The Last Roundup

Last Wednesday we had the opportunity to observe an old time cattle round up. My cousin's husband is an old time, honest-to-goodness cowboy and they have lived in the West for over 50 years. The ranch that he worked on for many years was recently sold and he retired. When a ranch is sold, the cattle are sold with it but since they are out on the range, they have to be rounded up and counted and identified. The ranch consists of four pastures and covers over 20,000 acres, most of it Forest Service land. The cattle are rounded up by driving them from horseback. These aren't your ordinary dairy cows. They are beef cattle and have been on their own out on the range and can dangerous if approached on foot. In addition, there are several bulls present in the  herd.

This guy was part of the herd and was separated from the rest when they were put in the corral. He stayed about a hundred yards away the whole time waiting to get his cows back, but he didn't give us any trouble.

The cows and calves are contained in a corral complex so that they can be processed in small groups.

After the cattle were in the corral, it was time for lunch. My cousin had left the house at 3:00 am and they were all on the range by 5:00 am. They had already worked all day the day before, putting in a 12 hour day. Lunch was brought out from the ranch house by four wheeler. They had sandwiches and salad and fruit and lots of water and Gatorade to drink.

While this was happening, the horses stood waiting patiently by. A day's work is tiring for the horses and the riders choose a fresh mount each day, letting the others rest.

Most of the horses have names. Many times the horse carries the name of the man who sold it. So, there's a horse by the name of Bud because that was the previous owner's name.

This horse is Goldie, because of her color.

And this is Rainbow. A little girl named this horse and when she was asked why she named him Rainbow she replied " 'cause I like rainbows".

After lunch, the cowboys, there were about 8 of them, moved the cattle from pen to pen. They lined them up in a chute and guided them into a device which held them still so their ear tag could be read, they were given two different innoculations and  the hair at the tip of their tail was trimmed off square. This allowed the cowboys to see at glance which cows had been processed and which hadn't.

In a few hours it was over and we left the dust and the noise behind and followed a jeep trail back out of the ranch. There just is no good way to travel the back country. This area is littered with volcanic rock. The horses have to pick their way through it and it's almost impossible to drive anything, even a four wheeler, across it. The roads wash out when the rains come so it's like trying to drive down a dry creek bed.

It was a long day but a really unique experience. I took lots of pictures so that my cousin can look back on his Last Roundup.

Walnut Canyon

On Tuesday, we visited Walnut Canyon. Located about 10 miles East of Flagstaff, the canyon was populated by the Sinagua people at about 1100 AD. Sinagua means "without water". These were people who lived on a gallon of water a day. The modern resident of Flagstaff uses about 155 gallons of water a day. The canyon is composed of three layers of rock. The top layer is limestone, the middle layer is called the Toroweap formation and the lowest layer is Coconino sandstone. Over time, the soft limestone layer developed eroded pockets back into the cliff. The natives finished the excavation and then walled up the resulting opening to create rooms.

The rooms are about 8-10' deep and 10 to 20' long.

The Park itself was developed as a CCC project back in the early thirties. Prior to that time looters had destroyed many of the rooms and carried off much of the historical material. The degree of damage inspired local historians to argue for the preservation of the area.

There is a really nice visitor center which overlooks the canyon. Although it is on three levels there is a wheelchair transport that allows handicap access to the view.

Upon exiting the visitor center, you descend 185' to a trail that goes around a section of of the canyon that was formed by a loop in the stream, making almost an island. The island is oriented so that part of it is exposed to the sun on one side and mostly shade on the other. So there are warmer rooms for the winter and cooler ones for the summer. The trail is unique in that you can actually go into most of the rooms and imagine what life was like in those times. It's very sobering to sit there and look out and try to appreciate the difficulty of life in those times.

The trail around the island is quite good and not very difficult at all.

Along the way there are some neat flowers and plants.

Then begins the trip back to the top. There are 240 steps, not counting the paved inclined areas. The trick is to stop often and drink plenty of water. We thought the gift shop should have had a T-shirt that said "I survived Walnut Canyon" but they didn't.

