Phoenix

On the recommendation of our daughter in Colorado we decided to stop at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on our way into Phoenix rather than visit the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix (half the admission price and similar experience), The road from Safford wasn’t as flat as the previous day and included an amazingly rocky mountain pass.

 

There were fun business signs – the Pickle Barrel Trading Post seems to have it all! And we passed through Miami. My attention had wandered and I missed the Welcome to Miami sign on the edge of town and the mural on a building – so we’re having to make do with the less than optimal ones I did get.

 

Due to a stop for road construction and low speed limits in some of the small towns along the way we missed the guided walk of the arboretum’s main trail at 11am – but it  was very interesting just wandering the trails by ourselves and reading the signs.

They have an area dedicated to medicinal uses of native plants that we walked through first – a short side trail called the Curandero Trail after the Spanish word for traditional Native healers.

The Smith Interpretive Center (named after a father & son that were instrumental in the management of the arboretum) has greenhouses extending in either direction. One is full of succulents; the other is full of cacti – both from all over the world.

These huge Red Gum trees are along the Desert Legume Garden where it meets the large Australian Desert Exhibit – they are natives of Australia.

Many of the plants looked like bizarre works of art – very sculptural and highly textured. This Hatpin Cactus is aptly named as I found out when placing my hand near it for the picture – its spines are longer than my fingers and can draw blood.

The most unusual are the Boojum trees. Some are my size but this one is quite enormous. They remind me of something Dr. Seuss would make up!

Water from Queen Creek is pumped up to a cistern from which it then is used to supply the entire facility and a small lake has also been created. A few ducks were enjoying it – I imagine it is a great place for bird watching. From a small gazebo we could see the home of Col. Thompson – it is impressive. The trail wound through some steep and narrow spots and we got an even closer look at the house.

As we continued down we came to Queen Creek and forgot we were in a desert! It was green and much cooler. We crossed the suspension bridge to the High Trail but decided to return to the main trail.

The last section is the Australian Desert Exhibit – it is full of eucalyptus and smells wonderful. The biggest trees in the entire arboretum were in this area – including another Red Gum.

 

Leaving the arboretum we came down the mountains into the suburbs of Phoenix (our campground for the night is in Mesa). The most fun thing along the way was this less than impressive Arizona State Trooper car – my first thought was it looks like a clown car at the circus!

 

Then we were into city traffic – luckily we were not going too far off the highway. Many of the neighborhoods appear to have small houses on very small lots – and many of the neighborhoods are RV resorts with RVs and park model trailers practically on top of each other. Our resort had an amazing array of amenities and activities – it was movie night in the ballroom and we attended the pre-movie dinner. We didn’t stay for the movie – more laundry to do and work on the plan for the next day or two (and updating the blog for anyone reading).

For more pictures of the drive from Safford to Phoenix click here and for more Boyce Thompson Arboretum pictures click here.

I’ll leave you with some desert love – a special treat for making it through this crazy post that took me forever to finish and publish!