The Timmy, Post-'Difficult'-Trail

Hiking with the Timmy

Two goals for my Arizona visit were: a) to eat burritos, and b) go hiking every day.  To fulfill this second requirement, I made Dad go on extra hikes with me.  Behind the house and around this lone, random mountain named 'Silly Mountain.'

This is behind the house

Something like a little tiny inukshuk, on top of the hill behind the Arizona House.

Another use for the sadly shortened walking stick - prodding at desert vegetation.

Superstition Mountains.  Again.

Prodding at rocks.

Globe

Mum and Dad are totally obsessed with this admittedly awesome Mexican restaurant a short drive away in Globe (Arizona).  And if you go to visit them, they will make you go there.

The drive to Globe include some interesting geological features.  Warning: the horizon line in the top photo is not level.

 These photos were brought to you by a pull-off along the highway.

 The typical Globe excursion involve the Mexican restaurant, a stop at a store called 'The Pickle Barrel,' and a visit to the pueblo ruins at the archaeological site Besh-Ba-Gowah.

 Some reassembly has been done to a few structures, which is fun, because then I can peer out the second-story pueblo window.

 The whole Besh-Ba-Gowah complex has an extensive bit of the pueblo for self-guided tours as well as a little, super-cute museum housing all the archaeological finds and a spectacularly done educational video.  Globe itself is a copper mining town, and from all appearances has been down on its luck for a long time.  Which, to me, makes the community-run and -sponsored Besh-Ba-Gowah more impressive.

Petroglyphs

I am such a terrible slacker.  The worst 'blogger' ever.

Anyway, ages ago, while in Arizona with the parents, we went hiking into the Superstition Mountains to check out some petroglyphs.

 

Hats for everyone. 

In preparation for the subsequent photos, please recall the work of photographer Timothy O'Sullivan, and how he had little regard for things like flat horizons.  If you don't want to click on the refresher link I've kindly provided, just gaze upon the two photos below.


Karnak, Montezuma Range, Nevada, 1867, LOT 7096, no. 76, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

 Witches Rocks, Utah, 1869,LOT 7096, no, 19, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

 All the O'Sullivan photos I looked at during last May's Special Event hosted by an Unnamed Washington, DC Institution must have really made an impression.  At the post-hike, end-of-day-photo-download, I showed my snaps to Mum, who said, "Those are all crooked!  Cactuses don't grow diagonal!"  


So know that some horizons will be uneven and cactuses will be diagonal.  Just bear with it.  It's artistic, or whatever.

That cactus was actually diagonal.

Intrepid Explorer Stance.

The hike is some-odd miles back onto a steep valley into the Superstition Mountains.  The first bit is more boring, as it's across some kind of plateau.  After that it gets more rock and winding.  The petroglyphs are back in the valley, around a water source.  (Spring?  Little mountain stream?  I don't rightly know.)

There is a lot of fun climbing right before you reach the water pools and the petroglyphs.

Looking out through the valley.

Goats?!

Mum and Dad make friends with some Canadians.  The Canadians are all over Arizona, and as they're just as friendly as they are back in Canada, I welcome them.

Mum and Dad didn't scramble about the rocks as I did.  They watched some crazy squirrels instead.

Mum was laughing hard about this one, and Dad was like, "Did you see the snake one?"

Dad had this really nice walking stick back in Pennsylvania, and he wanted to bring it out to Arizona.  He hit a difficulty though, as he wanted to pack it in his suitcase.  (I know.  Really.)  The solution was to chop off a substantial bit of it.  The stick then fit into the suitcase, but isn't much good for hiking anymore.  It's really only good for shaking at young whipersnappers, telling them to get off the rocks.

This was a really large rock with deeply worn holes in it.  The holes had formed over centuries of grain-processing done by the First Nations people who lived in the area.

Another 'use' for the shortened hiking stick.