Archive for the ‘arizona’ tag
Camping and RVing at Roosevelt Lake
This camper was surely the best investment we have made recently. It is SO MUCH FUN!
Here are a slew of pix from our weekend and below the link a few of my faves. 
http://flickr.com/photos/betsybe/sets/72157609841178619/
November 21-23, 2008. We headed out to Roosevelt Lake to camp this weekend with Scott’s parents (in their RV) and Andrea, Jay and McKenna. Friday night we enjoyed fresh-made tamales around the campfire. We had a lazy Saturday and, after a big breakfast on Sunday morning complete with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes and fruit, we caravaned just up the road to hike up to the cliff dwelling ruins at Tonto National Forest. We shared a picnic lunch before heading home. What a fun weekend!!
Mira and her cousin got to sleepover in the grandparent’s RV!! They were in HEAVEN, can you tell??
View of the lake from our campsite:
My sister in law and father in law, but especially the artwork taped up behind them lol
Jake terrorizing the RV
Breakfast feast
Cousins playing in Grandma and Grandpa’s RV (the kids all slept in the RV – grandma and grandpa are SAINTS.)
We hiked up to this cliff dwelling:
Cool view of where we were camping (down by the lake) from where we were hiking this afternoon:
Me, hiking, with trekking poles in hand…
Cool pic of the cliff dwelling ruins. You can’t really see it in this particular photo, but the cave ceiling is totally blackened from ancient campfires. Isn’t that wild? 600 year old soot.
Scott & his dad (with Jake napping in the ergo on Scott’s back). Overlooking Roosevelt Lake at Tonto National Monument – at the base of hike up to the lower cliff dwelling ruins.
Three generations of Bailey boys
Jake took this pic during a diaper change!
After sleeping through the whole hike, Jake is rarin’ to go!
Weekend hike: Sears Kay Ruin
The beautiful days of AZ winter are winding down. We have to take advantage of every comfortable day we can (once summer temps hit in May, we don’t spend much time outside anymore). In our quest to do one mini-adventure most weekends, this past Saturday we visited the Sears-Kay ruin – 800 year old Hohokam village remains. This place is in Carefree area of AZ, where I’ve never visited before. The houses and properties en route were just… O-o
I told Scott we had to go back sometimes sans kids just to drive around and gape. This one subdivision had a HUGE stable/arena facility where it looked like homeowners could board their horses right there in the community. And there are gorgeous mountain trails for hiking/riding in this area. Homes in the area are 1.5M plus.
Anyway, here are some pix from our day.
Hiking up – it was COLD (the ruins were at a significantly higher elevation than our house is)! We weren’t dressed for it, hence the huddled look we all have LOL.
Jake and daddy:
HM and mom:
Mira wanted to wear the ergo:
Apache Trail adventure
For the third weekend in a row, we had a fun outdoors family excursion.
On Sunday, we loaded up the van and spent the day on the Apache Trail.
We had lunch at Tortilla Flats. We white knuckled through Fish Creek Canyon, a scary part of the drive that included tight hairpin curves, sheer drops off the edge of a one lane dirt road and… no guardrail!!
We stopped to check out Theodore Roosevelt Dam, which was a pretty impressive feat of engineering and then for the best part of the day: Tonto National Monument – a very cool ruin site of ancient cliff dwellings.
That cave is a 1/2 mile hike up a (paved) path – 350 vertical feet! <huff puff> with baby in sling. Hear me roar! I had to pace myself by walking very, very slowly. And I did not appreciate any of my children coming to a dead stop in front of me; maintaining a slow, steady slog was essential. This trail was *steep*.
Tonto National Monument consists of the ruins of two cliff dwellings established by the Salado Indians in about 1300 AD. The southeast-facing settlements were built quite high up a steep hillside within well-protected natural caves overlooking the Tonto Basin, which is now flooded forming Theodore Roosevelt Lake, though originally the Salt River flowed through the Basin which was therefore well irrigated and fertile. As with many other ancient peoples of the Southwest, the Salado appear to have abandoned their villages suddenly, early in the fifteenth century, for reasons which are not known.
