a large area to walk around and the colors were awesome. Every bend you walked around seemed better then the last one.

Another view of the White Pocket area.

If you drive back to the 2nd parking area there are some Petroglyphs, can’t say that I would recommend driving down there.

The only downside to the White Pocket was the long drive with the last 9 miles being in deep sand. You definitely need 4 wheel drive and high clearance. There were a couple spots where we had to back up and take a few runs at it to get thru. There was also one gate we had to open and close.  Not like the farm, I could open this one with flip flops.

Bryce Canyon, stunning views.

View from the Sunset overlook.

The decent (for us) hike between sunset to sunrise overlooks, we’re pretty sure we chose correctly.

Natural Bridge view point, just pullover to the side of the road, no hiking required.

Our last day we hiked Lick Wash.

Lick Wash was not as colorful as some of the other areas but it was still a cool slot canyon to hike. For the most part the road was better then some we drove on.

 

Our first view of the Grand Canyon, wow!

Hiked a short ways down Hermits Rest, altitude got the better of us.

Bright Angel trail, the mules travel on this one and one that you could hike to the bottom. The hike to Plateau Point is 6 miles one way with an elevation change of 3,000 feet. They do not recommend trying to hike from the rim to the river and back again in the same day.

Sunset at Lupin overlook, there were many couples out there taking wedding photographs. We did not make it to watch a sunrise but hopefully next trip.

Walnut Canyon National Monument, the island trail is just under a mile with a 185 foot climb passing by 25 cliff dwellings rooms.  While walking around the Island you are able to see many more dwellings across the canyon.

Here is one of the cliff dwellings. They would build them under the overhangs for added protection.

Sunset Crater Volcano, this is our first lava field to explore, nothing like we imagined, we looked at the pictures on line and weren’t to excited to go but we had to stop once we saw it in person, it was pretty amazing.

Wukoki Pueblo, on the left was their patio, how awesome would that be.  In the distance (minus the clouds) you could see the San Francisco mountains. There is also a great view of the Painted Desert.

Wupatki, came about 100 years after the volcano, there are many ruins in the area. They are all built on the higher points of land. Some people say it was for protection others think it was so they could be easier seen by traveling tribes.

Boyton Canyon – Vortex, 6 miles round trip with about a 800’ elevation change.  There are a few different vortex sites around Sedona.

Bell Rock, another hike of ours.

Cathedral Rock, along Bell Rock, nice hiking  paths in this area. even this time of year the afternoons get hot and dusty, you need to carry plenty of water.

Taking in some more of the Grand Canyon. We could sit there and look at it all day long.

Watch Tower is interesting and has some amazing views.

View from the watch tower.

Karen trying to blend in inside the Watch Tower.

Colorado River winding its way through the Grand Canyon. We took so many pictures of the canyon there is just no way to show them all.  Rafting down the Colorado River through the Canyon is still on our bucket list.

 

Our friends, Bonnie and Sue, from Las Vegas came for a visit.  It was great catching up.

Katherine’s Landing, Lake Mead, would be a great place to kayak.

Oatman and the ‘wild’ donkeys.  John the ass whisperer.

Just outside of Laughlin the have a bunch of Labyrinth walkable mazes.  One could A decent workout doing all of them.

In Lake Havasu by the London Bridge. If we go there again it would be fun to rent a boat to tour around the lake.  The water was so clear you could see the fish swimming around.

 

 

 

Mexico day trip, much better place to cross over than Nogales from Tucson.  It was just over a half hour drive from Yuma.  A lot of Americans coming here to get dental work done.

Drinks in Los Algodones, loosening the purse strings, and discussing our good cop bad cop negotiation strategy.  We had a lot of fun and came home with items we didn’t know we needed.

Finally, back to the ocean!

Sunset cliffs, absolutely beautiful here.

Sunset cliffs prime location for sunsets. Plenty of parking spots but go early so you can explore the cliffs prior to sunset.

Practicing lifesaving over the cliffs.

South Bay Salt Works future is in doubt due to development of Chula Vista’s bay front.

Temecula CA, wine country, starts off in a cute little town, shopping & restaurants, museum a little bit of everything.

Robert Renzoni Vineyards, all of them were beautiful places. We stopped at Baily’s and Lorimar.

 

Flowers and cactuses in bloom.

John swimming in the Pacific Ocean, he didn’t stay in for too long.

Seal by Seaport Village begging for a treat.

Walked around Seaport Village stumbled onto the Unconditional Surrender statue.

Bob Hope tribute, USS Midway in the background.

Balboa Park elephant art.

Lunch at Hodad’s, a great burger joint with lots of character.

Cool day by Ocean Beach.

Cold and windy waiting for the sun to set.

The sunset over the bay was worth the wait.

Cabrillo National Monument, great place to overlook the bay and watch the helicopters from the navy base.

Not the best of days to go down by the tide pools, but still worth walking along the shore.

Karen refusing to leave the ocean and beaches behind.

The Bonnie and Clyde of Yuma Territorial Prison, innocent…of what?Three high bunks, interesting self guided tour, 1/3 of the prison was torn down to build a new railroad bridge over the Colorado River.

Martha’s Garden Date Farm, we split one of their famous date shakes, as it was pretty darn tasty, and it was pretty sweet, not sure I could of ate one all by myself.

Ride’m John

95 degrees out and we met quite a few trucks hauling lettuce, not sure how they keep it from not becoming a big wilted mess.

