Category: Arizona

Jacob Lake, AZ – Sunday June 14, 2015

Left Lees Ferry early so we could get a site at Jacob Lake Forest Service Campground at the north road to Grand Canyon north side. The canyon is still 50 miles south of here.  There were a bunch of open sites and we took site 5 which is where we stayed last Fall.
Really nice day in mid 70’s, Lees Ferry is to be 95 and Hurricane 104.  We will head to Cathedral Gorge, Nv tomorrow where it should be 90. 

Lees Ferry Natl Park – Thursday June 11, 2015

Today we drove 300 miles to Lees Ferry National Park just below Glen Canyon Dam and the place where people start their trip floating the Grand Canyon.  The drive out from Navajo Lake added a little interest to the trip.  At 5:00 a.m. this morning a THUNDER storm came through the area so there were several places where there was mud across the road.  The highway folks had already been out and bladed the road however in a couple of spot the mud was still at least a 1/2 in thick.  To say the car got dirty would be an understatement.  We stopped at Kayenta to get gas and I could at least get some of the dirt off the windshield so I’d be able to drive the car after we got to the campground.

When we got to Lees Ferry campground both of the river view spots were taken.  We first moved into site 44 and then moved to 46 which is right next to 44.  We moved because site 46 actually angles into site 44 this way hoping no one would camp to close to us.
A little after 5:00 the people who were camped in one of the view sites showed up and left.  They had left there trailer in the site all day and then left at 5:00 p.m.  Rude on their part good for us, we moved into one of the front view sites, number 47.
This is site 47.
View form site 44, the first site we were in.
This is the view from our picnic table with the large metal cover to keep the sun off ME.

View to the right from the picnic table.

It is going to be warm here 85 to 95 during our stay.  Plan is to leave Sunday for Jacob’s Lake, Az or Sand Hollow State Park by Hurricane, Utah.

 

Pictures From Days Past – Tuesday June 2, 2015

I’m a little behind in posting pictures I have taken.

Here are some of the pictures from our tour around Homoliva ruins.

These were large villages with over 1200 rooms at one of the 4 sites.
This is a drawing of what the village might have looked like:
Some of the rooms where rather large.
This is where they think this kiva was and some of it rebuilt.
And of course there are always lizards:
I also got him out on the side walk, Look at the length of his rear toes.
There is a lot of pottery around these sites and it is illegal to remove anything from the sites, so people place the things they find on flat rocks.

There are a lot of these rocks around the sites, it’s really kind of cool.

Winslow, Az.

This was fun, Jean and I had stopped by here several years ago.   At that time we texted the kids, “Standing on a Corner”.   I think Brian was the first to answer, “Winslow, Arizona”

 

Homoliva State Park, Winslow, AZ – Sunday May 31, 2015

Jean and I went out looking at the two ruins in the park and then drove into Winslow.    While you are in Winslow it is important to go stand on THE CORNER.

This year I got the T-shirt.

Also went by the Flying J truck stop to see if I can get in and out while towing the car.  It looked good and we’ll get gas Monday morning.

Here is our drive around Winslow, we were also out looking for a laundromat.

Homoliva State Park – Winslow, AZ – Friday May 29, 2015

We are in site 32.

There are 53 sites in this campground and only 12 sites are being used. Of that 12, 5 are for one boys youth group.  We stayed here on September 14, 2011 and at that time there was only a couple of people here.  It is really a nice campground with 40 to 50 feet between sites which are level and paved with electricity and water.

