Phoenix Spring Break in Early March 2024

To make it a lot easier on myself, this and the next several posts on our March getaway to Tempe, Arizona, will be different from the previous ones that were based on our international travels. The posts will include almost exclusively photos.

2/29: We left our home in the Denver, Colorado suburb of Littleton for the one-and-a-half-day drive to Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix. Rather than take the "normal" or "regular" route due south along the interstate from Denver to the Colorado/New Mexico border and then head southwest to Albuquerque, New Mexico, we chose to take the back roads through some of Colorado's national forests and spectacular mountains.

For likely the first time, I didn't write down the location of the photos so their locations remain a mystery to you and me!

President Obama declared Chimney Rock, one of the largest Pueblo communities in southwestern Colorado, a National Monument in 2021.

A wildlife crossing:

This was either Ute Reservation land in extreme SW Colorado or Navajo Nation Off-Reservation Trust Land in far NW New Mexico!

3/2: Tempe Town Lake was a fun place to walk along the lakeside, watching the kayakers, and taking the time to read each of the plaques on the concrete barrier. The two-mile-long artificial reservoir receives most of its water from the Colorado River. Look for more lake pictures in upcoming posts as it was just a mile from our condo.

    

3/4: Tempe's Eldorado Park was a 'safe' place to take our first extended walk in the Phoenix area as it was all paved. 

We had only seen disc or frisbee golf played once before. The game, played on a course with nine or eighteen holes and using rules similar to golf, was wildly popular that Saturday morning. We just had to be careful not to get beaned with errant frisbees!

3/5: Papago Mountain Park almost immediately became our favorite park in Phoenix as it was close by, had more trails than anyone could count, and had drop-dead gorgeous views. Big Butte Loop was one of the park's longer hikes.

Little Butte or as we heard some parents tell their kids "Little Butt!"

Steven and I got into the routine every night to take a walk around our neighborhood. We grew to become very fond of the city's murals ...

... and its novel sidewalk shapes. Why couldn't any town in Colorado have these?!

3/6: We stopped briefly at Tempe's town's pride and joy, Tempe Diablo Stadium, the home spring training baseball stadium for the Los Angeles A's, a California team. For non-American readers, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular Major League Baseball season. Fifteen teams play in the Grapefruit League located at sites all over Florida and the other 15 teams participate in the Cactus League in the Phoenix metro area.

Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives established players practice time before baseball's regular season. I hope you're sitting down when you realize that spring training last year generated $710 million for the local economy, with a good chunk coming from Colorado fans!

South Phoenix Mountain Park was our destination later that morning. At the park's entrance was a sign so powerful I thought it should be at every park's entrance. "The preservation of the natural beauty and shrubbery of this park is in your hands. If you would have it remain unspoiled, help to keep it so."

March was a perfect time to see lovely desert flowers blooming in the park.

In front of the park's museum was a monument honoring America's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 'boys,' a voluntary government work relief program that ran during the Depression for millions of unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25. The CCC boys planted trees, and built trails, parks, bridges, and public places.

3/8: We began the day walking for miles along one of Phoenix's canals. Some interesting facts about the city's canals: The credit for them goes to the ancient Hohokam civilization that harnessed the Salt River and grew enough crops to support a population of about 50,000 people for more than a thousand years before the people disappeared around 1450. 

Phoenix has 180 miles of canals, more than the 86 miles in Venice or Amsterdam combined! That’s because European settlers arrived and started digging canals hundreds of years after the Hohokam vanished. Some of the ancient waterways were re-excavated. A settlement known as Phoenix emerged along the Salt River by the late 1860s.

During World War II, German and Italian prisoners of war used shovels to widen and maintain the waterways for the Salt River Project, the utility that operates the canals.

That afternoon, we sadly watched our hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, get beat by the A's 8-7 in the bottom of the 9th inning. The team's woes continue with a woeful 4-10 as of today. Clearly, our presence brought them no luck!

Our cozy but well-decorated condo:

Phoenix had some of the eeriest sunsets we've ever seen!

3/9: The formerly named Warpaint Trail was in another area of South Phoenix Mountain Park that we'd hiked before. Out of respect for the Native American tribal communities, the trail was renamed Thash Kavid which translates to Sun Shield in the O'odham language. At most Phoenix mountain parks, signs indicated the dangers of hiking from April through October when the average temperature is 105°. The motto for hikers is "Take a Hike; Do it Right."

I grew to become frustrated hiking in the mountain parks as the majority of cyclists neither said "on your right" nor rang their bell when approaching blind curves on the trails, customary bike protocol.

A sorry-looking saguaro cactus!

Photos from our nightly stroll:

Once again, why can't any of Denver's neighborhoods have such fun roundabout designs? It was so much fun wondering what we'd find around the next corner!

Click on this photo to make it bigger. That way you'll see how much effort was put into using recycled parts and why it became my favorite!

Posted on April 12th, 2024 from back in our far more comfortable abode at home but having fun reminiscing on our March getaway to Tempe! Wishing you and your loved ones good health especially.

Next post: Mostly just photos of hikes and walks during the middle of March.