Arizona Trip

Hal writes:

I spent the Memorial Day weekend in Arizona visiting Anna. She also had Monday off and we made the most of our three day weekend. All the photos that I have in this post are from our adventures in northern Arizona. During our 12 hour trip, we only spent five hours in the car, which meant the other seven were hiking or climbing. I still have red rock dust on my shoes now that I am back in Wisconsin.

Our first visit was Chapel of the Rock, a church that is associated with the Phoenix Catholic Diocese. Frank Lloyd Wright consulted on this project during his later years while living in Phoenix. I also saw a church designed by FLW, but was unable to get a picture of it.

Here is Anna outside the Chapel.After visiting the Chapel, we went to climb Chapel Rock just outside Sedona. The climb was steep (as indicated by the photo of Anna about halfway up the mountain) and is listed as a 1.5 mile trek with a 600ft change in elevation. It took about two hours to go up and about the same time to get down because of the steepness. But when we reached the highest point that it was safe to climb, a park ranger was at the top to answer any questions about the geography.

Here's a picture of Anna and I near the top. In between the two hills in the distant background is the Chapel of the Rock. We were able to get a better view of it by using the camera to zoom in on it.

Our next stop was Walnut Canyon National Monument, near the Flagstaff area. At this national park are ruins of cliff dwelling houses built in the 12th century. The dwellings have remained due to their placement 600 feet up in the canyon. The picture below shows some of the ruins across the canyon.

There were more than 10 dwellings that we visited along the end of the canyon. It was very cool to touch and see the actual rocks that were placed there over 800 years ago. Some of the dwellings had black marks on the ceiling from old camp fires (which, through carbon dating, allowed archaeologists to determine when people lived here). My favorite part is that in the mud that was made to hold the stones together, there are still finger prints from the people who built the structure set in the mud. I had taken a picture of my hand next to some of the hand prints, but it did not turn out well.

Perhaps the original inhabitants were smaller than me... Or perhaps this is middle earth and hobbits once roamed these canyons.

Other fun adventures in Arizona included eating at a fun restaurant called Claim Jumpers, having a cookout with an old friend Jess who was living and teaching in Arizona this past year, and spending some time in the swimming pool. The low points of the trip are when the airlines try and fit me into an airplane seat. At least the SkyMall catalogue kept me amused for a while, including my all-time favorite product that they sell.

I'll be returning to Phoenix at the end of June. But until then, I'll be working.