Sedona - Last Day

30 April 2015  On our last of 3 days in Sedona we just took a couple of hikes.  Nothing spectacular, but pretty if you're a desert fan.

Sent her ahead to troll for mountain lions.

She gets attacked by bees and humming birds all the time.

Lucky penny found on trail.
Will be relevant to tomorrow's post.

.

Attacked by GIANT atomic mutant spitting cobra!!

Some other alien stuff growing on a juniper.

Good night from Sedona,

Brad and Val

Palatki, Honanki, Tuzigoot (Bless You)

Wednesday 29 April

No, Palatki is not the name of a small town in Poland.  All three words are the names of Sedona area "cultural Heritage Sites (AKA ruins) that we visited over the past two days. They were all occupied by the Sinagua culture in the 1100-1400 AD time frame The first two are stuck 8 and 12 miles respectively up a dead end dirt road.  A few dicey spots for the low-hanging Funmobile, but mostly just wash boarded.

The first site (Palatki) we did yesterday afternoon after a few hours drive from the last campground.

Then to the red-dirt road

A small site with only about 20 family unit rooms.

A limited amount of rock art, but unique in how it was applied.

Just a nice view from the road back to Sedona

Already getting late by the time we finish the first site, so we start the 8 mile (45 minute) drive to the campground in Sedona.  It's a commercial RV park, which we usually avoid like the plague.  Unfortunately there are no alternatives in the area.  It's much better than average, located near downtown and run like a boot camp.  Lights out at 10 pm and they turn on the sprinklers at 11 pm just to make sure there are no party hounds.

Up this morning for a run back out the same road as yesterday, but 4 miles further and a lot bumpier.  Destination Honanki, a larger community of about 70 rooms and significantly more rock art.

Surprisingly more realistic thn most of the rock art.

The last stop of the day is Tuzigoot, back out the same road, (ugh) and further south about 30 miles.  Unlike the cliff dwelling style of the first two sites, this site is a hill-top pueblo and much larger that the others.

Time to head back to Sedona again, with a stop at Gaylords, a high-end southwestern art dealer specializing mostly in rugs from various regions.  We agree that we have enough SW art and only to look around.  To my shock and surprise, that's what we actually did.

Good night from Sedona

Brad and Val

A Walk Through The Garden

Monday 27 April

Last night was spent at Oak Creek Canyon Campground, just north of Superior, (not sure where that name derived from), AZ. It is in a spectacular area of rocky spires and high cliffs and is supposed to be the Pinal Apache homeland.

As we pull in we notice an encampment of about 8-10 people who appeared to be Indian.  Several wore jackets with the AIM logo on the back.  As a reminder, AIM was an armed participant organization in the 1973 armed uprising/standoff with the FBI at Wounded Knee South Dakota.

I was a little uncomfortable through the evening as I wasn't sure that the campground was considered open to the general public or not.

So on the way out this morning, we stopped at the camp and asked about the numerous signs about Save Oak Creek Canyon Campground.  After talking for a while, I ended up signing the petition to save the area from a plan to turn it into a giant hole in the ground a'la' the one pictured in yesterday's blog post.

Another prejudice melting away.

Anyway, the destination for the day was nearby Boyce Thompsom Arboretum.   Established by its namesake, the arboretum is a collection of desert flora from around the world against a backdrop of Picket Post Mountain.

Thompson, a copper mining magnate, built the arboretum, (and his home overlooking it),  after having 2nd thoughts about the effects of his mining activities in the area.

A large variety of cactus;

Insides of above flower.

NO! You can't take it home.
(Turns out you can take a smaller version for only $9.95)

Some friendly critters.

And some not so.

Tarantula Killer Wasp

Another fine day in the desert, then headed north towards Sedona.

Good night from Houston Mesa CG, Payton AZ

Brad and Val

Ephiphany - Supplemental

Last night after posting the Biospere 2 blog I starting reading a book by Joyce Poynter, one of the participants.  It wasn't far into the book when I realized that I might have over-epiphanized (if there is such a word).

When you know that your long-held social positions are long-held simply because you are stubborn, then it is tempting, when presented with evidence that those long-held beliefs may be full of crap, to quickly abandon those long-held beliefs and replace them with more politically correct short-held beliefs.  (Which is precisely what I did.)

(Boy - that was a run-on sentence if I ever wrote one!)

It turns out that, (at least in case of the author), the project may have been conceived, planned, and executed by a bunch of socially rebellious trust fund babies and X - Haight Ashbury types.  It also turns out that the sealed system Biosphere in fact was powered by electricity from the grid and actually had to have supplemental oxygen pumped in after only 6 months.

Anyway, I'm rescinding all my mushy, overly touchy feely, kum-bay-a commentary from yesterday pending further research.

(Could be that "stubborn" doesn't go away very easily.)

It was still an interesting visit, and I am not critical of the project since its intentions were good, .... and it was almost completely funded (about 200 million) by one very rich individual.

Brad

Epiphany (lower case "E")

An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia, "manifestation, striking appearance") The term can imply any situation in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective.

Today was such an event.

On the way to our next stop west of Phoenix, we passed a sign, "Biosphere Two - 4 Miles".   I recall hearing the term in the early 90's when in my business, such things were just snickered at.  I always thought it was just a dozen or so old hippies who locked themselves into a geodesic dome for two years to prove you could do just that without eating each other.

So I thought it might be an interesting stop to look at the place where cannibalism became an environmentally acceptable hypothesis.  Being a bit single minded, I was amazed at what we found.

Tucked away in the desert hills 30 or so miles north of Tuscon is the facility when in 1992, eight men and women entered a large sealed structure where for two years, NOTHING would enter or leave except sunlight.  Called BIOSPHERE 2,  (earth being biosphere 1), it was intended to quantitatively study the balances of nature (water, air, vegetation, and life in general) in a completely sealed ecosystem.

Initial entry was through a space station type sealed door.  Once inside the inhabitants were physically isolated from the material outside environment.

The structure has huge four functional areas.  The "boimes" building housed the three ecosystems; rain forest to produce oxygen, ocean for processing water, and desert for (??).

An agricultural area where crops were grown and livestock was raised.  (This area has been re-purposed and so no photos.)

A research and living center.

The Kitchen

And the 2.5 acre equipment level where conventional and experimental machinery moved air around the facility and recycled water and waste products.

A special note about the "lung".  Since the system was air tight, to accommodate expansion and contraction of the air in the facility, a 180 foot diameter, rubber roofed dome inflated and deflated as needed.

 After the first two year experiment was completed, the entire facility was re-purposed as a research center to study the effects of climate change by micro managing the climate inside the structure.

Epiphany might be a bit of an over statement, but to be sure, I walked away with a new appreciation for the efforts made here in the area of pure science.

As a bit of point-counterpoint, the travel for the remainder of the day took us through more spectacular desert landscape, followed by a drive-by of a cooper mine that has eaten whole mountains of that landscape.

The price of progress is extremely high

Good night from Houston Mesa Campground, central Arizona.

Brad and Val