Today’s drive was 429 miles.  We were on the road by 6:30 a.m.  and got to Homoliva at 4:00 p.m.
I had planned a stop in Flagstaff to do our grocery shopping at a SuperWalmart however that did not work out so well.  I have read a lot of blogs about how unfriendly Flagstaff is to RV’ers and they again proved it to be true on all accounts.   It was difficult to find the store because of no signage.  We saw a large brown building with a large parking lot and figured it to be the Walmart.  When got right to the turn lane we could see the four foot high Walmart sign at the parking lot entrance.  However, I could not see a good path into and out of the parking lot.  One of the challenges of pulling a car is you can not back up.  If I get myself into a place where I can not make a turn I’d have to stop unhook the car and then backup.  I actually have had to do this once.  We were on Hwy 50 (out in the middle of nowhere) half way across Nevada when we stopped for lunch at a pony express historical site.  The parking lot was empty and I thought I could make a large circle and make it out the only entrance point.  I was wrong, unhooked the car, backed up three feet and made the turn J.  Back to Flagstaff Walmart, the parking lot was so broken up the curbs and light posts I was not sure I could get in and out with all the tight turns and other vehicles in the lot.  After driving around the area looking for a place to park we decided to move on down the road.

Here is a Google Earth view I got after we arrived at Homolovi.  It doesn’t look to bad until more cars and a few motorhomes are added.

Flagstaff was also a scheduled  pee stop for Hank so he went 5 (FIVE) hours without a pee (poor traveling Hank) we usually stop every two hours.
Nice day with a temp of 92 here.

 

Tombstone, AZ – Thursday November 6. 2014

Doc Holliday and the Earp’s waiting in the street for the encounter at the OK Corral.  Doc is on the left and Wyatt Earp is on the right.   We went to the show at the actual OK Corral.

They had to wait for the stagecoach before leaving to meet the Clanton’s.

These pictures are in the Tombstone Courthouse State Historical Park and has a lot of information about the history of the town.
Here is one of Wyatt’s guns.
Here is him using his gun.
At the end of the day the stagecoach is leaving town.  It was a good day in Tombstone, Arizona.

Kartchner Caverns State Park, AZ – Wednesday November 5, 2014

Today we took the two cavern tours.  They are both about an hour and a half and they are amazing.  (All pictures are from the park’s website)

Kartchner Caverns State Park, AZ

Here is some text I took off the website.

“In November 1974 two young cavers, Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts, were exploring the limestone hills at the base of the Whetstone Mountains. In the bottom of a sinkhole they found a narrow crack leading into the hillside. Warm, moist air flowed out, signaling the existence of a cave. After several hours of crawling, they entered a pristine cavern.

The formations that decorate caves are called “speleothems.” Usually formations are composed of layers of calcite called travertine deposited by water. The form a speleothem takes is determined by whether the water drips, flows, seeps, condenses, or pools.

Kartchner Caverns is home to:

  • one of the world’s longest soda straw stalactites: 21 feet 3 inches (Throne Room)
  • the tallest and most massive column in Arizona, Kubla Khan: 58 feet tall (Throne Room)
  • the world’s most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room)
  • the first reported occurrence of “turnip” shields (Big Room)
  • the first cave occurrence of “birdsnest” needle quartz formations
  • many other unusual formations such as shields, totems, helictites, and rimstone dams.”

The amazing part of the these caves is from the moment of discovery the goal was to keep them protected and to allow people to see them.  All the caves I’ve been in before had damage done to them before they were protected.  These are amazing and to help keep them this way no cameras are allowed in the caves :-(.

It was 1988 before the cave discovery was published to the general public.

 

This was taken from Wikipedia.

“The caverns were discovered in 1974, when cavers Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts found a narrow crack in the bottom of a sinkhole, and followed the source of warm, moist air toward what ended up being more than 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of pristine cave passages.Hoping to protect the cave from vandalism, they kept the location a secret for fourteen years, deciding that the best way to preserve the cavern — which was near a freeway — was to develop it as a tour cave. After gaining the cooperation of the Kartchner family and working with them for ten years, together they decided that the best way to achieve the goal of protection through development as a tour cave was to approach Arizona State Parks. In 1985, Governor Bruce Babbitt secretly left the state capitol with two bodyguards and spent three hours crawling through the cave’s tight passages to reach the cave’s showcase chambers, including the Big Room, Echo Passage and Cul-de-sac Passage. The discovery of the cave was finally made public in 1988 when the landowners sold the area to the state for development as a park and show cavern. The state spent $28 million on a high-tech system of air-lock doors, misting machines and other gadgetry designed to preserve the cave.”

