Friday, May 28, 2010

Slide Rock State Park, Arizona

The park is named after the famous Slide Rock, a stretch of slippery creek bottom adjacent to the homestead. Visitors may slide down a slick natural water chute or wade and sun along the creek.

Originally the Pendley Homestead, is a 43-acre historic apple farm located in Oak Creek Canyon. Frank L. Pendley, having arrived in the canyon in 1907, formally acquired the land under the Homestead Act in 1910. Due to his pioneering innovation, he succeeded where others failed by establishing a unique irrigation system still in use by the park today. This allowed Pendley to plant his first apple orchard in 1912, beginning the pattern of agricultural development that has dominated the site since that time. Pendley also grew garden produce and kept some livestock.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Pink Jeep Tour, Sedona Arizona

We took the Broken Arrow tour, this tour is a few hours long and well worth it!

The kids loved 4 wheeling in the jeep.

Jordyn and Robbie almost FELL off the side of a cliff!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Tuzigoot National Monument, Arizona

Preserves a 2 to 3 story pueblo ruin on the summit of a limestone and sandstone ridge just east of Clarkdale, Arizona. Tuzigoot is Apache for "crooked water", it was built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 CE. Tuzigoot is the largest and best-preserved of the many Sinagua pueblo ruins in the Verde Valley.




Monday, May 17, 2010

Montezuma Castle and Well, Arizona

Located near Camp Verde, Arizona, The five-story stone and mortar dwellings contain 20 rooms and once housed about 50 people. A natural overhang shades the rooms and shelters them from rain. Another part of the cliff wall bears the marks of an even larger dwelling, which has not survived.

Montezuma Well is a natural limestone sinkhole near Rimrock, Arizona through which some 1,400,000 gallons of water flow each day. Well's outflow has been used for irrigation since the 8th century and portions of the original Sinagua canal are still in use today.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising about 750 feet from the floor of the San Luis Valley on the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range, covering about 19,000 acres. The dunes were formed from sand and soil deposits of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, flowing through the San Luis Valley. Over the ages, westerly winds picked up sand particles from the river flood plain. As the wind lost power before crossing the Sangre de Cristo Range, the sand was deposited on the east edge of the valley. This process continues, and the dunes are slowly growing. The wind changes the shape of the dunes daily.