I had spent time in Sedona before, but never enough. I was always there for just a night, usually late in a tour where we didn’t have much time to do more than have a cursory look around. The cost and snobby attitudes of the locals with their spiritual vortex talk was always a turn-off for me. I had never had the chance to really get out there and do some hiking before, but I’m sure glad I scheduled a few days for it on this trip. I’ve been to a lot of places in this country, but few can compare to the red rock country surrounding Sedona. I don’t know about vortexes, but it is definitely a beautiful and magical place. Like most of red rock country, it’s best to hit the trail very early in the morning or just as the sun is starting to go down. While I was there, I hiked to the Birthing Cave, the Subway, Devil’s Bridge, the Courthouse and Bell and, my personal favorite, the Airport Loop. With the exception of this last one, which I had all to myself, there was no shortage of people in the area. It’s definitely not a secret place, nor is it off the beaten path, but it’s well worth it to visit and the shear number of trails in the area helps to disperse people pretty well. I had a wonderful few days in Sedona and will definitely be back. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Sedona, Arizona, a true hikers’ paradise.
The area that is now Wickenburg was once Yavapai Indian land and the river that runs through it is the Hassayampa which means “following the water as far as it goes” in the Yavapai language. In 1863, German prospector Henry Wickenburg came to the area in search of gold. He found it and opened the Vulture Mine which would eventually produce 340,000 ounces of gold and 260,000 ounces of silver.
Ranchers came to the area as well and soon a community sprang up. In 1895, the railroad came through Wickenburg which spawned even more growth. The town was incorporated in 1909, making Wickenburg the oldest Arizona town north of Tucson and the 5th oldest in the state. In 1866, Wickenburg missed being named the territorial capital by just two votes.
Today Wickenburg is a quaint little community with a real wild west feel to it (some of the light posts are even wearing cowboy hats). There are some amazing art installations around town and the Desert Caballeros Western Museum is one of the best in the state. I love the design of the Saguaro Theatre which was also probably my favorite theatre in Arizona. You’re never alone when you’re in Wickenburg as life-like statues are spread throughout town making for a family friendly feel. I hadn’t planned on staying long in Wickenburg, but it’s a great town worth exploring and I was there way longer than I expected to be. Next time you’re in this part of Arizona, stop in for a spell. You’ll be glad you did. I hope you enjoy these photos from tiny Wickenburg - the Dude Ranch Capital of the World.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was one of the top spots on my list of places to visit during my time in Arizona. It’s a remote park, located two hours from anywhere and right on the U.S./Mexican border, but it’s the only place in the country that you can find naturally occurring organ pipe cactus. In addition to these beauties, there are so many other species of cactus and desert plants as well which has led to this region also being named a part of UNESCO’s International Biosphere Reserve.
Organ Pipe Cactus was made a National Monument by Franklin Roosevelt back in 1937. A special act was passed to allow mining in the area during World War II, an act which sadly wasn’t repealed until 1976. The park’s remote location on the Mexican border used to bring both drug runners and human smugglers through the area, making this America’s most dangerous park. This danger is memorialized in the Kris Eggle Visitors Center which was named for a park ranger who was killed protecting visitors from drug smugglers in 2002. In the wake of his death, the border was reinforced and I felt safe there during my stay.
It was unbelievably hot when I arrived on an afternoon in late April. So hot that I couldn’t actually do anything but hover in the shade of the restroom and wait until the sun started to go down. I did enjoy a wonderful evening hike and an early morning one the following day as well. The area is beautiful and it was great to see the Organ Pipes in their native habitat. It was definitely just a one night stop, but I’m very glad I went. I hope you enjoy these photos from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Fort Apache was constructed between 1874 and 1932 and served as an important military outpost during the Apache Wars. It rests in the midst of the beautiful White Mountains of Eastern Arizona. and is well situated at the convergence of the North and East Forks of the White River. The area is the ancestral home of the Cibicue and White Mountain Apache tribes who welcomed the United States Army to build the fort there, as they had a common enemy in the Chiricahua Apache. The White Mountain Apache are very proud of their service as scouts in the U.S. Army, and the role they played in the defeat of the Chiricahua and the capture of the great Chiricahuan leader, Geronimo. I learned a lot about the Apache Scouts and their campaigns at the wonderful "Nohwike' Bagowa" (House of Our Footprints), more commonly referred to as the Apache Cultural Center & Museum. which should be everyone’s first stop on any visit to Fort Apache.
