Our Travels for 2018

We have been in Tucson since Wednesday, April  25th. Just so you know that there are several new entries in the blog.

Today we planned to take the Scenic Byway to Mt. Lemmon. The weather when we have been in Tucson has never been truly clear, always hazy. In the mornings we have blue sky but by the afternoon the clouds move in and the wind starts. Makes visiting the area a challenge.

The road system in Tucson is not as well planned as in Phoenix so we need to plan a bit of time to get from one side to the other as it is all city streets and the lights aren't synced very well.

We took off, drove the usual mini-roller coaster roads(not very flat around here) and finally got to the byway. Uphill for 27 miles, elevation rise from 2700' to 9100'. A very curvy road but a good road: paved, shoulders, not clinging to the mountain like so many others. Very little traffic. The views were great, too bad it was hazy. We were disappointed at the end of the drive. Ended up in the town of Summerhaven, minimal parking. Drove over to the ski area, again minimal parking. We had hoped for a mountain top conclusion with great views, similar to Pikes Peak.

This would be a great drive on a clear day but not to be for us today. Next came the challenge of a meal. All the restaurant advertising seems to be very low key, hard to spot even with 2 of us looking. We finally saw a Panera and stopped there. Then back to the campground and get ready to leave tomorrow(Tuesday).

.This is the nice, straight road up to the top of Mt. Lemmon.

Yesterday we decided to stay a few extra days in Tucson. This morning we made plans to go to Sabino Canyon, Mt. Lemmon and Saguaro NP East.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Sabino Canyon that there was a shuttle through the canyon. Once we rode the shuttle we could understand why. Beautiful canyon, lots of Saguro, growing in unbelievable places, some mesquite and birds. A stream runs through the canyon and was/is a popular summer place. We were also warned about mountain lion sightings and be careful with the little kids. Snakes were starting to come out also.

Amazing how trees cling to life

Th tram barely makes it across the bridges

This Saguaro wanted to make sure we left the canyon

We rode the tram both ways. Not in any shape to do the walking in the heat. What surprised us were the number of people out and about. What also surprised us the most the number of people, of all ages, who did not carry water. They are just asking for trouble.

There is a stream that wanders through the canyon and was still active today. Last year, during monsoon season(July), a flash flood came through and the canyon was partly flooded. People were busy forming human chains to get people out. Must have been scary.

After that we skipped Mt. Lemmon (in the plan for tomorrow) as it was a 2 hour drive up and back without stops.

We wandered over to Saguaro NP East and decided the one in the west was so much better, a lot mor Saguaro. On our way back to the cg we passed the back of the Davis-Monthan AFB where all the old military planes are stored, including Air Force One. Just looking at it was overwhelming as to the number of planes in storage.

 On the west side of Tucson is a "retirement" lot for commercial air liners. Unfortunately, not open to the public.

Today we decided to take it easy again since we were scheduled for Kitt Peak again. Took a scenic drive, stopped at a Nature Conservancy location but it was around noon so the birds weren't around, took a little walk. Of course, this was on a dirt road.

We put our next location into the GPS, verified where it was going and took off. Well, the left run back to the highway was closed so we continued following the GPS. We were on all National Forest Roads so weren't too concerned. You can tell we haven't been traveling in a while. After a couple of miles on our poor dirt roads, we realized the GPS was making a big loop. We turned around and went back the way we came.

We then stopped at the Titan Missile Museum, ate lunch and Tom took the tour. This is the only Titan silo left in the US, all the other silos have be de-commissioned and flattened. The tour lasts 1 1/2 hours, all the original equipment and a missile in the silo. The tour guide was a vet that had actually served at this silo. Tom really enjoyed the tour and if you are ever in Tucson we highly recommend it.

We then went back to the cg for a couple hours and on to Kitt Peak. About an hour drive. The only problem was the last 8-9 miles of the drive went up 5000'+, hung on the side of the mountain, many curves. I thought this was going to be interesting coming back in the pitch black of the night.

When we got to the parking lot we were met by a docent and he had us all line up in  rows. Told us we were going to caravan down the mountain at the end of the tour. Different.

When we checked in we were handed a sheet of paper of how we were going to leave the mountain. Due to all the telescopes we could not use our headlight so red covering was placed over all our headlights. We would caravan down the mountain following the docent for about a mile. At that point the red covers would be removed and we would proceed down the mountain. No high beams until mileage marker 7. The headlights affect the telescopes and could destroy someones experiment.

This all worked as planned and we finally made it home by midnight, very tired.

We started off the tour with supper(a sandwich) and watching the sunset. Probably could see 100+ miles.Then a walk too see sunset from the top of the mountain.