The two-story ruin originally had 19 rooms; these are quite well-preserved and it is permitted to walk around the inside. Originally, the only access was by ladder leading to an entrance at the far left of the structure, which made the settlement easy to defend.
Here’s a pic of Mira doing the hike up to the ruins:
Here we are in the ruins:
See the wee little parking lot way down there??
Gorgeous Arizona:
The least enjoyable part of the trip was the drive through Globe-Miami – a copper mining town. Strip mining has really defaced the mountains in this area.
This is an interesting town, established in 1876 after a large globe-shaped boulder of silver was found nearby. Both copper and silver were later mined extensively, and several old buildings remain from the boom times around the turn of the century. A few miles west, huge copper ore extraction operations still continue around Miami, and US 60 passes several miles of tailings ponds and spoil heaps.
Visiting a ghost town (Goldfield)
Another gorgeous weekend in Arizona!
Yesterday was devoted to errands… first, we got the oil changed in my van, and while we were waiting, I snapped this lovely shot. 
Also, I ordered a new pair of prescription sunglasses that are oh-so-cool and superflattering Guccis. I can’t wait until the come in!
Today we spent the afternoon in Goldfield – a restored ghost town (read: tourist trap) just east of Apache Junction in the Superstition foothills.
We had an early dinner in the Saloon, checked out the live reptile exhibit, had some ice cream and rode a narrow gauge train. Oh, and we saw a gunfight!
Funny little touristy experience that is only about 20 minutes from our house. We’ll go back sometime for the goldmine tours and maybe a trail ride…
Of course, some pix!
We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
There is no better day for the Phoenix Zoo than superbowl Sunday – the weather is usually comfortable and the place is practically deserted!
We had all the kids today, plus Superbowl Sunday (in 2005, that was Feb 6) is the anniversary of our first date (three years ago) and we chose the zoo as our first meeting place.
We also introduced our children to each other at the zoo, later that spring.
When Scott first saw me walking (so proudly lol) into the zoo with my children that first time, he said, “ahh, there you are – with your little ducklings all in a row.” So sweet. I feel all melty just thinking about it again. ♥
Here’s a pic from that day, almost three years ago:
Two years ago, when we were celebrating the first anniversary of our first date, we went to the zoo sans children, rented one of those bicycle surreys and debated whether or not we should have a baby together while we cycled around the zoo. I went off the pill mid-February and the TTC fun began.
I say, we sure have done a lot of living these past three years!!
Here are some pix from the day we had today. I can’t BELIEVE what a good time we had. Not one meltdown. Okay, Andrew really didn’t want to be there, but he was a good sport in spite of it. Yes, HM is wearing shorts. It was a gorgeous day!
Bailey, HM and Mira:
Weekend trip to Tuscon Zoo
The weather here in AZ was PERFECT this weekend and we decided to load up the girls and take a road trip down to Tucson's Reid Park Zoo. (Phoenix Zoo members get in free
The girls and I had never been to Tuscon, so it was neat to see some of that city. It's much hillier and prettier in that area than I imagined.
Much like Phoenix, it's bordered to the north (and east?) with a large mountain range. A very impressive mountain range, too – the Catalinas – with a peak of over 9,000 feet, that range gets an average 180" snow per year. On our way back home, we drove by the entrance to the Catalina State Park. We're very interested in exploring that ara someday.
What a relaxing day we had. We didn't rush out the door, but took our time. Regardless of weather or size of zoo, we knew that between my third trimester endurance levels and typical kid behavior, we'd have maybe a 2-3 hour window of opportunity at the zoo anyway. So we headed out around 8:30 am, stopped at BK for a fast food breakfast and then hit I-10 for the two hour drive. I-10 sucks.
