Gila Bend Arts and Crafts Center 2/12/07

We're back again to the Gila Bend Arts Centre and Museum. See how it really does look like a coiled rattlesnake?? They have great Indian fry bread.

Taliesin West 2/11/07

The Seabolts were there too!

Taliesin West, Frank LLoyd Wright country, 2-11-07

Bob and Carol Brewer arrived at Seabolt West by 2/11/07 and one of our first stops was Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's western headquarters in north Phoenix. It is typical Frank, we had been here last year, very much built into the land. There is no 'falling water' running through it, at least not on purpose. One of the ceilings is canvas- yes it lets in more light, but duh, it gets wet and moldy. The bedrooms all open onto a courtyard, no closets. It is more camping than life in an RV. Looks good tho!

General Crook Trail, February 6, 2007

Cousins, here we are! Here is ground zero for the General Crook Trail! This a commemorative marker for the beginning of the Trail at Camp Verde, just south of Sedona. Double click the pix to get it bigger to read.

Tuzigoot National Monument, February 6, 2007

Miles and Miles of slag, mercury, arsenic, from the Jerome copper mine and smelter. The town of Jerome and the copper mine is on the mountain to the left, the smelter is in the dead center of the pix.

Tuzigoot National Monument, February 6, 2007

Looking up to the 2nd story of the pueblo from the spot at the bottom of the next pix. The Sinagua slept in these rooms, but 'lived' on the roofs and outside the rooms. From this roof you can see for miles.

Tuzigoot National Monument, February 6, 2007

Welcome to Tuzigoot, a spectacular spot, and one that combines the old with the new. You can see some of the rooms (there are about 110)that the ancient Sinagua Indians built between 1000AD and 1425 AD, on this hilltop. The CCC 'restored' the rooms- they restacked the bricks and remortared them, which today is a big time archeological no-no, but was ok in the 1930s'. The Verde River runs along the bottom of the hill in the center of the pix. At the time the Sinagua Indians lived here, this was a lush, fertile valley- No one knows why the Sinagua abruptly left all of their large community dwellings- here and in Casa Grande, and Palatki. The theory was a long drought, which altered their extensive canal systems, followed by flooding. The Sinagua here and in Casa Grande built over 800 miles of canals diverting the Verde, Salt and Gila rivers, and they dug all these canals with sticks with little sharp rocks tied to them. The Sinagua lived on the hilltop and grew crops on the land by the river. See the yellow grassy area on the right? Here comes the new, and picture that American Indian with the tear in his eye that used to be on that TV ad. To the right of this pix, hanging off the sides of the mountain, is the mining town of Jerome, where most of the world's copper came from. The Jerome smelter is at the middle of the mountain, and cleverly piped all of the smelter slag down onto these fields, burying 90% of the unexcavated pueblos, artifacts, etc. For years it was a smelly, red, oozy, poisonous mess on all of the fields to the right of Tuzigoot. There is another rubber lined lagoon further up. In the last few months, they have poured some fill dirt on top, seeded it and covered it with straw, but the goo is still down there in all its mercury and arsenic wonder, minutes from what's left of the Verde River.

The Chapel, Sedona, February 5, 2007

We are on the Chapel 'courtyard' looking out over Sedona. Oops- the rock to the left is Cathedral Rock, making the next pix, Very Beautiful Rock. Check out the house in the foreground, at the bottom of Chapel Drive- Incredibly ostentatious, and so unadobe. It looks like Versailles, which is a tad out of place here. And of course, it a tad larger than our 35 foot RV.

Adversity, The Chapel, Sedona, February 5, 2007

Adversity
How did that tree grow out of the solid rock?? On the walkway from the parking lot up to the Chapel.

The Chapel, Sedona, February 5, 2007

The Chapel is built into the rocks high in Sedona, and has the best views in town. There's Bell Rock to the right of the trolley and I think Cathedral (or Very Beautiful) Rock to the left of the trolley. The Chapel is behind .

Bell Rock, Sedona, February 5, 2007

Jan and John Schmidt, our friends the hikers. Jan and John arrived in late January and left February 7th. They went with us to Sedona, the gem show in Tucson, the Arboretum , and many other fine AZ sites!!