The drive up the mountain

 

First sighting of the telescopes

Balance weight used for installing telescopes, painted by a Navajo

Pitch black at night, no one went to the restrooms alone!!!

Sunset from the mountain top

Our tour was great. We were broken into 2 groups. Each group had an hour with a telescope and hour with a star chart looking at constellations outside. At 7000' the wind was blowing and the temp was in the high 40s. At least we had been prepared for that.

The telescope was fascinating. 20" mirror, the docent would put what we were going to view into the computer and the telescope would move. Then someone would  be nominated to move the domb so the telescope could view the sky. We looked at several binary(2) stars, constellations etc. The only lights allowed were red and we had been given red flashlights. We were hoping to look at Jupiter and see its moons but a cloud was covering it. Everyone had a turn at the telescope many times.

During our star chart part of the tour we were all give binoculars, taught how to  adjust them for each eye(that was new) and went outside to look at constellations. We discovered we could see the moons of Jupiter with binoculars! Want to try it again tonight since we are in a very dark campground.

This was a long night on the mountain. Tour started around 5:30 and ended around 10 but then we had to get organized for the trip down the mountain plus the hour drive once down the mountain.

Today we are wiped. Went out for breakfast, gassed up the car, supermarket.

Haven't decided yet what we are going to do tomorrow, may stay a few more days. Still a lot to see and do.

We arrived at thee campground in Tucson a bit later than we thought. The road we were going to take from I10 to the campground was closed. Had to drive into Tucson(all interstate) and take the long way around. The main road to the campground is 4 miles of riding a roller coaster. Many dips, big dips. I am pretty sure we bottomed out once. Road looks a little beat up from hitches hitting the road.

The campground is in the Tucson Mountain Park and is county run. These are the type of parks we like to stay in. Since the park was mostly empty we had a great choice of sites. We were careful about our orientation so the sun wouldn't shine in our front window all afternoon. First site we couldn't get very level so we found another site. We settled in and did a drive around the park and a walk around our loop.  Government run campgrounds are generally set up in loops of about 50 sites each, your  neighbor is about 50' or further away. Many times you can't even see them.

This is a beautiful location in the desert, surrounded by mountains and great views.

We were scheduled to go to Kitt Peak for a night astronomy tour so we took it easy today. Toured Saguaro West National Park. We stopped in the visitor center to watch the movie. Movie was very good as usual and the ending was awesome. The screen went up, the curtains opened and we had a phenomenal view of the desert and the Saguaro.

View after the curtain rose

We had been to Saguaro East many years ago and had never heard of Saguaro West. This entire area is very scenic. When talking to the Ranger, who is from Tucson, he admitted he had never heard of Saguaro West either until he went to work for NPS. We had a good laugh.

We have never seen so many Saguaro in one place. Well deserved National Park.  The Saguaro have started to bloom, they need to be 8' tall and 30-60 years old. In about 2-3 weeks the entire desert will be in bloom. We are at 2700'. I would consider this a forest of Saguaro.

Saguaro forest

Almost looks like a person

The cacti are beginning to bloom

A Saguaro in bloom

We did the road tour of Saguaro, mostly dirt roads. If I don't have a daily dose of 10-20 miles of dirt road I am disappointed. We normally pack our lunch but for some reason we forgot to do that today. Big mistake. In our wanderings after seeing the park, we saw a Subway and picked up a sandwich. Good thing we did, never saw another place to eat in the next 2-3 hours.

The instructions when we looked up this park said not to come in over Western Gates Pass Road. We drove this road today in the Honda, I can understand the restriction easily. Up the mountain, down the mountain, lots of curves and somewhat steep.

We were looking forward to our visit to Kitt Peak(23 telescopes) this evening. Around 1 we received an email saying the program was cancelled for that night due to clouds. We called and rescheduled for the next night.

Today was spent getting everything packed up and stowed. Last minute items like hair cuts, food shopping, a few other random stops. We requested a pull thru site(most are back in) for the night so we can take off first thing in the morning.

Everything was completed by lunch time and we finished packing up. Moved to the new site and was set up fairly fast. Getting very hazy outside, must be a dust storm. We are at 1700'-2000' and aren't impacted but the distance mountains get very hazy.

Tomorrow we want to get an early start, we are only going to Tucson but the campground is first come, first serve plus we will need to deal with Phoenix rush hour but I do have Plan B and C.

We have never stopped at Tucson before but plan to go to Kitt Peak, a National Observatory. We went to the night program at McDonald Observatory years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope Kitt Peak is as good. Many other things to see in Tucson. Our first step after setting up camp will the Visitor Center and get some info and a good local map.

Wandering back we will stop and smell the roses as best we can. We have signed up for an RV Rally in late May(Sedalia,MO) and then on to Williamsburg.