Mesa AZ, Feb. 16 to March 8

Feb. 16 Jeep trip in desert.

The day after getting back from Hawaii we went on a Jeep trip in the desert.  The poppies and other wild flowers were in bloom on the hillsides and along the road.  The desert is surprisingly green.  We have seen lots of cattle grazing and there are water tanks, some with wind mills to pump the water, all over the desert.  We went out with the Jeep group about twice a week.  Most of the time we cooked lunch over a campfire with everyone bring food to go with the main dish.  We had very good lunches and very innovative meals.  Most of the time there were around 8 Jeeps on a trip and very well planed with GPS coordinates at every turn.  They have been out on the desert many times and know their way around.

Following the road through desert

Arizona Poppies

A view of the beautiful mountains and desert

Feb. 21, Jeep trip

old mine

balance rock

Feb. 23, Jeep trip

On this trip we came upon an old shack called Sugar Shack.  It was built into the hillside had lots of things people had left behind when they visited.  The refrigerator whick is built into the back wall was full of canned goods. 

Sugar Shack

Feb. 25, Wickenburg

Today we drove to Wickenburg to check out the old historic town.  There are bronze statues around the center of town to tell the story of the history of Wickenburg.  We visited the Desert Caballeros Western Museum which was filled with many western paintings, sculptures, artifacts, cowboy gear and memorabilia.  They did a very good job of depicting life in the old western town.  A 200 year old mesquite tree served as the town jail where criminals were chained to the tree to serve out their stantence or a drunk get sober.

Jail tree

school teacher

store

bar

kitchen

sculpture in front of museum

Feb. 25, Carefree

On the way home we stopped in Carefree.  They have a beautiful cactus garden with a large sundail in the center town.  There is a crested Sagauro which was transplanted in the park.  Crested Sagauro's are very rare.  There are shops surrounding the park. 

cactus garden

Crested Saguaro

Feb. 27, Jeep trip

Hillside  covered with large Saguaros

Line up of Jeeps

This is the best crested saguaro we have seen

women on the trip

The guys

Feb. 28, my birthday dinner at Rustler's Rooste

We had a terrific view of the city from our table.

March 1, Jeep trip

Having lunch
We had chicken and shrimp stirfry

March 3, Tonto National Monument

These cliff dwellings were built during the 1300's by the Salado culture and they occupied these dwellings for approximately 300 years.  They overlook today's Theodore Roosevelt Lake.  We climbed a steep trail up the mountain side to access the dwellings.  They are 85% origional and we could even see the smoke from fires within the dwelling on the walls and celing.

View from the top

smoke on walls and celing

view from the parking lot

March 3, Tortilla Flat

We stopped in the little wide spot in the road, Tortilla Flat and had ice cream cones.  The Apache Trail is paved to this town and then it turns to dirt and windes around the mountains and a couple of lakes for about 25 miles.  Pavement returns close to Roosevelt Lake.

Tortilla Flat

March 5, Jeep trip

This was our last Jeep trip with this group from Apache Junction.  There were eight regulars who went on most trip and they were all from different states.  We had people from New York, Ohio, Minisota, Michigan, Illinois, Alaska, and Kansas.  We were fortunate to meet such nice people and we had a great time on the trips in the beautiful Arizona desert.

rock formations

Copper mine
We were on the mounntain overlooking this mine and there was a locked gate across the road so we had to turn around and go our the same way we came in.

These are the stones I cut and polished in lapidary. 
Four have been made into pendents in silversmithing and I have one to finish tomorrow.

After being here in Mesa for 2 months we leave on Thursday, March 8th to go down to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  We are meeting Bernie and Rea who we met on the Jeep trips and going to stay inside the park for 3 or 4 nights.  We are then going to Benson which is east of Tucson for a week.  Happy Travels, Barb