Southeast Arizona Wanderings

I've spent the past few days in southeastern Arizona, one of my favorite areas.  It's diverse, both naturally and culturally.  Here's a saguaro studded hillside in Saguaro West NP.  I visited both sides of the park, but the day I went to the eastern sector I forgot my camera...it was very pretty there and I will correct that error next time I visit...possibly as soon as March.

 

Some cool mountains near Sonoita, SE of Tucson.  Suzanne served as my personal tour guide here...she grew up in the area.

 

This pic is in Lowell, a little area of the city of Bisbee.  Lowell is a 1940s-50s time warp.  Built to serve the adjacent copper mine, it seems unchanged since the mine shut down 40 years ago.  Vintage buildings, businesses, vehicles.  It only encompasses a couple of blocks but it is very cool.  Blow the pic up and see the old Gulf sign and gas pumps, the old Pepsi logo, etc.

 

An old Texaco station in Lowell.

 

The Lavender Pit mine, between Lowell and Bisbee proper.  With the rise in copper prices, there have been rumblings that the mining operations may resume, about forty years after the mine shut down.

 

On the excursion between Tucson and Bisbee, Suz and I stopped in both directions along the San Pedro River.  There are historical buildings, lots of birds, hiking trails, and fine trees...especially this huge cottonwood.  The base of the trunk is a good ten feet across.  Though the tree looks ancient, it is only about 100-120 years old.

 

Last night I stayed at the Arizona Inn, a superb hostelry in the center of Tucson.  Open since 1930, it's a museum piece of vintage luxury furnishings.  This is the library.  It's the kind of place where upon walking through the door, you immediately feel totally comfortable and at ease.  There are many guest amenities.  One I had never seen...a full bucket of fresh ice in the room upon my arrival!  Greatly appreciated.

 

The grounds are beautifully landscaped.  The accomodations are spotless casitas from the 1930s.  Mine had a wraparound patio with chaise lounges and a sunny table with chairs...perfect for morning coffee.  The restaurant and bar were excellent.

 

The inn added this pool in 1937.  It has seen many celebrities over the years and continues to be one of the finest hotels in Arizona.

 

It was a bit crisp in Tucson this morning.  These pool chaises are not two tone...the lower sections are covered in frost!  But the pool is heated year round.

 

Cool touches abound at the Arizona Inn.  Here's a mosaic on an outside wall of a casita.  This place is wonderful...can't recommend it too highly!

Winter in the Desert

I'm on my annual winter migration to the Arizona desert.  Enroute, the Algodones Dunes in SE California under a threatening sky; rain just to the west.

 

Towering CU over Sun City West...half an inch of rain the night before.

 

Cool clouds in AZ.  We had a thunderstorm a few hours later.

 

Fine sunset in AZ.

 

Cristate saguaro in White Tank Mountains Regional Park.  This mutation only occurs in one of several thousand saguaros.  Blow the pic up for better detail.

 

Fishhook barrel spines.  Two good rains in two weeks have left the cactus looking fat and robust.

 

Teddy bear chollas and saguaros backlit by the lowering sun.  The lower winter sun eases the usual starkness of the desert.

 

Always a good shot...teddy bear chollas looking into the sun.

 

Nice late afternoon shot in the White Tank mountains.  Nights have been cool but not frosty...down to around 40 degrees.  Highs 60-65.

 

The rains have caused some brittlebushes to bloom early.  Same thing happened last year.

Cruising the Cali Coast

I'm on my way from Monterey to Phoenix but being retired and enjoying good scenery, I'm taking four days to do the trip, going down the coast to Coronado before heading east.  At Big Sur on Tuesday the surf was up ahead of the oncoming storm, creating salt haze that shrouded the coast nicely.  Incidentially, the storm has reached Big Sur...today (Thursday Dec 11) the town was submerged by almost seven inches of rain in eight hours!

 

Mobs of birds cruising at the mouth of the Little Sur River.

 

The big ol' bull elephant seals have arrived at Pt Piedras Blancas and are busy staking out sections of beach.  The female sloats will come ashore next month and give birth...then in February the bulls that have staked out their turf will mate with the ladies...right around Valentines Day, appropriately.  This one is preening for all he's worth.

 

Pismo Beach surf at dusk.  Pier in the background.

 

Sunset turns the water molten.

 

I've always enjoyed the contractor marks observed while walking urban sidewalks.  This is the oldest one I've seen...the first one from the 19th century!  It's in Coronado, about a block from the Hotel Del, which opened a decade earlier.  These marks are scarce now...unlike this one, most are at corners and have been obliterated when the corners were rebuilt for handicap access...i.e. wheelchairs.  A necessary change, but it would be nice if the old logos had somehow been preserved.

 

Except around 7 AM and 3 PM when the Naval Air Station at North Island generates a rush hour, Coronado is a quiet, peaceful town of 25,000, with no aura of suburbia.  Except...at the end of many residential streets looms downtown San Diego, a mile across the bay from here.  To have such a peaceful town so close to the center of a major city is very unusual...only equivalents I can think of are the towns on Vashon and Bainbridge Islands near Seattle, and they're farther from the city than Coronado is from San Diego.

 

I used to live here!  When I was in the Navy I did a couple stints residing at this apartment complex, then called Oakwood...something different now.  It was very nice then...still looks great though it's over 40 years old.  I loafed by the pool, shot pool, played tennis, strolled around town...all good.  Certainly better than living aboard the ship with no windows and the constant hum of machinery! In 1974 a furnished studio here cost $230 a month...a large sum for an ensign, but worth every dime.  They still rent places by the month and I have been tempted to move back in for 30 days just to enjoy the area.

 

The Coronado bridge arcs gracefully toward San Diego.  It's a free ride now.  In the '70s it cost 60 cents each way, the equivalent of about three dollars now.  People on my ship...based in North Island...who lived halfway down San Diego Bay in Chula Vista drove clear around the southern end of the bay and up Silver Strand to avoid paying the toll.

 

Sunset in front of the Del this evening.  (I should say afternoon...the sunset is at about 445 PM these days).

 

Surf's up ahead of the incoming storm.