Lost Dutchman Mine State Park

After spending the holidays in the Tucson area, we decided to move north a couple hours to the Valley of the Sun aka Phoenix area.  I thought Tucson was spread out.  It is a small city where the spread is at least comprehensible.  Phoenix is a BIG city and the spread is vast.  Several county regional parks encompass the valley of the sun and one state park lies east of Phoenix and Apache Junction.

our campsite looking up into Superstition mountains

At the base of the Superstition Mountains, created from a volcanic uplift many eons ago.  A mine was built near the base by a dutchman named Jacob Wolfe who got lost one day and found gold, hence the name "Lost Dutchman" as the legend tells it.

Hiking up to the base of the superstions

Many hiking trails begin at the campground and we are enjoying them.  2,3-5 miles or more.  We even tried a mountain bike trail yesterday with our bikes, but had to walk the steep parts out of a sense of self preservtion. ;)

Geez, he has white legs.  must get out more in the sun?

After arriving here, I immediately flew back to California for 4 days to turnover my old position as IT Director for Ananda Village to a good friend, Joseph Selbie who will take this to the next steps.  Woo Hoo.  I am officially retired.  Of course, at Ananda, you are never really retired, just in between opportunities to serve.  Heh Heh.  Actually I have only one responsibility now the online library, and am enjoying it.  More later

Below you can see the campground in the distance and Phoenix is beyond the far mountains


It must have rained recently because some of the Brittle bush is blooming


Interesting algae on some of the rocks.  Never seen blue Algae before.  Lots of green and reds but first time some blue



Looking up into the high Superstitions. you can see the results of volcanic upthrust from a caldera which then has eroded over past 25 million years.  Gold and Amethyst have been found in the area. We are standing at about 2100 ft.  the top of the peaks is about 4100 ft.

Another view of our campsite tucked amidst the cactus and trees.  there seems to be plenty of room and views everywhere.  It is QUIET HERE.


Ah, one of the wonderful Arizona sunsets the other night.


Same sunset, now reflected off the side of our home


Temps range from low 40's to 70 but mainly daytime in 60's this time of year.  Quite pleasant.
We will remain here 2 weeks until Jan 20 then move to one of the regional parks for a week or so before returning to Tucson area.

- Blessings from the Road

Location:E Reavis St,Apache Junction,United States

Hiking amidst the Cactus

We found ourselves the past week north of Tucson at one of our all time favroite campsites in Catalina State Park in middle of Sonoran desert.
We both came down with some sort of virus but managed to go out for daily walks in the area.  Here are a few photos to wet your appetite.  The mountains in the background are the Catalina Mountains rising to heights above 9,000 ft.  the elevation we were at is around 2,700 ft.

We have been busy with life and I haven't posted much. Big news is that i have officially retired and am currently in California to turnover my position as IT Director to someone who is very capable as well as a good friend.  Now can move on to other callings.  At moment to travel.
.













- Blessings from the Road

Location:Tucson,United States

Snow Geese

Although the main attraction at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife refuge in southern New Mexico is the Sandhill Cranes, the predominant species are the snow geese.  This year, during our annual visit, the count was 40,000+ snow geese and 11,000 cranes.  

At dawn they blastoff, often to incredible sunrises while the cranes wait until the sun actually begins to shine before launching out to their feeding grounds

Sunrise over Bosque del Apache

The geese are quite skittish and seem to take off, circle and land many times in a day, creating incredible opportunities to watch their flight.

Late morning blastoff in one of the pools

Amazing to me is how they avoid crashing into one another as they effortlessly stream into the sky.

Often you see them circling around, ready to land yet taking off again on a moments notice.  This one minute video below will illustrate the incredible dance of these geese.

Occasionally you will see one, or two or three geese heading into land

Two geese ready circling to land

Equally amazing is they don't land on top of one another.  Below is one of the above geese landing amidst its brethren.  How do they do it?

Snow Goose Landing amidst is brethren

They do keep alert to their surroundings as you can see this goose below actually taking a long look at me who was only about 30 feet distant on my belly shooting this photo.

Snow Goose Sentinel

Occasionally one of the geese is not sufficiently alert and local predators score a nice fat lunch

Coyote having goose lunch

All in all it is quite a scene.  I could post many more photos of the geese, but I don't want to bore you.  You get the idea.

Where have we been?

Good question. Last we wrote we were at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico photographing the cranes and geese.

Not a lot of photos in this post. Look at my photo links on right side for a bunch.

We had planned to travel north to Santa Fe however, after looking at the weather and discovering that it was going to be temperatures down the teens at night with 20's in the daytime so...

We decided that's a little bit lower temperatures with which we are comfortable, hence we skedaddle back to Tucson area against a 30+ mile an hour wind. We settled into one of our favorite campgrounds, Gilbert Ray Campground in the Tucson Mountain Park On Westside if Tucson for a week.

We visited "Seven Cups of Tea" shop in Tucson to sip some delightful oriental teas.



Temps were colder than normal, bit we did managed to get in a couple bike rides at hikes which was really wonderful amongst the saguaro cactus.


We had been seeking a longer-term stay at a place that's not a big RV resort and our favorite campgrounds limit stays to no more than a week or two, so we looked around Tucson, and discovered a small quaint little mobile home park which took in rV's on temporary basis. We decided to stay there for a few days as a test so moved into the Fairview Manor mobile home park on the northern of outskirts of Tucson city limits.

Our thinking was that if we found it suitable, quiet, and not messy, we might consider coming back in late January to spend two months while Sraddha returns to Oregon for a visit. And the price was affordable.

We attended Sunday Service last weekend at Ananda Tucson and shared about Ananda Laurelwood.


While there we received rather shocking news that Sraddha's number one niece, Lissel, unexpectedly passed away up in Utah while recovering from surgery. She was only 34 yrs old. Wow!


So now, as I write this or rather dictate this via Siri, we find ourselves northbound on interstate 15 enroute tothe Salt Lake City area for her funeral. We will spend time with Sraddha's sister, her family; l nieces and nephews; great nieces and nephews. Just have a close family time together for a few days.


Needless to say we hadn't planned on going up into the snow country where the high temps are 28° and the lows are in the teens. We thought we had escaped that when we decided not to go to Santa Fe. We have gathered up all of our cold-weather clothes we could find. The key operative term mirror is "layers". heading northbound, wethink will be fine and are really enjoying the snow on the ground along with the dry freeway surface.

This wasn't quite how we planned our Christmas, however it will be a fun ride. Will post more as time permits.
Blessings from the Road

Location:I-15 N,Cedar City,United States

Snow Geese

We are in New Mexico near Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge.

We are shooting almost non stop and haven't had time to process much but a couple pix on my flickr account. I will have plenty of photos to show you in future posts

Today we just witnessed an amazing phenomenon. We had stopped by one of the pools to photograph some ducks bad ended up witnessing for an hour the flock of 5,000 snow geese landing, taking off, circling. Unlike anything we have ever seen before. I took a lot of pix but also got this video footage on iPhone. It's about a minute long.

Hope you enjoy. I will also post on YouTube.

- Blessings from the Road

Location:San Antonio Ditch,Socorro,United States