AZ & cactus, a prickly issue

We've been in AZ, specifically Picacho Peak state park for two months now, settling into a work routine and getting our bearings. We are in the midst of the Sonoran desert and surround by pretty much nothing but rock and cactus. At first glance, from the freeway from Phoenix to Tucson, it all looks pretty boring and desolate. As we've driven off the freeway, it becomes different and depends on the altitude as to what will be out there.

Picacho Peak is a unique point, part of an old volcano that has yet to be found. We are at Picacho Peak, across the freeway are the Picacho mountains and the freeway passes through, can you guess?, Picacho pass! Of course. The draw to the park is some camping, but most of all the trails. The popular one goes pretty much up the face, to the ridge, then on to the peak. It's 4 miles round trip, very steep and 3 1/2-4 hours. From the ridge to the peak cables offer the way to climb the steepness and the slick trail. This is the challenge for many people and great training. Some people come to "run" up. The peak is attainable from the backside also, a gentler trail, longer, 6 miles round trip, but you still end up at the cableways.

A unique bit of history, the peak was the western most battle site of the Civil war. A small skirmish occurred here and these days a reenactment is done every March. March is also flower time and the fields will be covered with blooming spring flowers, mostly Mexican poppy. Like watching the leaves change colors in New England, people will be watching for the flowers here.

So on to cactus. It's somewhat interesting learning about the different types, adaptability to the climate and uses. Cactus are put into different classes, just as trees and plants are. There are barrel types, Cholla (choya), prickly pear, and in a class by themselves saguaro (sawahro or sagwaro). The type we're all familiar with is the prickly pear type, they can be very small, and the fruit at the top can be eaten, juiced and cooked.

prickly pear

 so soft

fish hook 

Cylindrical or barrels are all sizes, either clumps together or larger single barrel. All have needles of course, and they are not soft and the big one here is the fishhook cactus. The hooks are very tough and were used as such for fishing by the natives. Look at the edges of the cactus to see the hooks in profile.

Cholla

The cholla type is a segmented type, more of a tree and branches. There is the teddy bear cholla, looks soft and cuddly but definitely isn't. The jumping cholla sends off small chunks of the branch, the needles stick in the ground and viola, a new cholla will grow. The ground can be littered with the offshoots, even the trails, a hazard to walking dogs. The prickly pear is also a segmented type.

The saguaro is pretty unique. It is shallow rooted and fluted and when it gets a lot of water, the flutes swell and it's a storage tank. They seem to grow  between specific altitudes and some places it seems like a forest. Arms will grow after the cactus is 50 years old and overall they can be over 150 years old. They can also grow very tall.  How many arms it grows indicates how much water it may have gotten. They provide homes, food and shelter for the desert animals, even when they fall over and die.  When birds build a nest, they dig out the outer shell but don't harm the interior core. A scar forms around the bird hole and seals the shell up. A special type of saguaro is the Organ Pipe cactus and there is a national monument on the southern border just for them. The saguaro is the state cactus and protected in Arizona.

Farewell Escalante (For Now)

Our time at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park is drawing to an end.  For our first camp hosting experience, I don't think we could have picked a better place.  We have both truly enjoyed our time here and will miss the park and the people.  It was so nice here that we've already put our names in to come back in May and June 2012.

 

New firewood shelter

Kendall, the park manager, has kept Bill busy with projects around the park.  He got to play with weed eaters, tractors, chainsaws, pull weeds,  build up pathways. A wall was built to enlarge a campsite with the help of  our son Kyle. When he came to visit, he and Bill laid out the stones for a retaining wall. Kyle prepared, leveled and laid the first course and then the rest was easy. A spare roof was erected at an old site to provide shelter for the fire wood. And it was moved closer to the host site to better monitor the selling. Firewood sales are on an honor system, but not everyone is honorable. Bill also got to drive the tractor and practice road building and repairing skills.

Gail, meanwhile worked in the office, telling people about the day hike to the petrified forest, checking in campers and office stuff.