Bell Rock, Sedona February 5, 2007

Lee, waiting for us all to catch up and decide we are not taking the hike up to the top of Bell Rock.

Bell Rock, Sedona, February 5, 2007

Bell rock, Sedona. it just does not get any prettier than this. Note the yucca plant in the foreground with dead flower stalk. the yucca will bloom every year. this is the path from the parking lot to the Bell Rock trail

Agave Century Plant, Palatki Ruins Sedona, February 6, 2007

Welcome to Palatki Ruins, go to the first entry for Palatki and work your way back to here!
Corrections-some of the pictographs are similar in form to ones done in Utah dated 8000BC, that's BC. Charles Willard, the farmer had 2000 fruit trees in the canyon in 1920, not the 1840-60s. I got confused since he lived in a cave himself when he first got there. His ranch house is now the ranger station.
Here's the agave, century plant, that bloomed last summer and is now dead. It is about 10-12 feet high and the stalk is about 4-5 inches in diameter.

Palatki Ruins February 6, 2007

Here is Lee wending his way back to the cliff houses from the fire pit. The cliff dwellings are behind the trees on the bottom of the rocks, above his head. See the manganese stripes, black, on the red rocks.

Palatki Ruins, February 6, 2007

For the geologists among you! This is an excellent example of the strange rock composition. See how the rock has naturally fallen out of this corner?? If you wanted to, you couldn't make the break so clean! While the red rock gets black streaks in it from the manganese, this is at the fire pit, and the black is from ancient smoke, the red has grafitti on it from the 1800's, but the Ranger's aren't too upset about it since the author was a local legendary cowboy.

Agave Roasting Pit, Palatki Ruins February 6, 2007

This Agave Roasting Pit is opposite where Lee was plopped( see other Palatki pix) Agave, also known as century plant, is quite an interesting item. It is what one ferments to make tequila, it looks like a yucca or aloe plant, and it blooms once every 80-100 years and then dies. The flower looks like a very chubby asparagus at first, and grows about 6-8 inches a day, blooming on 8-10 foot stalk that lasts a few days. The Indians dug them up and roasted them in these pits for several days. These pits are an archeological gold mine, because they threw their pots in the pit, and that allows them to dig up the pit and date the pottery. There were pottery shards laying on the top of the pile.

Palatki Ruins February 6, 2007 Pictographs

Check out this ancient art work. The experts can tell that the drawings were done at different times 650-1300 AD. The rocks have a very smooth face, so the art surface would not be bumpy, but working only with 'paint' made from rocks and barks, etc., these folks left a message that has lasted at least 707 years, and some of it, done in 650, has lasted 1400 years. That's better that Leonardo!!

Palatki Ruins, February 6, 2007

Lee Seabolt, taking a load off at the ceremonial fire pit, where folks have been plopping for centuries (at least 650-1300 AD) check out the pictographs over his head. Remember, double click on the pix to enlarge.

Palatki Ruins, February 6, 2007

The homesteading farmer, 1860ish, ingeniously dismantled the Sinagua dwellings and built himself this clever apple storer- cool, and the chicken wire kept out the varmints, but it did kinda mess up the artifacts!

palatki Ruins, Sedona February 6, 2007

At home, downtown Palatki, circa 650-1300 AD.

Palatki Ruins,Sedona, AZ February 5, 2007

Lee Seabolt, Explorer, examining the Palatki Ruins. Our friends Jan and John found this spot- call the Ranger first to tell them you are coming. We went out 89A then a turn, then a drive on a dirt road, and we ended up in a canyon, that has been farmed for thousands of years. The Sinagua Indians had built cliff dwellings (behind Lee) sometime between 650-1300 AD that used the natural caves in the red rocks. The Homesteader farmer in the 1840's dismantled the bricks and rebuilt an apple/produce storeroom further up the rocks, which kinda messed up the archeological protocols. But, standing in the rooms/ caves/overhangs you can really visualize what life must have been like then. The walls are covered with pictographs, and our guide could tell which ones were painted in what period. This was a truly amazing visit.