Modern Mongolian: March 2015

Family landed Monday and we left first thing Tuesday morning to "GTFOOC". Get the #$%@ out of Chandler. We hate the city, but love the desert, so we took our rental car north for some tourism. First to the overcrowded Sedona, then to our old home of Flagstaff for some nostalgia, then to some indian ruins, old volcanoes, deep gorges, travertine bridges, and more remote desert. Lot got done in a short period of time.

Flowers in Sedona

Watching humanity, not nature, at Slide Rock State Park in Sedona

Too many people, we lasted about five minutes and left. Any other typical hiking place in Sedona is fine, but this place was way overcrowded. Of course, climbing in Sedona was typically a solitary experience when I lived here.

Natures water slide

Up in the Flagstaff area, at Pumphouse Wash, our old dog walking spot when we lived in Flag.

Pumphouse Wash.

Walnut Canyon National Monument, site of Indian ruins.

Sunset Crater National Monument. Land of 1000 year old volcanoes and lava flows.

View of San Francisco Peaks.

Cameron, AZ.

Little Colorado River gorge.

We opted to hang here, at the undercrowded Little Colorado River, versus the over-run of the Grand Canyon.

Standard Navajo trinket stand

One of the coolest places in AZ. Tonto Natural Bridge.

Water flowing over the lip of the cave.

Back home via Apache Trail and a quick swim in the river.

Went back down to the Dragoon Mountains south of Tucson again, as the last time were there was too brief. Then drove back north a bit trying to escape the rain and ended up and the roadside Picacho Peak State Park for a night of rain and a morning of misty hiking in the clouds. The desert is in full bloom now, and it's nothing short of amazing. Sadly, this might have been our last trip to the Sonoran Desert, as it's getting a bit hot and the rest of our time off here will probably be spent in the higher country.

We tried to enter the Dragoon Mtns from the north, but somehow ended up taking the back door entrance into a large gated community. Then we spent about 90 minutes driving around trying to figure out how to get out of there. Finally we saw a big gate, and met a woman who seem bewildered how we got in there in the first place. Reminded me of many a moto days doing the same thing.