Red Canyon

We also enjoyed the area on our time off with some hikes along river canyons, into some slot canyons, hunted for strange rock formations called Moqui marbles, and rode some 4 wheelers. Plus a few trips to the "cities" to pick up company (all the way to Las Vegas) and do Walmart/grocery runs and liquor stores in Nevada. Although the drives are long, the scenery is beautiful and varies between colorful rock formations, valleys with wide vistas, up into the mountains with lakes and pines. There is so much to explore here it would involve moving here to really take advantage of it. My favorite is Red Canyon, along hwy 12. After driving along high desert scrub, you are suddenly in a red rock canyon with plenty of large formations. It's stunning.

So, we leave Utah for now and head to our winter assignment, Picacho Peak state park, between Phoenix and Tucson and see what's in store for us there. Till the next blog.

This is the place- Utah

We've been hosting at the Escalante Petrified forest state park, in southern Utah, for a month now. This is a small campground, 22 spots, sitting on a reservoir, nestled into the colorful red and white cliffs. The scenery is beautiful, the weather just about perfect, and the park employees are very easy to work with and very nice. The town is 2 miles by scooter away, a very small town with 1 grocery store, a couple of outfitter companies, gas stations and 2-3 restaurants or cafes, but pretty much closes right up on Sundays. The only fast food is Subway.  Not knowing what the town had in the way of "supplies", we stocked up on staples and dry goods and hoped for the best. It's been pretty comparable in prices and is good for a few fresh items you can't stock up. Gas prices are the same too.

Grosvenor Arch

Our "work" is pretty easy, Bill cleans up campsites, weed eats the grounds and other projects. He helps people all evening coming in for sites. I work in the office, greeting the day users, getting campers into sites and office things. Not too tough.

Small box canyon

The park is very popular too and the campground is full to overflowing every night. The day users hike up the hill to the petrified forest and see an old forest, now petrified rock and the colors are brilliant.



The entire area is just an ongoing breathtaking wonder. Bryce Canyon, Zion and Kodachrome National parks are close and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National monument covers the entire half of Utah to the Arizona border. This is the land of slot canyons, rivers and washes to hike down, slick rock to walk on and just amazing views. So on our days off we've tackled a few of these hikes. We've hiked up the Escalante river to a natural bridge, driven over the Hell's backbone road, very steep, twisty dirt road. This climbed to over 9000 ft and had some steep canyon views. These hollows have the appealing name of Death hollow, very inviting to hike into!

Canyon walls have pictograhs and petrographs and occasionally some ruins.

100 hands pictograph

We've driven down some very rough dirt roads to access the slot canyons. Some we had to turn around on and never got to the wash or canyon. The most popular hike, Calf Creek, was a flat walk 3 miles into a waterfall. But along the way is the large pictograph, grainery ruins high up on the cliff, and creek scenery.

There are some canyons we'd like to do but are either too long of a hike or down off one of the worst roads we've ever been on, Hole in the Rock. I've renamed it Holy Crap road. It's just bone jarring washboard, ruts, sand washes and plain miserable. And there are 57 miles of it! Some of the better hikes are about 30-40 miles down it. So unless we have a 4 wheeler, we're sticking to places we can get to on the scooters or paved roads.

Pictograph on Calf's creek

We did make a run to Las Vegas, twice, to pick up some family visiting and also did some real shopping for groceries, a beer run at a liquor store in NV (cheaper and not 3.2 beer) for several people and got to see our youngest son. The drive over some of the mountains here was just as pretty as  the canyon drives. We probably won't venture out for shopping though till we leave at the end of Oct.

Willis creek slot

Oh, the places we've been

Humorous signs of life

Finally, not the first

English version

Macta what?

Never had one

Must be after above

Our kind of town

Work, Work, Work

We have finished our initial assignment as surveyors.  Our goal was 400 surveys in 6 weeks and we have already finished.  Now we belong to Cape Lookout State Park Campground.  Travis, our ranger contact here at the campground, has assured us that he'll find enough work to keep us busy.  We're not sure yet what we'll be doing but some of the possibilities are cleaning up vacated campsites or picking up trash along the hiking trails.  Either is fine with us.

We really enjoyed our survey job.  We just hung around Cape Meares Lighthouse and asked people to fill out the surveys.  Not too tough but on those days when we had a north wind it was a challenge.  I only had to chase a stack of surveys one time that was swept away by a wind gust.  We got to talk with people from all over the world.  Pretty cool!!  This little lighthouse is about 15 miles off the Coast Highway so it is a specific destination.  Most people were very cooperative and willing to complete the survey. Several were curious enough to ask if they could do the survey. We didn't even have to beg them!