After visiting the museum, I set off to explore the rest of the fort on a self guided walking tour which took in all of the wonderful historic buildings which remain on the post. After Geronimo’s capture in 1886, the fort remained an active military post for many years, finally closing in 1924 (although several Apache scouts remained in the army until 1947). After the army pulled out, the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School was established and the land was transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The school is still there and functioning today. I had a great visit with the kind and welcoming people of the White Mountain Apache band and really enjoyed my visit to this fascinating historic fort. I hope you enjoy these photos from Fort Apache.
There may be no more iconic plant in the United States than the stately and stoic saguaro cactus. These beautiful cacti can grow up to 40’ tall and live to be 150 years old. They won’t start growing arms until they are 75 years old and some will grow many arms in their lives. Most of the natural habitat of the saguaro is in the Sonoran Desert which straddles the U.S./Mexico border.
In 1933, President Herbert Hoover designated Saguaro National Monument which we now call the Rincon Mountain District of the park. In 1961, John F. Kennedy added the Tucson Mountain District to the Monument and in 1994 these two tracts were combined into Saguaro National Park.
Whenever I am driving to a new town and I don’t have a specific destination in mind, I just put the town name into my GPS and it usually brings me to either the courthouse or City Hall. Wherever it leads me is usually in the center of town and I can sort myself out from there. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I was approaching Bisbee, Arizona and I turned onto Erie Street and found myself not in the center of town, but somewhere in the 1950s. It was quite surreal to drive up the street and see nothing but classic cars, vintage gas stations and old signs with no streetlights burning and not a person in sight. My GPS told me I had reached my destination but my mind was telling me otherwise. It turned out that it had indeed led me to Bisbee’s City Hall, but that building was situated in the midst of a wonderful local art/history instillation called the Lowell Americana Project which commemorates small-town life in the 1950s.
The Lowell & Arizona Copper Mining and Smelting Company began operation way back in 1899 under the leadership of Frank Hanchett, who named his business after his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. Three years later, the mine would be incorporated into the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. Two years after that, the town of Lowell was laid out to house local miners and their families and Erie Street became the commercial center. In 1908, Lowell was annexed into nearby Bisbee and the population would grow to 5,000 people. From what I’ve read it sounds like it was a bustling community and a pleasant place to live.
That would all start to change in 1950 when the Lavender Pit Mine was opened and the community’s population had to sell their homes and move out…
There’s much more to Winslow, Arizona than just that lyric from The Eagle’s hit song Take It Easy, but they are definitely using it to their benefit. Standing On The Corner Park at 2nd Street and Kinsley Avenue is beautifully done and brings in hundreds of tourists a day to this little town of just 10,000 or so residents. The real highlight of the town, though, is the beautifully restored La Posada Hotel, one of the original Harvey Houses opened in 1930. It is still operating as a hotel and I had the pleasure of dining in the Turquoise Room restaurant during my stay (in town, not in the hotel). There are also some great parks down by the railroad, a nice little brewery and plenty of souvenir shops. I also loved the town’s Visitor Center which is housed in the old Hubbell Warehouse which was a railroad hub for John Lorenzo Hubbell’s western trading posts. The lady working there when I visited took me around and showed me all kinds of neat artifacts from the town’s history. When I was leaving, I thanked her and with a well practiced wink she waved and said “hey, take it easy”. I hope you enjoy these photos from tiny Winslow, Arizona.
Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona contains a beautiful collection of petrified wood and also includes the Painted Desert, Blue Mounds and an old stretch of Route 66. It’s a park best explored by car, but you won’t really appreciate it unless you get out and hike out into the wilderness. Petrified Forest was designated a National Monument back in 1906 and was upgraded to a National Park in 1962. I enjoyed my visit to the park and hope you enjoy these photos I took exploring the Petrified Forest.
Monument Valley is a place everyone knows, even if they don't know they do. From the early John Ford Westerns to Marlboro and Jeep ads to Roadrunner cartoons, Monument Valley is the wild west of many people’s imaginations. It's a wonderful Tribal Park on the Navajo Reservation on the border of Arizona and Utah, and one of the most beautiful desert landscapes on earth. I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years and have seen it at all times of day and in all seasons. These are some of my favorite photos from my time there.
