Cave Creek, March 1-8

Sunday I loaded up and headed out  of the Lone Butte Casino towards Cave Creek after stopping at Baudres RV to dump and fill up with water.  It was raining and it turned out to be a good day to travel because the traffic was minimal.  

I arrived at our rondezvous point which turned out to be a great little spot in the middle of downtown Cave Creek.  Our host Randy had arranged for all of us to stay here for the week.  Our presence did generate a few inquires from the Cave Creek authorities and there was some talk of Randy having to obtain a permit but Randy's tenure in the town had pull and our stay was without inncident.  In fact, we made the front page of the Sonoran, the local newspaper. ...good free advertising for the WINS.

The week was filled with lots of activities.  The town of Cave Creek has lots of little shops and resturants and good dancing at several night spots. We all spent several evenings at the Bufflo Chip which had live music every night and live bull riding two nights a week. The dancing gave me the opportunity to practice my two-step.

Tuesday we toured Taliesin West, the western home of Frank Lloyd Wright.  It's now a school of architecture,  housing about 32 students.  The 2 1/2  hour tour was extremely interesting and informative.  One of the things I found very interesting is that the original structure was built without windows.  Mr. Wright felt the reflective properties of glass didn't fit with the desert landscape.  He used canvas which let light in.  Later Mrs. Wright convinced him to use glass in the windows. He wanted to develope a new style of architecture unique to America.  No columns and peaked roofs for him!! He wanted his work to blend and harmonize with the land.  He also believed money was to be spent on luxuries and lived on the brink of brankrupcy most of his life.  When he died he had almost 150 projects in the works.

Taliesin West

                                          Entrance to Mr. Wrights office.

                                                   One of many sculptures on the grounds.

                                         The lower left square symbol is used as a logo on Mr. Wrights works.

Wednesday we all went for a 4X4 drive out Bloody Basin Road to see some Native Indian Ruins and on to Sheep Bridge.  Along the way we stopped and had an old fashioned hot dog roast.

                                           Sheep Bridge is off in the distance

                                          The Sheep bridge.  The shepherds run the sheep across the bridge when the river is high.  This bridge is relatively new and high so as not to wash out.

                                         OK.  Who is going to lead?

                                         We had some pretty sharp turns

You can see the road in the distance

Lots of hot dogs for hungry travelers.

                                        A portion of the indian ruins along the way.

                                        This Suguaro looks like its trying to climb up the rock

The next day we headed out to Spur Cross Ranch for a hike.  Some of us took the Dragon Fly trail and saw the Petroglyphe the trail is named after.

The dragon fly

Part of the Dragonfly trail.  Thats Sue hiking on the trail.

A Suguaro Forest

The wild flowers are starting to bloom

After our hike, Randy offered to take me up a nearby canyon on the quad to see some more petroglyphs.He had promised we would see some on the 4X4 trip, but ran out of time so he was making up for it by taking me to these very special ones.

            At one point I had to get off so Randy could make a running start.

                                         Pretty neat.  Don't ask me where they are, because I haven't a clue how we got there.  There were others up the canyon, but canyon became to narrow for the quad to go through.

Friday we drove up to Humboldt  to the radar tower.  The panoramic views showed off Horseshoe Lake and Bartlett Lake as well as the surrounding mountains.  One the way back we stopped and saw the Sears-Kay ruins.  We got back in time to go to the Cave Creek museum, which is a great little self sustaining museum.

Humboltdt Radar Tower

Horseshoe Lake

                                          Sears-Kay indian Ruins

                                                   More of the ruins.  The original forms of the homes have been restored but not to the original height.

Judy and I decided to to hike to the top of Black Mountain on Saturday morning.  Its a steep 1/1/2 mile hike up the mountain with approximately 1000 elevation gain....in other words all up and all down.

                                         I made it to the top!

                                  The town of Cave Creek

                                          Looking towards Pheonix


That evening we replenished all the calories we burned during the hike with a trip to the Pinnicle Peak Patio for a steak dinner and some dancing afterwards at the Greasy Iron.  Unfortunately, it started to rain and we didn't get a chance to do much dancing as the Greasy Iron is all outside.

It rained all through the night and all day Sunday.  I moved my home one wheels to higher ground so I wouldn't get stuck in the mud.  I don't mind the rain so much, but this was cold rain.  It  is supposed to be warm in Arizona.

                                               The parking area at Cave Creek

Monday, I pulled up the jacks and headed south to Tucson.  The group is going to Desert Diamond Casino but I decided to go back to the Casino Del Sol.