Verde Canyon

The dark marks on the wall are petroglyphs, ancient paintings left by the earliest tribal people.

These are some of the reasons this is called Arizona's "other Grand Canyon".

Next: Montezuma's Castle and Well.

We've moved...

This is the Colorado River. The same one that runs from Hoover Dam and through the Grand Canyon. Now it is our back yard for the next two weeks.

Colorado River Oasis RV Park is a lovely one with very friendly people. We'll be visiting Quartzsite and doing a lot of relaxing and walking. After spending the last month at high altitudes (3500 to 7000 feet) I need to get over an asthma attack here at 1000 feet.

Next: some more pictures of Verde Valley and the Grand Canyon.

Verde Canyon Railroad - a beautiful 4 hour round trip

4 hours from Clarkdale to Perkinsville and back through Arizons's other "Grand Canyon".

Our train: The 2 engines pulling us above, the front of our train as seen from our car, then the caboose.
You can ride the caboose for $600. You get champaign, special food and a personal valet to take care of your every whim (up to 6 people).

Clarkdale is an old copper mining town. When you leave the station you go past a mound.

It is 500 million pounds of tailings from the copper mine, just sitting there. Lately the technology has developed so that it is worth the time and effort to render them for the various ores and minerals.

Next: more shots of the canyon.

Arizona Highlights...

Tuzigoot National Monument - a beautifully preserved pueblo on top of a hill in the Verde Valley.

Several hundred people lived here at one time.

They lived in inter-connected series of rooms, up and down.

They farmed the fields all around.

Next up - the Verde Canyon Train.

How about some sightseeing?

Hoover dam is impressive, so much larger than Grand Coolie.

It was a WPA project and the architecture was done in Art Deco, even the parking garage.


The Visitor Center is also Art Deco and has some great displays.

This is the new Pat Tillman Memorial bridge. We didn't walk it but when we drove over it last spring, we didn't even know it. RV's and trucks must drive on the inside lanes and you can't see over the edge.

The memorial Plaza has a neat representation of the sky including the placement of the stars and constellations as seen from this place.





These winged figures represent the workers who created this momentous achievement.

Inside the power house. This was a secondary development, the dam was built for flood control of the Colorado River first and foremost.







Next up, Arizona highlights.

Misadventures continued....

The toilet is fixed, the icemaker is fixed, the air conditioner is fixed, that is three, isn't it? There shouldn't be anymore, should there? Wanna bet?

When we left Las Vegas Linda plugged in the gps and no power. Moved things around and had the brake system and gps plugged in, but the tire monitor was on battery the whole day. Went ok, we got to Verde Valley, Arizona just fine (no more issues). Tom looked for the fuse that blew out, and looked, and looked and looked some more. He did the whole troubleshooting protocol and couldn't find the fuse to make it work again. It wouldn't be a great hardship if it was just one DC plug. Unfortunately, that fuse also manages the aisle (night) lights, the service lights, the passenger (co-pilot's) DC plugs and the TV controller box. Definitely need to fix this soon. Tom found somebody to look at it, if we brought the coach to him. He set up the appointment for Friday. Thursday afternoon, he found the card for an RV Mobile repairman who came out and they discovered not just the 3 fuse panels Tom had already checked, there is one in the engine compartment that controlls part of the coach. $50 later we are fully functional again and ready for more adventures.

There will be changes to the travel schedule. Linda has a philisophical aversion to any polace that requires chains or cables for the coach so we are not going to Idyllwild. Snow and coach don't mix, according to Tom. Too many years with the bus.