 

Here is some information and pictures about how they developed the caves.

I took this off the Arizona website.

Kartchner Caverns’ development spanned nearly 11 years, 1988–99, and cost almost $35 million. During that time, we designed innovative ways to allow public access while protecting the cave.

When touring Kartchner Caverns, you appreciate its beauty. But do you wonder what it took to open the cave for public access while keeping its natural beauty intact?

Before entering the cave, you pass through a series of conservation doors which prevent moisture loss from the cave. You receive a mist “shower.” The mist moistens the particles of lint, skin and hair we shed so they fall onto the trail. The trail’s high curbs help contain the particles, allowing us to wash the trails and pump the residue out of the cave. Why do we care? Because particles like lint become food for fungus colonies that can ruin the beauty of the cave.

A major difference between Kartchner Caverns and other show caves is that the lighting is separated into 2 functions: one needed for safety and the other to enjoy the views. As you tour the cave the lights are controlled by the tour guide. This allows us to have less overall illumination, which in turn means fewer problems with algae growth and heat build-up.

Glancing over the side of the trail, you will not see any damage from construction. This is an example of another innovation developed here called “linear construction.” We built several feet of trail, then stood on that to build the next several feet. In that way, we contained human impact to the actual trail itself.

The original entrance to the cave, and the one the bats still use, is through the blowhole, a tight fit for the smallest person. Tunnels were the answer to getting visitors into the cave.

The tunnels were a challenge. Mining 1,100 feet of tunnels through highly fractured rock was costly and time-consuming. Depending on the geological conditions, tunneling cost $300 to $3,000 per linear foot and took 2 years to complete. Low-yield dynamite charges were used to lessen vibrations. Plywood and mattress blast barriers protected the cave from shock waves at junctions in the tunnels. Air locks were built in the tunnels, and plastic barriers were erected in the cave to prevent moisture loss. In the last 25 feet before breaking into the cave, miners stopped blasting with dynamite and switched to drills and mechanical splitters.

The trails in the cave are the result of 7 years of backbreaking work by the Arizona State Parks’ cave development crew. Using electric, pneumatic and hand tools they broke and moved rock, stabilized slopes, built trail bed and retaining walls, laid conduit and pulled miles of wire. They worked in heat and humidity inside dimly lit plastic tents to contain the dust. Surprisingly, there were no serious injuries, only scrapes and bruises.

Wood used in the cave for concrete forms was washed with bleach and coated with polyurethane to seal it against contaminating the cave with sawdust or insects. Concrete reinforcing rebar and remesh were coated with plastic to prevent rust. All construction materials were tested prior to their use to see if they outgassed harmful chemicals or would provide a growth medium for fungus.

Construction Materials: A Surprising List

  • 1,461 cubic yards of concrete (Enough to build a walk 3 feet wide, 4 inches thick, 9 miles long. The concrete used in the cave was carried in buckets or wheelbarrows.)
  • 41,190 linear feet of lumber (Enough to build a 6,000 square foot house.) How much of this remains in the cave today? None!
  • 13.5 miles of conduit
  • 107 miles of electrical wire (Enough to stretch to Tucson and back!)
  • 512 light bulbs
  • 36.5 tons of aluminum oxide, which was used to make trail surfaces slip-resistant.

You may be surprised to know that very little taxpayer money went into developing the cave and park facilities. Here’s the breakdown on the money:

  • 65% Enhancement Fund: User fees paid by people like you to Arizona State Parks
  • 17% Arizona Heritage Fund: Arizona State Parks share of Arizona Lottery revenues
  • 17% Arizona State Taxpayer dollars: Thank you, Arizona!
  • 1% Federal Recreational Trails Program: Thank you, USA!
    The tours of this cave was amazing.