Arizona and Unfriendly Weather

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Bushes and Blooms, Travels

Tags

Ajo, Arizona, Bisbee Arizona, Catalina State Park, Mt. Lemmon, Organ Pipe Cactus, Picacho Peak

Ed and I have joked for years that we’re a bad/weird weather magnet. Back in the 70’s when we tent camped a lot it always seemed to rain or snow on us and last year we often seemed to drag rain and snow along with us, but of course southern California loved us. This year it seems abnormally cold temperatures are the camping surprise we’re dealing with. In fact the temps were so cold and windy heading out of Texas into New Mexico and Arizona that we fled to the border with California in a 3 day hard driving marathon. Landing on Christmas Eve at Cattail Cove State Park just outside Lake Havasu City, AZ we settled in for a few days of wind and cold nights. While like all the Arizona State Parks we’ve stayed at, Cattail Cove is very nice and we did see a Big Horn Sheep, neither of us sees much point in making this area a destination. Lake Havasu City was developer Robert McCulloch’s dream based on the recreational draw of the dammed Colorado River and The London Bridge which he purchased, disassembled, shipped and reassembled here as a tourist attraction in 1971. I remember we laughed about this when it happened, and now that we’ve seen it we’re still shaking our heads.

We had a looming problem in that our little home’s engine was way overdue for its 40,000 mile check-up and being a Mercedes Benz with each additional 20 miles it beeped and sent us a “HEY” message. We contacted the nearest California MB Sprinter dealers and they said nope, no RV’s can’t help you or sure, in a month. So even though night time temperatures were still in the low 30’s and high 20’s we headed back to Chandler, AZ to get the work done. Got there for our appointment and the guy says, sorry our lift broke when we off-loaded the RV before you, all we can do is the oil change! So, after they did that, we headed for our favorite AZ state park Catalina outside of Tucson where we are familiar with the MB dealer in town. Loving this area that we consider a MVL (must visit list) place (last year’s Catalina blog) we settled in to do some hiking, do the drive up Mt.Lemmon and welcome in the New Year. Our water line only froze twice 🙂

See us having fun on our hike?

Windy Point Overlook on the Mt. Lemmon summit drive.

BTW, to our Sprinter Skinny Winnie friends, we were impressed with Chandler MB and we’ve dealt with Tucson MB twice now and trust them although so far they are the most expensive MB dealer we’ve ever encountered. 😦

Braving the cold we decided to visit some or our favorite MVL places from last winter. We popped down to Bisbee (where it poured cold rain) planning on dinner and drinks at the wonderful Santiago’s only to find them closed due to a water main break outside their door. We did however have a delightful afternoon (beer was involved) at the Old Bisbee Brewing Company and of course breakfast at the Bisbee Breakfast Club.

20160107-Picacho_Clearing_Storm_Rainbow_2-

From our Picacho Peak State Park campsite looking across the valley, a clearing storm over the Picacho Mountains gave us a wonderful gift.

We revisited another one of Arizona’s wonderful state parks Picacho Peak State Park where I went on a steep, rocky, wonderful hike up the mountain without Ed who was suffering from a weak knee problem.

Marti on her solo hike…

From there down to quiet little Ajo and the Shadow Ridge RV Resort (resort, no, but nice and a good laundry) where part of the fun is hearing and seeing the “boys out to play” in their A10 Warthogs and other really cool jets over the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range.

With the temps once more heading down into the high 20’s we’ve packed up again heading west where it’s a bit better. Next post will be coming soon…..really….you’ll be surprised 🙂

Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area from Catalina State Park.

Saguaro Cactus family portrait.

Bird’s nest in a saguaro cactus arm.

Sutherland Wash in Catalina State Park.

That’s a big Barrel Cactus…

Hoodoos on the Mt. Lemmon summit drive.

Picacho Mountains on Marti’s hike up the Peak trail.

We always have gorgeous sunsets at Picacho Peak State Park.

Tillotson Peak in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument south of Ajo, Arizona.

Lots of very sticky sharp things on a Saguaro Cactus.

Palo Verde trees have green bark which does the photosynthesis usually done by leaves. They also have leaves which drop in winter.

Does this rock make me look fat?

Gniess rock.

Nice flower.

One last photo of the Picacho Mountains with I-10.

Bisbee Arizona – Copper, Art and Stairs

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Bisbee 1000, Bisbee Arizona, Car art, copper mines, grafitti, Hillary Clinton, Queen Mine, Street art

Bisbee from our campsite just before sunrise.

Bisbee AZ nestled in the Mule Mountains was founded in 1880 and became one of the richest mineral sites in the world. Producing nearly 3 million ounces of gold and more than 8 billion pounds of copper, not to mention silver, lead and zinc by the early 1900’s Bisbee mining made it the largest city between St. Louise and San Francisco. The last mine closed down in 1975 and the town started to empty and decline, until free spirits and artists flowed in and revitalized this quaint historic town.

Queen Copper Mine entrance and tour train cars. We did the tour…

Ed and I have had a blast wondering around the warren of streets and stairs of this delightful and quirky town. Having been built on the sides of mountains many of the homes were originally accessed via mule paths. During the Great Depression the WPA (Work Projects Administration) built steps where these pathways were. Now there are stairs EVERYWHERE and so folks here being clever, this year will be the 25^th anniversary of the Bisbee 1000 – the Annual Great Bisbee Stair Climb, oh and participants actually do climb 1,034 steps!! Ed and I did maybe 400 plus over 3 days!

There is art everywhere in this town, good, bad, beautiful and ugly. All of the stairways in the climb have paintings at the beginning with the number of steps and which number the location is for the run. Blank walls all over town are canvases with community murals, master artist paintings and general graffiti. There’s public sculpture and private. Most yards and/or homes have decorative features, clever “junk” and or paintings. Even house numbers and sewer covers are artistic.

There’s OK food, good food and great food offered in small spots and large. There’s a local brewery making wonderful beer. There’s music both in establishments and just common areas. There are a ton of art galleries. And, there is a copper mine tour which is lead by former miners who worked the Queen mine. All of it by Washington DC metro area standards – inexpensive. WE LOVE BISBEE!! Put it on your MUST VISIT list!