I always feel embarrassed facing my fears because I think of our daughter and how brave she was. Anna faced so much and she never showed fear! She accepted cancer and death with courage, grace and faith. How do you do that at 20 years old?!? I have watched my only beautiful child die from a horrendous cancer. There is nothing more the world can do to scare or hurt me; this is as bad as it gets. There should be nothing that scares me anymore; should there? What does any

Driving in to Guadalupe Mountains NP from the south is gorgeous! Big sheer cliffs that are breath taking! Sorry about the dirty windshield! After all the volcanic parks and monuments I saw on this trip, I thought maybe this was also keeping with that theme, but no, this is a Permian fossil reef. Yup, an ocean reef. Once upon a time, about 5 million years ago, there were sponges, algae and lots and lots of organisms. According to the ranger, the place is loaded with fossil

This is a huge park, and it covers over 800,000 acres! Big Bend gets it's name from the big bend in the Rio Grande river that flows through it's southern border shared with Mexico. Elevations as low as 1700' and as high as 8000' explain the great diversity in ecosystems found within the park. Driving in from Terlingua, TX on the southwest side of the park it seemed that the landscape had quite recent volcanic activity. Well, recent in geologic terms... Driving into the Chis

Leaving Saguaro West (after 3.1 miles) and winding my way through the north side of Tucson I passed by the Tohono Chul Botanic Gardens. It instantly took me back to an incident that happened there with Anna when she was 4 or 5. This may explain the aversion Anna and I have to cactus. She and I had flown to Tucson to visit Ted and Vickie Haluza. We decided it would be interesting to visit Tohono Chul Gardens, most of which is cactus. After parking the car, I noticed we we

I don't think a hotel room ever felt so wonderful as the one in Tucson that night after 3 National Monuments and 1 vicious dust storm! Thank you Fred for finding the perfect place! After cleaning up and being rejuvenated by a wonderful mattress I was ready to tackle both Saguaro National Parks (east & west) in 1 day! I was at Red Hills Visitor Center before they opened reading all the warnings on the bulletin board. The long list of dangerous things in the desert was disconc

The drive from Phoenix to Tucson was terrible, unless you are the rare bird who enjoys dust storms. I had never driven through a real one before and it was slightly terrifying. Did I mention, the air conditioner in the car decided not to work? I now have a very personal understanding of why you should never leave your dog in a hot car. Woof! So, this is what the state of Arizona says to do in the event that you can no longer see the road in front of you during a dust stor

22 miles from Tuzigoot National Monument near Camp Verde, AZ is Montezuma's Castle National Monument. The Southern Sinagua people lived here from 1100 - 1400. The "castle" is a 5 story, 20 room pueblo! And we're back to building into the side of a cliff...but in a big way! This was a condo building in every way; other than they didn't have an elevator. Montezuma's Castle was built high up in the cliff, but there was another building just a very short distance away on the

After leaving the Grand Canyon (and the precious rock where Anna & I sat) I traveled to Cottonwood, AZ. My plan was to go through Sedona, but the highway was closed and so it was the interstate for me. Stayed overnight in my car and then it was off to Tuzigoot (Too-z-goot) National Monument. (Tuzigoot means crooked water) Their address is listed as Camp Verde, AZ, but it is really located NW of Cottonwood. Tuzigoot and Montezuma's Castle were both inhabited by the Southern

OK, this is gonna be a big one...kinda like the Canyon herself. I will apologize now if my memories crowd out the facts about the park. But most of you probably already know many facts regarding the 7th wonder of the world. If not, here are some fun facts about the Canyon: The Vishnu basement rocks found down by the river are 2 billion years old. Yes, gentle reader, that's with a 'B'; and I thought I was old. The Canyon has provided for humans for about 12,000 years; sta

I wasn't sure what to expect at this monument. The road is starting to gain elevation just outside of Flagstaff, and then the annoying woman on Google maps says to exit. Hmm... kinda looks like home with the forest and the warm pine smells. Still nothing out of the ordinary when you arrive at the Visitor Center. As you enter the center and pay your fee you look out the back window and WOW, it's the most beautiful canyon you've ever seen! The Canyon is filled with perhaps