Monthly Archive: March, 2016

Abby the Rockstar: The Trail to the Top of Picacho Peak

Have you ever been on a trail and wondered how and why the person who designed it/laid it out/made it an official trail came up with the route? I’ve certainly hiked on a… Continue reading

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

Two days after Christmas we left Utah, traveling south for an 11-week trip. After a full day of driving we made our first stop at Casa Grande National Monument, a Hohokam archaeological site… Continue reading

A Christmas Eve Hike in the Red Cliffs

Since it was snowing again at the house, we decided to hike down in the Red Cliffs on Christmas Eve. It was still stormy as we drove past the 4,000 foot elevation marker… Continue reading

Hiking near Black Rock, Arizona

We set for a hike with Terry the day after I returned to Utah but there was a cold front and quite a bit of snow. Abby loved it. We humans decided to… Continue reading

Wupatki National Monument

Following the eruption of Sunset Volcano in the 11th century, thousands of prehistoric people came to settle on the high plains north of modern Flagstaff immediately surrounding the 1,000-foot cinder cone. Within this… Continue reading

Walnut Canyon National Monument

Like Homol’ovi, Walnut Canyon tells another part of the great migration stories of the peoples who lived in the Southwest in the 11th – 15th centuries. Following the volcanic eruption that created Sunset… Continue reading

Homol’ovi State Park

Homol’ovi State Park preserves a cluster of villages that were occupied between ca. 1250 and 1400 AD and thus provide archaeologists with an important link in reconstructing the migration of ancient peoples in… Continue reading

Petrified Forest National Park

Well, the storm I wrote about waiting out in my last post left northern New Mexico slick with seriousl layers of ice and snow. I had planned to continue north to visit archaeological… Continue reading

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the Phenomenal Sante Fe Brewing Company

The Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks are a remarkably unique geological feature formed when nearby volcanoes in the Jemez Field spewed pyroclastic flows approximately 7 million years ago. Ash, pumice, and tuff from the volcano… Continue reading

Petroglyph National Monument

Petroglyph National Monument protects an area containing over 20,000 petroglyphs etched into the basalt boulders that have broken off the 17-mile-long volcanic escarpment on the western outskirts of Albuquerque. Although most of these… Continue reading