4/1: Tempe, Arizona-Durango, Colorado via Monument Valley!

After spending a fun month mostly exploring the mountain trails around the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, it was time to head home to Colorado, 800 miles northeast. As we did on the trip to Phoenix, we chose to take the 'slow road' from Phoenix home, driving through the incomparable Monument Valley from northeast Arizona through a smidge of southeast Utah before entering southwest Colorado.

The small community of Cameron in northern Arizona was located on the Navajo reservation.

Steven and I were reminded of this country's stunning natural beauty as we headed northeast to Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. It had been several years since we'd driven the looping, 17-mile Valley Drive, one of the US's most famous drives. 

We couldn't figure out how people eke out an existence in this barren environment.

These silos were in the middle of absolute nowhere with nothing and no one else around for miles and miles.

We stopped at the Burger King in Kayenta, Arizona after seeing signs promoting their Code Talker Exhibit and reading about it on Roadside America. It told the story of World War II Navajo Marines who deployed as communications experts using their native language as the only unbreakable code in modern military history. The code consisted of about 200 characters and a vocabulary of 411 terms that could be memorized and used lightning-fast. The US Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima if it hadn't been for the Navajo because the entire operation was directed by Navajo code. 

In just one 48-hour period, six Navajo radio nets operated around the clock sending and receiving over 8,000 messages without a single error. They helped save thousands of American lives and significantly shortened the war.

The messages included anything concerning the location and strength of the energy, the time and place of attack, and missions and maneuvers. The Code Talkers had to improvise when faced with words not in their language: "mortar" became "gun that squats;" "aircraft carrier" became "bird carrier;" and "fighter plane" was "hummingbird."

You could see how the incomparable Monument Valley was frequently a filming location for Western movies!

The red-sand desert region is known for towering sandstone buttes.  

Welcome to Utah and its San Juan County aka The World's Greatest Outdoor Museum!

Just over the border into SE Utah from NE Arizona:

The famous running scene from the 1994 movie Forrest Gump was shot on the scenic highway. 

Forrest Gump Hill is always such a popular photo stop that drivers have to be ultra careful of people standing in the middle of the road taking selfies with jaw-dropping views behind them.

The striations in the rocks looked just like the rippled afghan I was knitting while driving through Monument Valley!

Overlooking the San Juan River was the hamlet of Mexican Hat even though the rock formation of the same name was two-plus miles away. 

This was our first view of the iconic Mexican Hat rock formation that resembled a sombrero from some angles. We couldn't resist taking the turnoff to get much better views from different perspectives.

Highway 163 was also called the Navajo Code Talkers Highway.

Entering SW Colorado: Definitely not a view that people generally associate with our mountainous state!

It looked like the Ute Mountain Casino was the only thing that kept tiny Towaoc going.

I had Steven turn the car around so I could get this shot of Trump's likeness in the heavily Republican southwest part of the state! 

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Hitting the relatively big town of Durango for the night was a bit of a culture shock after seeing barely anything but out-of-this-world rock formations for the previous few hours! If we ever get back there, I hope we'll have time to stop a spell and take photos of its historic town center.

Posted on April 23rd, 2024 from another rainy day in Denver. We shouldn't be surprised or bummed as April is the wettest month after all! Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Next post: Durango-Denver via the Million Dollar Highway!

Late March 2024 in Phoenix

3/19: Eldorado Park, Scottsdale: Steven and I had walked at Eldorado several times but had always walked southbound. This time, we decided to head north. The joke was on us as we didn't realize that the Indian Bend Wash really meant a washout that day!

As I mentioned in other posts, Steven and I grew to really appreciate the artistic merits of suburban Phoenix public works.

If we'd known how breathtaking the flowers were in the northern part of the park, we'd have come this way sooner. I loved how the homeowners adjacent to the park also "copycat" the African daisies in their yards instead of lawns.

Free daisies anyone?

After normally walking for several miles each morning, Steven and I lazed by the condo's pool in the afternoons. I wish I could say we felt guilty for having the pool to ourselves more often than not but we didn't!

Tempe should be called the City of Bridges! As we'd done before, that night we walked down to Tempe Town Lake aka Rio Salada.

How fun for young couples in love and parents of little ones to pedal the animal-shaped boats under the bridges!

