Wupatki area was inhabited by what is believed to have been the ancestors of the Indians that built the cliff dwellings in Walnut Canyon. The monument preserves their ruins.

These ruins are usually centered around a high location on the plains of a valley located north and east of the San Francisco Peaks. Some are built on rock outcrops.

Not all of the ruins are on high locations, but the larger ones are. And there is a lot of scenery in the area as well. It is located about 1 hour drive north of Sunset Crater.

Wupatki Monument is located about two hours of scenic driving north of Flagstaff and is well worth a visit. And pardon the two pictures with Wupatki misspelled!

(The National Park Service web page for more information about this park.)

While in Flagstaff we visited the Sunset Crater National Monument. This is a volcano that is believed to have been active about the time that Wuptki National Monument was occupied.

It is slowly being reclaimed by the forest, but evidence of the violence of that time is very evident.

It only takes a couple of hours to see the area, but it is worth your time to stop.

When you travel west through Arizona on I-40, you will pass by one of the more unusual of our national parks. It is well worth your time to spend a day there. The road through the park is only 22 miles long, do if time is short, one could see the highlights in a half day or less. If you enter from I-40 you will first visit the Painted Desert.

The Painted Desert is one of the world’s greatest "Bad Lands." It is viewed just down the road form the visitor’s center.

As beautiful as those views are, the main attraction is the petrified trees of the park.

There are many different locations as you pass through the park where very large trees, some still pretty much intact, litter the landscape. There is no other place like it.

The best views do require some walking with well maintained trails, but some of them are rather steep and they range up to about 1 mile in length.

But the hikes are worth the effort, so wear good shoes and take a hike!

And, as in all national parks, there are other things to see as you pass through the park. And like all national parks there is also a museum of things from the park.

One of our goals when we went on the road was to see all of the things along the way that we have traveled past on our many trips across the country to visit family. With that in mind, we headed west along I-40. One of the things that we had always wondered about is the big meteor crater. This is what we found there.

This is the largest known meteor crater found on land in the world. It is more than 1000 feet deep and a mile across. Because of the uniqueness of this location, NASA has trained all of the crews that went to the moon here. There is a very informative walk.

The property is in private hands, but is a registered landmark and must be maintained in it’s present state. While it is not a place that we are likely to return, we were glad that we stopped, and we did spend several hours there. They also have a collection of meteors on display and a lot of displays in the main building. The cost was $8 each.

The crater is located 18 miles west of Winslow, AZ, at exit 233, and about 5 miles off of I-40. There is a nice RV park located at the exit. Before traveling on we also visited the very interesting Navajo County Museum in Winslow.

This is the sign as you cross the boundry into the refuge.

Yuma, Arizona

We have now set up housekeeping for the winter in the volunteer village at Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, the southern most refuge of the Lower Colorado Refuge System, There are four refuges on the lower river from Lake Havasu to the Mexico border. They are here to save what little is left of the riparian habitat that once lined the river, and to reestablish areas to replace those long gone. For the coming months, we will be involved in that effort!

The volunteer building contains the laundry, kitchen & shower room. This will be our home from November through February. This is the visitor center and office complex.

Imperial provides a very nice RV park for the volunteers with the best amenities of any place we have been previously. There are no trees of consequence in the RV park, but since winter is the time that they have volunteers and sun is the major winter attraction, that really is not a problem. There is a building with a laundry, kitchen and restroom with showers just for the use of the volunteer staff members. There are six sites for volunteers and an extra one for the use of our visitors who also own an RV. All of this is located in the employee residence area, where most employees live. The visitor center is just a short walk from our sites.

This natural bridge is visable from Red Cloud Mine road through the refuge. This is one of many backwaters from the Colorado River. The green of the lower washes quickly changes to desert uplands.

The refuge is a place of many contrasts. The terrain ranges from wetlands along the Colorado River, to rocky desert uplands. Like all national wildlife refuges, the first concern of management is the wildlife and for wildlife, their habitat. But this refuge also has a very visitor friendly education program with a hiking trail, scenic overlooks, guided hikes and tours. They also make presentations to the public in schools, RV parks and at service clubs, throughout the area..

The sagauro cactus is not numerous, but it is found on the refuge. This formation was caused by geothermal activity thousands of years ago. Wood of the ironwood tree is so dense that it does not float. A side canyon along the painted desert trail. Beavertail cactus, ready to bloom from winter rains.

