Archive | Arizona RSS feed for this archive

Chiricahua National Monument

Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona

Apache Indians called the area that is now Chiricahua National Monument “the land of standing up rocks.” Much later, European settlers called it “a wonderland of rocks.” We simply called it awesome.

In this remote area of Southeastern Arizona, columns of volcanic rock seemingly grow hundreds of feet in height, in fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Upon seeing it for the first time, Shannon and I both thought of Colorado’s Garden of the Gods, only dressed in green. But the comparison is somewhat tenuous. Where Garden of the Gods is finely manicured, petite and photogenic, Chiricahua is rough, ruggedly handsome and massive.

Read More…

Warner Brothers Morning Guests

After a spectacular sunset, we awoke to our favorite Warner Brothers cartoon. The Road Runner stayed for some breakfast seed.

Road Runner

But Bugs Bunny, seeming distraught at having made a wrong turn in Albuquerque, didn’t linger.

Photo of the Day: Sunset on Wilcox, AZ

Sunset on Wilcox, AZ

A Serendipitous Solar Eclipse

Annular Solar Eclipse

We don’t usually plan well enough to arrive in specific locations during special events. We always seem to just miss festivals and cool cultural goings on. So it was a little surprising when we discovered that our travels took us directly in the path of the first solar eclipse to hit North America since 1994.

We decided to stay a couple of extra days in Holbrook, AZ, so we could take in the event at Petrified Forest National Park. We’ll have a ton more to say about this park in future blog posts, but suffice it to say, there is far more here than just a bunch of rocks that used to be trees. It’s a surprisingly awesome national park and a terrific place to have watched this unusual occurrence.

Last night’s show was what is called an annular eclipse, which is a special type of partial eclipse. Unlike a total eclipse where the moon completely blots out the sun, in an annular the moon is far enough away from the earth that it leaves a visible ring of fire (and it burns, burns, burns.) It really does, too, if you stare at it with unprotected eyes.

Read More…