We loved the zoo! We're regulars at the Phoenix Zoo, so it was a fun and different contrast. Reid Park Zoo is a small, community zoo. It wasn't too crowded – nice to see the exhibits without all the jostling crowds. Also, the habitats were significantly smaller than you see in the larger metro zoos, so that means we were able to FIND the animals in nearly all the exhibits.
Anyway, it was such a small zoo that we saw the whole thing in two hours. Perfect! We were ready to go by then, anyway. We had a late lunch at PF Changs and took the back way (through Florence/Queen Creek) home. In all, a really nice day.
For the I-Can't-Take-Them-Anywhere file
The most intriguing exhibit, as far as the girls were concerned, was that of the polar bears.
On the glass of the enclosure, a small placard explained that you might find the polar bears engaged in mating behavior: nuzzling and nibbling, rubbing against each other, potentially we'd even see some mounting. If the zoo was lucky, they would breed and later there would be a little polar bear cub.
So we approached the exhibit, along with another mom and her preschooler. All my girls had to, of course, carefully read the sign out loud and observe, that yes! The bears were nuzzling and nibbling and rubbing and… "Oh look, he wants to mount! They're going to mount!"
"Okay, girls, let's move on… Yes, now. N O W."
(Anyway, our enjoyable Saturday was followed by an even more relaxing Sunday – including a visit from Andrea and McK for brunch. The girls had a good time playing with their baby cousin. The rest of the day we just hung out at home, needing to go nowhere.) It felt soooo good, that downtime.
Desert living: Adventures with goatbirds
I just found this is email from last summer that I want to preserve here…
August 22, 2006
Last night, we had one of those RARE AZ summer nights with our windows open because we had no a/c. Because the power went out, because we had a HUGE storm last night.
First the wind kicked up. MASSIVE winds. Blew a construction site portapotty down the street until it landed right in front of our driveway (glad it didn't hit a car!). So much dust we couldn't see houses across the street! Then the wind died down and we thought it was over. We stood at the back door admiring the towering, gigantic wall of dust as it moved off to the east. (This is a desert phenomenon. It's called a haboob.)
Little did we know it was not the end of the storm but the EYE of the storm. Suddenly: SLAM lightening, thunder, wind, rain, hail. Then the power went out. For six hours. Ugh. Also, the wind dented one of our garage doors so badly it has to be replaced. Insane. Turns out it was what they call a microburst and we had 70+ mph winds. Lots of damage in the neighborhood. Some roof tiles off another house, dozens of dented garage doors, a sizable wall made from concrete block got knocked over several lots east of us (no houses on those lots yet, so no windbreak to protect the wall.
We opened the windows to let some cool air in, but then we couldn't fall asleep with all these unaccustomed sounds: between the window shades making so many bumping noises from the breeze. And some road noise. And also the weirdest sound of all…
It sounded like a whole herd of goats got loose in the desert.
For awhile we lay there debating if there were indeed agitated goats meandering the desert. Or maybe it was birds? Andrew had asked earlier, WHAT is that NOISE? Quail? But quail usually nest at night. And it didn't sound like quail anyway.
Whatever it was, it was a cacophony. We tossed and turned. Scott finally said, ENOUGH, I'm shutting the windows. Between the shades and the goatbirds, I can't sleep. I'd rather be hot.
(Goatbirds!! Tee hee! That cracked me up.)
Now I still couldn't fall asleep wondering about these mythical, loud creatures behind our house. I started thinking about when I was growing up – we had no a/c – and the racket the tree toads would make at night. You wouldn't believe how loud those things are. They don't sound like goats or birds, though.
Scott said, well, anyway, I don't think we have tree toads or frogs here in Arizona.
I said, well, that's what you think! According to HM (our resident nature geek), however, tree frogs are the state amphibian (so there)!
I finally could bear it no more and today I googled: In fact, our goatbirds are not likely to be tree frogs, after all; tree frogs live in the woods at higher elevations in Arizona. We live in the low elevation Sonoran desert.