We've gotten a chance to put some miles on the Scooters.  It was 12 - 15 miles from the campground to the lighthouse and most of the time we rode them.  We learned pretty quickly that vacationers are waaaay more impatient than they should be!  We'd just find a spot to safely pull off the road and let them pass.  No sense adding to their road rage cuz we're traveling 5 miles under the posted limit.  They're not  nearly as aggressive when we're in the truck going 5 miles under the posted limit.

Every day we watch the national weather and see the sweltering heat throughout the country and consider ourselves fortunate that we're here on the Oregon Coast where the temps have rarely been above 70.  Our tans are fading.  lol

Wild along the roadways

On a very sad note, we had to make a quick trip to Boise last week.  We lost a very dear friend, Jay Murphy, to pancreatic cancer.  Very sudden and shocking.  We miss you buddy.

Gail's 85 year old mother made a road trip out from Idaho with a neighbor. They traveled to Oregon sites along the coast and enjoyed some Tillamook ice cream. Her sister is out for a few days now and guess we will have to have some more ice cream! YUM. Guests in the RV is a challenge, especially without a hide a bed. The weather has been pretty nice, for the coast, pretty sunny most of the day but still not hot.

We've now moved in cleaning campsites. Not too tough, pick up litter, scoop out the firepits. We do get some odd things occasionally and the majority of campsite "litter" is peanut or sunflower seeds (I hate them and leave them), trying to burn food, especially egg shells and candy wrappers. Overall, the sites are pretty clean. Not too tough duty in exchange for the camping  and the coast.

We're looking forward to our next assignment in Utah, after a couple of weeks in Idaho to finish the snow roof project and visit friends and family.

Cape Meares volunteering

Our working/volunteering has begun! We are very happy with our assignment, campground and location. We are camping at Cape Lookout State park, just outside of Tillamook, OR. It's located on the beach with a berm separating us from the ocean. It's primarily a tent campground with several sites for full hookups, mostly host. We have views of the ocean and are somewhat in the trees. However, trees aren't needed for shade as it doesn't get very warm at all. Haven't hit 70 yet.  There are host for cleaning the yurts, cabins and bathrooms, for lighthouse hosting, general hosting, selling firewood and sometimes special projects like ours. Oregon takes care of their host. We have full hookups, regular park host also have hard wired satellite coverage.  We got ours up but may have to move it and may not have tv if we can't get through the trees. We also have a private laundry, firewood and uniforms.

So, our work site is 10-15 miles up the road at the Cape Meares lighthouse. We've been riding the scooters and it's a great drive along the coast. The lighthouse area has 2 very nice scenic view areas, high up on the cliffs, picnicking and odd sites to see. The cliffs host a number of birds and the residents are bald eagles, a peregrine falcon, seagulls of course, and a population of common Murres. If your'e not into birds, it doesn't mean much to you but what is going on within these populations is quite interesting.

The peregrine falcon is making a recovery and dominating,terrorizing the murre and seagull population. For 2 years the murres have not been able to nest on the cliffs. They are held at bay out in "raft" groups on the ocean and have been sitting around a large rock out there. We watched an incredible event happen one afternoon as the murres flocked  and gathered up on the top of the rock.  All of the sudden they took off and headed in masse back to the water.  A bald eagle and a juvenile were circling high above as they gathered on the rock. Then it swooped in, snatched a murre off the rock and flew off home. The murre flock then left the rock, the seagulls took off after the eagle, harassing him incessantly till he was gone. The eagle flew right over the viewpoint platform, just over our heads and we saw the "dinner" he had scored for the night. Yummy murre. It was quite a site and it happened twice within 2 hours.

local resident

The coast scenery is just beautiful. Large rocks, coves of beaches, crashing waves on the rocks. The lighthouse at the cape is nice to visit. However, it doesn't work, thanks to vandals last year. Seems 2 local guys had nothing better to do one night, drove on a closed road and shot out the historic, irreplaceable old French made lens. The cost to repair it is over half a million, the lighthouse doesn't work and it's not known if or when it will. They were caught but I don't know what has happened since then.

So far our weekend weather has been beautiful, as in sunny. But some stiff winds go on out there and it can be quite chilly. But we've had good survey returns, will return next weekend  and the adventure continues.