The tall building in the center was the Hayden Flour Mill.

Hayden Butte Preserve, a sacred site of the four southern tribes of Arizona, towered over downtown Tempe. It was declared a park in 1973, and then the city’s first preserve before being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

3/20: The city looked like it was on fire at sunset.

3/21: Papago Park & Hayden Butte Preserve at Sunset: 

Plane buffs would have a field day watching an almost constant parade of planes flying behind the park's Little Butte.

The mural marked Tempe's 150th anniversary in 2021.

If in Tempe ...!

The flour mill reflected at sunset:

On our many nightly walks in downtown Tempe, Steven and I had seen countless people hike up the Leonard Monti trail at Hayden Butte Preserve at sunset. We finally thought we'd give it a try and see how far we could climb.

Views from halfway up the trail:

About two-thirds of the way up!

After slogging up some very steep steps for a good while, it was anticlimactic to reach the trail's end only to find a nothing view! After going round and round the mountain to reach the top, we sure anticipated stellar views for all our efforts. Some (far younger!) people ignored the end of the trail sign and chanced much better views on the slippery rocks. 

The crescent moon and rising star atop the 1,495 ft. mountain recognized the month of Ramadan and could be viewed by over 1.5 million people in the metro Phoenix area.

The large "A" on the hillside signified nearby Arizona State University in Tempe. 

3/22: Papago Park's Hole in the Rock & Lakeside Walk:

It was far less of a challenge hiking around the back of the rocks than the hike up the preserve the previous night!

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I'm a sucker for reflection shots!

If you click to enlarge the picture, you'll see turtles sunning on the tiny island!

Tempe at night:

We were glad that the monkey was 'off our back' and we'd made the preserve's ascent.

I could have watched this fellow for hours as he whirled and twirled.

3/23: Papago Encore

We were about to leave the park before this bridal party arrived for a 5-minute photo shoot! What a scream!

3/24: A Stroll through Tempe's Mitchell Park Neighborhood:

3/25: Papago Double Butte & Little Butte Loops: The Fitness Loop was a fairly easy 5-mile hike around much of the park.

3/26: South Phoenix Park's Thrash David Trail:

Our dear friend Ellen was able to join us while her husband worked on their trailer.

3/27: Evening Tempe Lake Walk:

3/28: Where else but back to Papago Park!

3/29: Springtime blooms in the desert!

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3/30: A walk to and through the ASU campus: Take note of the building behind the bicycle!

Some 'large' snakeskin boots adorned with snake heads stood in front of the university's Nelson Fine Art Center. The amusing sign in front read: "We know it's tempting but please do not touch!"

The Southwest Pieta:

The reason for our ASU visit was to view the Gammage Memorial Auditorium designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The drawings had originally been prepared for an opera house in Baghdad, Iraq. Wright spent the last two years of his life working on sketches for the building.

Ramadas provided much-needed shade throughout the campus.

Vision Lens: Light and Future

Signs throughout the campus proclaimed its number 1 ranking in innovation, sustainability, and global impact, ahead of such heavyweights as Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley - wow.

Our last hurrah in Phoenix was spent with our dear friends from Nova Scotia, Ellen and Peter. If you read the CNN article about how Steven and I met (CNN Travel Berger), you may recall Ellen was the friend I was with in Mexico when I met Steven "in a long line in a small bank, in a small town in Mexico" as we like to tell the story. I am blessed to have been able to count on her friendship through the health issues from 40-plus years ago and also the more recent ones.

Steven and I had had a fantastic winter getaway enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of suburban Phoenix all March - the highlights were getting in shape again with long morning hikes with family and friends especially at Papago Park, nightly strolls to Tempe Town Lake, and quirky street art all around town!

Posted on April 19th, 2024 from a very snowy spring day in Denver - definitely NOT the weather I'd hoped for when planning our neighborhood's annual Parks Beautification Day tomorrow to coincide with Earth Day! April 20th is, more importantly to us here in Littleton, the 25th anniversary of the tragic shootings at our local Columbine High School where 12 students and one teacher lost their lives to gun violence, an epidemic that happens far too often in this country. Be safe, give an extra big hug to your loved ones, and tell them you love them. Life is too short not to.

Next post: Heading home via some of this country's stupendous scenery.