And if you're wondering about the name, they really do have walnut trees.

This is an Arizona Walnut. There were actually small walnuts visible on some of the branches. There used to be quite a lot of them along the bottom of the canyon but they have declined in recent years as an upstream dam has drastically reduced the flow of water. There was no water at all visible during our visit.

Walnut Canyon is an excellent stop. It's very dramatic and impressive and yet small enough to not be overwhelming. Plus, it's a good workout but not too difficult. None of us were sore the next day and saying something for us old farts.

Pie at "The Rock"

Yesterday we traveled to Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix to attend an anniversary party for one of my cousins.On the way back, we had a stop to make. 45 miles North of Phoenix, nestled at the base of the Bradshaw Mountains, is the Rock Springs Cafe.

The site of an ancient spring and later stagecoach stop, the cafe began in 1918 as a general store to serve the miners and travelers heading a long the old dusty single track that ran North out of Phoenix. Starting in a canvas tent, the buildings were erected in 1924 and the small stop became a hotel and supply depot. Today, the old buildings are still there and the general store, one of the last 10 of the originals in Arizona, is still in business.

But what makes the place so popular is the pies, thousands of them. They sell fruit pies and cream pies and even cheesecake. People come from far and near to enjoy a slice or a whole pie. They sold over 50,000 pies in 2007. When we were there they must have had over  50 pies ready for sale and more came out of the kitchen as we made our selection.

We bought a strawberry cheesecake and a cherry pie.

Having enjoyed the high point of our day, we then got the flip side. I17 from Phoenix up to Flagstaff is a main artery but is only two lanes in each direction. For most of the way the North and Southbound lanes are separated by a large median area. Just South of our turnoff to Prescott, this median area had caught fire, resulting in the restriction of traffic in both directions. And there was a lot of traffic.

At the point we left the cafe, the restriction was amounting to a two hour delay. We spent about an hour inching along and then left the highway for a back way on a 25 mile stretch of dirt road up to Mayer. Of course, this being the wide open West, you never know when you will have to share the road.

Once the cattle crossed the road in front of us we continued on through the dust back up to paved highway and home. By the time we got home, the traffic situation had been resolved and the other Northbound travelers from the party encountered no delay. I guess we should have stayed in Phoenix and gone to Cabelas. Oh well, that's a trip for another day.

We Go On A Picnic

See that little copse of Cottonwoods in the sun at the bottom of the valley? We went there for a picnic last evening. The son-in-law who is the pilot has a team and a wagon and had some out of town guests in for a country picnic. He hitched up the team and they all rode about five miles back into the hills to this spot. We tagged along behind in the car as it would have been too much to get Diane up into the wagon. Plus it would be a cold ride back, not to say bumpy.

On the way the road is blocked in several places by cattle guards.

These are barriers in the road made of steel rails with narrow openings between the rails. They are no problem for vehicles but livestock, including horses and cows are very reluctant to cross them. This way, there is ready access though the fences containing the stock pastures. Since the stock won't cross the guard, there are gates provided along side that can be opened for the stock to cross through when needed.

Some of the party rode the wagon while others rode horses and we were in the car. At the site, the wagon was unhooked and the horses waited patiently, or not, until it was time to leave.

We feasted on pulled pork, beans and slaw made from cabbage fresh picked from the garden. And for dessert, it was strawberry shortcake.

We rode back in the dark, closing the gates for the horsemen and women and listening for the coyotes to sing.

Sedona by Jeep

I was my great good fortune to yesterday be included in a back country Jeep ride in Sedona with my cousin's daughter and her family. There are a great many Jeep trails that wind back in the canyons behind the villages of Oak Creek and Sedona. They are open to the public but most require a Red Rocks Pass if you're going to stop and take pictures or hike some of the trails. By far, the greatest users are the many commercial Jeep tour operators who contract to take tourists into the back canyons. We started out by taking the Broken Arrow Trail, one of the most scenic and popular trails available. There, we encountered a great many of the famous Pink Jeeps.