When we go out to eat we’ve been trying to find the little local spots and order unusual dishes tacos of tripas, intestines, couldn’t do it.

 

Fruit picking, it’s a group of mostly guys, in their ‘silver’ years that get together twice a week and pick citrus.  Mesa is known as the citrus capital so when a new development comes in they can only remove as many trees as it takes to build the house.  They have to keep and maintain (I say this loosely) the rest of the citrus trees.  In a lot of the developments the home owners get fined if they don’t pick the fruit by a certain date.  If you leave the fruit on the trees you attract unwanted rodents.

Reminds us of the state workers, 1 person working 2 others “supervising”.

Usery Mountain, a ‘natural’ bridge, a bunch of rocks wedged in a crevasse, step lightly.

Ostrich Festival with my brother Roger and his wife Karen.

Ostrich races, they did have real ostriches racing too.

Camel races, something everyone has to see at least once.

Emu taking a break.

At VDO ( the campground) they have a train club, they set it up every fall and take it down in the spring so the hot Arizona sun doesn’t ruin it.

Casa Grande Ruins, Dad and Karen The Great House, would be four floors.  One floor of the Great house is almost buried along with the other structures in the compound left to preserve them.

Little Ranger, Big Leaner.

Eloy skydiving, skydivers come from all over the world to learn how to skydive here.  If you go bring a antigravity chair so you can tip back and watch them.

We had happy hour(s) with the Burlingame’s, friends from back home.  Very enjoyable afternoon.

Lost Dutchman’s, Karen, Dad, Roger, and John behind the camera.Canyon Lake, one of three man-made reservoirs, part of the Apache Trail AZ-88, so worth all the bumps, switchbacks, and elevation changes.

Tortilla Flat, restaurant, general store, and museum.

Fish Creek Hill, right around mile marker 220, where the ‘fun’ gravel road starts.

This picture of 88 makes it look really nice compared to the actual ride.

Theodore Roosevelt Dam

Dad and Roger with the longest one span bridge in North America behind them.

Salt River, beautiful scenery.

If we come back to this area we will try boondocking here, Bartlett reservoir. First come first served on where you want to camp.

Dad took us out for dinner at the local German restaurant. Prost!

We met our cousins, Sherry, Gene, Saffron, and Sadie at Lukes Air Force base for Luke Days, very entertaining show.  Afterwards we went to Sherry & Gene’s for Italian margaritas and burgers, we would highly recommend this place.

Luke Air Force airshow featuring the Blue Angels.

The airshow was a lot of fun but it did get a little dusty when the dirt devils blew through.

Twilight golf outing.

Sunset.  Roger, it’s time to put the clubs away.

Ben got to fly to Phoenix to receive an award from work we were able to meet up with him and Bubba, we drove them out to Tortilla Flat, they didn’t get the full experience (gravel roads) due to time constraints.

Tortilla Flat, women’s bathroom, yes the doors are short.

Sunset from our home at Valle Del Oro.

Butcher Jones trail monitor

Busy day at Saguaro Lake, looking back at our starting point and wondering why we just didn’t stay on the beach.

Organ stop pizza, the pizza was good, the music was great.

A cold windy day on the drive to Tuscan. There was snow in the mountains and we drove thru some sleet.

We were so excited to try one of the oranges from the tree on our space until we tasted one and discovered it was a cross between an orange and a lemon.  Later learned that they are called meyer lemons, thanks Roger.

On the drive back from Nogales Mexico we weren’t sure if we missed the border crossing or not when we saw this sign.

Karen going for a test flight at the Pima Air and Space museum.

There were so many planes to see both outside and inside it was hard to decide which photo to share.

Never know who you might meet at the museum.

Taking our first break on the hike into Sabino Canyon. In the background you can see the tram path far below, we were not even at the top yet.

Karen getting ready to cool her feet off before we hike back to the tram stop in Sabino Canyon.

Riding back down on the tram and still smiling after a 3.5 hour 6 mile hike with lots of switchbacks.

The river was our turn around point approximately at 3,700 ft, lots of ups and downs.

This is a crested saguaro cactus, it is rare to see and they are unsure what causes it to grow this way.

Yes, I can hear you now.  The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum was a little on the expensive side, it is a 98 acre botanical garden and zoo. You could spend a full day here between the museum areas and hiking paths.

Karen has not lost her knack for finding the dirt roads. This is the loop drive in Saguaro NP.

The drive thru the Saguaro NP was very interesting and bumpy, there were people in cars but they had to scrape by a few times.

Wyler Aerial Tram, people ride up then hike down. We chose to do the ride down. If you look close in the picture you can see 1 of the trams.

McGinns Pistachio Tree Ranch & Winery. We did the tour which was interesting, but lacked a little bit because the trees and vines were bare. We enjoyed our free cookie at the end.

White Sands National Park. You can “buy” a sled and they will “buy” it back for 1/3 the price when you are done.

We were amazed at the vastness of the sands.

Looking out from the cave near Dripping Springs. The springs really was just a drip.   The path to the springs was not the easiest  walking path. There was deep pea rock or larger river rock.

We went to Huaco Tanks State Park. You should make reversations because they only let so many in at a time.

Yep, we were at the top.

We did find some of the pictographs but I think you need to do the guided tour to see the best ones.

The Rio Grande River was a little on the dry side.