I did find this, though! The Sonoran green toad:
Toad and spadefoot activity is highly correlated with the monsoon season. Some species may be active as early as late spring while others will be out only after summer rains. If it is cool enough, desert amphibians may occasionally be active during the day. However, most species are primarily active at night when one often hears the strange calls of males from quite a distance. Some sound like bleating sheep, others chirp, snore, or wheeze; some make almost no sound at all.
Summer rains! Bleating sheep!
I win, I win!
August 29, 2006 postscript: Last night there was a "goatbird" in our driveway. Scott caught it for all the kids to hold and look at before releasing it into the desert.
April 28, 2007 postscript: We've not heard or seen any toads since, nor are we likely to ever again in this community. We knew it was coming – more development. We even saw the plat plan before we bought this house. Since late winter, the desert behind us has been scraped away and excavated for a new subdivision. Goodbye goatbirds, quail, roadrunners and nightly howling coyotes. We miss you already…
Weekend in Strawberry
Got up early on Saturday for some hiking and geocache adventuring. Before we met, Scott had logged some 40 caches (some of them with A), but this was a first for the girls and me. They were pretty excited by the idea of hunting for a goodie box in the middle of a wilderness hike. (Not that they whined any less about having to hike, of course.)
We chose the Fossil Creek (Lover's) Leap cache, thinking that it looked like a pretty easy hike. Well, it was… kinda. The trail/road that was supposed to be there was basically nonexistent, so the terrain was rather rougher than we were expecting – rocky and lots of fallen limbs/trees to navigate. Normally? NO big deal. For a pregnant lady used to an elevation of around 1200 feet? Well, this elevation was 6600 feet and that combined with pregnancy made the whole thing a little more strenuous than I was planning.
HM was SO solicitous during this hike. She insisted on hanging
back with me and if I faltered at all, she would pat my arm encouragingly. It was incredibly sweet. I'm really enjoying this golden mama-adoration stage she's going through right now. May it never end. 
She DID make me very nervous at the Rim, however. That girl was all about scrambling as close to the edge of an 800 foot drop (my heart, omg) as she possibly could. 
Anyway, the hike was only 3 miles round trip, the weather was GORGEOUS and the view was completely amazing, amazing amazing and so completely worth the hassle of finding it.
In all, that adventure took several hours, after which we had a nice lunch at a local restaurant, visited the oldest standing schoolhouse in AZ as well as the Pine-Strawberry museum in Pine, AZ… before heading back to the cabin to crash (if you were 14 or older) and run shrieking wild outside with kids from the other cabins (if you were 11 or younger).
Then we had a simple sloppy joe dinner and an evening of board games before we called it a night. (I was completely wiped out by this time.)
Today we slept in a little, packed up and visited a neat ancient Indian ruin site (Shoo Fly Village) on the way home. We tried to log a geocache here, but it appeared the cache involved trudging for 3 miles roundtrip through some very high grass. Meh. Not interested, not this day. The site itself was fascinating, though, and – again – the views were just gorgeous.
Shoofly Village (managed by the U.S. Forest Service) was occupiedbetween A.D. 1000 and 1250 and consists of 79 surface rooms. Itis thought the occupants were an "autonomous variant of theHohokam."
We had a great time and in being there I discovered there's lots more I want to explore in the area: various trails and lakes, hot springs and swimming holes, the Tonto Natural Bridge (when I'm stronger and more fit again!).
QotD: My <3
Who or what do you really love?
Since it goes without saying that I love, love, love my family and friends. (But there I said it anyway for the official Valentine's Day record.
So I thought I would talk today about something else I really love:
I love Phoenix in February!!
(And most all the other winter months here, too.)
In my Hometown, Ohio right now it is 18F (feels like 9F) and a projected high of 22. It looks something like this:
Here in Phoenix it is currently 52F with a projected high of 66. Brr. A little chilly. A photo from a South Mountain hike last January:
I'm so glad I moved here! All this gorgeous sunshine AND the love of my life.
Mom to 4 kids and 2 stepkids, I am a writer writing in the heart of chaos. I am the co-founder and former editor of 