Only high clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicles are permitted on these trails. There are many obstacles to climb and very rough road to traverse. The practice of taking off-road vehicles into the back country into difficult places is called rock crawling and involves extensive modifications to the vehicles involved to enable them to perform the way they do. Of course, it's great fun, particularly if you're open to the experience.

 The views are just spectacular.

The light colored thing in the center is called Submarine Rock and is easily 150 yards wide. You can drive to it but not up on it. We stopped there and walked to the highest point for the view. 

There are also many different kinds of plants. This one is called Century Plant.

It's a member of the Agave family, the one that is used to make Tequila. The Century plant only blooms once in its life which lasts from 10 to 40 years. After it blooms, it dies. The flower stalks can be over 12' tall. The spines of the leaves are dangerous. While the sap in the flower stalk is sweet and the stalk itself is eaten by people and livestock when it's small, that of the leaves is so highly acidic it can produce blisters on the skin.

After the Broken Arrow trail, we went across town and explored the Soldier Pass trail where we found some rare shade for a lunch break.

At the end of Soldier Pass is an old cabin that is an historic landmark.

Called the Van Deren cabin, here's it's story:

Spoiling the effect, if you go thirty yards behind the cabin and peek through the bushes, you come upon a golf course.

By the time we got back to town, it was getting hotter, about 95, so we decided to gain some altitude and headed for Jerome and Mingus mountain. At the top of the mountain, we turned onto a dirt road and followed for 20 miles across the ridges and into the isolated community of Cherry. 

There's a lot of lonely country back there. After 11 hours on the road we returned home tired and happy.

Monday, Monday

I took a short ride this morning. I wanted to get a picture of these flowers. They are locally called Thornapple but are also known as Sacred Datura. They were an important medicinal plant for the early Native Americans, even though all parts of the plant are extremely poisonous if ingested. Don't ask me how that works, but they are pretty.

They are similar in appearance to the Moonflowers that we have growing in gardens back home. Like the Moonflowers, they bloom at night and then close up during the day, meaning I had to get out at first light this morning to get these shots.

Back at the house, these hollyhocks were just starting to bloom.

I remember hollyhocks growing outside my grandmothers back door and I've wanted to get some going at my house but so far no luck. I like the singles,like these. I've tried just planting the seeds but have had only limited success. I just need to make a project of it. I've moved away from tomatoes at home so now maybe I can concentrate on flowers. Anyway, It's nice to see them here and it brings back the memories.

We wound up going to the wedding  yesterday. One couple had canceled and that made room for us to attend. It was held an upscale resort/golf community outside Flagstaff. A very pretty place with timber frame construction and a great view. The ceremony was performed by the uncle of the bride in an outside setting and then we moved indoors for a great dinner. We had salmon and it was very good. Then a DJ turned up the music and the party started. It was pretty much all 70's music. Most of the wedding party weren't even born when this music was first popular, but they really got down with it. We watched for awhile and then made the hour plus trip home in the twilight. I managed to see a few elk along the road on the way home.

I'm making headway on the new laptop but I've still got a ways to go. It's a Toshiba Satellite P755 with an i7 processor, 8 gigs of ram and a 750 gig hard drive. If that doesn't mean anything to you don't worry, most people's eyes start to glaze over when I start talking about it. Suffice to say it's better than the old one. I still have files to transfer and programs to install but at least I can get back on line and post.

When it rains it pours

First I over-ran the internet account this week which put me off line for a couple of days, then, on Thursday, my laptop died. I mean really died. No power, no nothing. I checked out the power brick but it was good. I pried out the battery and tried the power cord but still nothing. So, it's new laptop time. I found one on sale at Best Buy and waited until Saturday to purchase. That was because Microsoft is offering an inexpensive upgrade to Windows 8 (when it's released) starting on June 2. So I waited a day to be eligible. not that I want to upgrade right away but by waiting at least i can use the offer if I want to at a later time, up until Jan 31, 2013.

So, I'm still trying to get the new unit up and running and organized so I can get back to regular posts. We're going to be gone all day today to a wedding up in Flagstaff, so I won't get much done today, either. But maybe I can get some pictures and be ready for something tomorrow. Until then, have a good weekend.