Work-camping: Our four months at this refuge were some of the best of our volunteer experience. Pam worked in the visitor center, helped in the office and did some maintenance work. Kirk built picnic tables and some maintenance work, but mostly he did shows about the refuge at local RV parks and lead guided hikes on the desert. At times he also helped in the visitor center. The staff of Imperial are as helpful and friendly as any staff that we have yet encountered. We would strongly recommend this location to other volunteers. Each RV site has both 30A & 50A power and all utilities. The Volunteer Village also has a building containing two washers and dryers and a shower room and full kitchen. A motor-pool of three vehicles is kept there for use by the volunteers when working or showing visitors around the refuge. Internet is available in the visitor center and there is even a computer there for use by the volunteers. It is located about 1 block distance from the RV park. There are six RV sites here plus one extra for visitors use. Cell phone service is poor but usable for Cingular but requires an amplifier or repeater for Verison. There is a phone for use by the volunteers. Contact Sue Mc Donald at the refuge if you have any interest.

The desert five spot is one of the many rare flowers we found on the  refuge. The chuckwalla is Imperial's largest lizard.

On September 19, 2001 we visited the Grand Canyon for the first time since we were newly weds. We took a guided tour of the canyon. The guide was "Marvelous Marv's Tours" and was well worth the money. We and two other couples were picked up at 8 am in a luxury van and we returned about 5:30 pm. Marv really knows the canyon and was well worth the $100 that it cost us.

Since words will never describe it, I hope these pictures will do the job.

Superior, Arizona

This is a view of the visitor center from the parking lot.

On January 11, 2008 we arrived at our new home for the next three months. Our stay here was until April, 15 when we traveled back to Texas once more. The arboretum was a very educational experience for us and one that we will long remember.

A view of the RV park from the hill above. This is our patio at the arboretum.

The arboretum has six RV sites for volunteers who live on the facility. Since this is a day use park the gate is locked after 5pm and we each had keys to come and go. In the center of the campground is a building with laundry equipment, showers and a lounge for our use and there is also a campfire area for the resident volunteers. Sites here are quite spacious and have wonderful views. Each site has a nice patio, full hook-ups with both 30A and 50A power and propane is even provided. Work areas are within easy walking distance of the park.

Picket-post mountain towers over the arboretum. This was the view looking to the mountains on our east. This saguaro grows very near the RV park area.

The primary jobs that are asked of the volunteers are to man the feel collection booth, lead the daily general tours and to provide a curriculum based program for the school groups that come to the gardens. There are four different programs based upon the age level of the school children. In addition, there are other tasks that assistance is asked for as time allows. This is mostly a public contact position so if you enjoy meeting people and learning new things to share with visitors, this could be the place for you!

Four hungry humming birds on our feeder at once. Ayres lake, home of endangered fish and water storage. The entry into the cactus garden at the arboretum.

The arboretum is home to a wide range of wildlife and is especially attractive to birds because of the diversity of the plant life here. It has become a favorite location for serious birders to visit and attracts bird species that are not normally seen in this area. The most unique bird we saw was the cross of a violet crown and a broad bill humming bird. He is resident at the garden and is one of only four known to have ever existed.

This is a hybred humming bird that is unique to the arboretum. This gilla monster was seen roaming about the area of the RV park. This is the main walk-way into the gardens. My favorite plant ofll, the bojum tree from central Mexico.

In addition, from time to time we saw Gila Monsters, a larger lizard that is very poisonous. They are not dangerous because they move very slowly but a wise person does leave them alone. The main feature of the arboretum is it's collection of desert plants. It is one of the largest collections in the world and has some very rare plants. We learned so much, but felt that we had only scratched the surface.

Here is a view of the Mediterranean gardens. Mariposa lillies are rare desert flowers. The almond trees in bloom are a beautiful thing. One of the red prickly pear flowers in the cactus garden.

As spring arrived, the garden becomes a most spectacular show of flowers and blooming desert plants. Most unique among the ones we were there to see has to be the green flower of the puya, a very rare, South American plant.

The very rare flower of the puya. This is the flower stalk of the South American Puya. One of many pick prickly pear flowers in the gardens.

Over all, this was a great experience that we very much enjoyed. The staff are great to work with and the RV sites are difficult to match. Each site has a wonderful view. It is 25 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart and 20 miles to the nearest chain grocery store but there are several good restaurants in Superior, just three miles away as well as a small grocery. The minimum work hours are twenty per person, per week but most volunteers tend to put in much more when it gets busy in the spring. We did take at least two days completely off each week. There is a lot to see and do in the area and the weather is mostly quite good, although it can get pretty cold, since the altitude is 2500 feet.

The golden barrel cactus were starting to bloom. Spring flowers were wonderful along the roadsides. Everything was blooming.

The only down side that we found was the fact that sometimes the organization, or lack of it does leave something to be desired. Schedules can be difficult to figure out, but we did get used to this and it became a minor issue in a truly wonderful experience. This is a location that gets many who seek to return and for that reason it can be a problem to get a spot at times. I would suggest that if you are interested, you should contact them early. We strongly endorse this as a winter experience, but keep in mind that temperatures will get well below freezing. We saw a low temperature of 22 and a high of 91 in our three month stay.

A view of the arboretum from the ridge above it.

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