arizona was in the middle of a drought. lance, our pink jeep guide, mentioned that sedona had only gotten half of its typical eight-inch yearly rainfall. ours was the last tour of the day and we all felt the chill set in on the way back to civilization. who knew though that the chill would turn to sub-freezing temperatures, wind, rain, hail, and snow.



we got it all at the south rim of the grand canyon. so cold at one point that our legs burned from a sharp lashing wind. luckily that only lasted 30 minutes, and so it went the entire time we were there: freezing cold, then bearable cold. snow, and then pretty wispy clouds parting over the cliffs. mist and then rain and then mist and then hail. and then a spectacular october sunset.



what can be said about the grand canyon that hasn't already been said? the views were spectacular, but with clouds playing hide-and-seek with the vistas, our attention was often times more taken with the animals. cayotes on the highway. ravens on the pathways. and a lone scrubjay, living on the edge.



the raven quickly became our favorite. bold and so black he glistened blue, he gave us a little show by puffing up his chest and catcalling to see which tourist he could attract first.



most of the time we spent laughing. for some reason the biting cold seemed hilarious. or maybe it was the site of ourselves and the other tourists mustering out of their warm vehicles to the canyon's edge: determined to take in the view while there. grandview we found especially hilarious, as the fog was thickest here. mom still posed for a picture.

how did sedona get developed? that should be a question on everyone's mind. we overheard a guide say, if discovered today sedona would be treated more like yosemite: a haven for campers and travellers with few houses or businesses. instead, sedona is like a natural disneyland. disney lived there in fact, as did lucille ball and many other celebrities and financially fortunate souls.



it is beautiful. the rock isn't red so much as a deep, rich pink. a cross between red and pink. opi should name a polish after it and we could all have deliciously colored desert vortex blessed toes.



all that dissing of development and exploitation and i'm here to tell you that we took the pink jeep tour and i highly recommend it if you ever get there. a backroad, 4wheel drive adventure, if you have only a little time you will see the beauty of the landscape plus have a fun, bumpy, steep, and bouncy sojourn. the guides tell you the names of the plants and the lore of the land all while navigating narrow trails and red boulders.

hundreds of years ago hundreds of people lived at montezuma's castle. five stories. the sinagua lived here for centuries and then unexplicably disappeared. no one knows why. no one knows where they went to. and now the site is overrun by wild, savage third-graders. bring pockets full of candy to fend them off if needed.

Part two of the mother and daughter desert sojourn. Part one found us in southeastern Arizona visiting the Figueroa Clan, traveling historical highways and viewing desert blooms. For part two we headed west and then north, from a new urban city to an ancient cliff dwelling, motoring up and over red rocks and peering down the steepest of the canyons.


arcosanti sits alone in the middle of a seemingly barren desert. you drive north of phoenix, right past the point where you think surely you've missed a turn off. and then it's about five miles past that.

an experimental, urban laboratory, it's the brainchild of paolo soleri, a one-time frank lloyd wright student. my mom had been to cosanti 30 years before and it made quite an impression on her — she had memories of space-age buildings flush with the land. so on this trip we decided to extend the tour to an overnight stay.



it's cheap and worthwhile, especially if you are interested in alternative, urban city planning, cohousing, or multi-use structures. $30 gets you a private room close to the pool and lots of electrical outlets. we didn't have a phone or a tv or a radio, but we had about one million electrical outlets.

you can catch a meal there as well — lunch, dinner, a cup of coffee. but i'm going to recommend the granola. buy a few bags. friends and family are going to want some for their own.

arcosanti is funded by bells and ceramic tiles made on site. you can buy them online as well.



although we were both glad we stopped at arcosanti, we both felt we'd stayed too long. we were anxious to get back on the road and see more sights. but we couldn't decide what to do. montezuma's castle? sedona? or go straight to flagstaff so we could get up bright and early for the grand canyon?

somehow we were able to do all three.

High in the Superstition mountains Boyce Thompson nurtures palm trees and delicate herbs. Australian outback and tropical trees. But the best are the cacti. All kinds of cacti. And succulents. And chapparel. And trees. Saguaros and Palo Verde seem to dominate and the cholla are mysteriously allowed to grow right up along the trails. This still surprises me, with all of the cholla scare tactics I've heard since I was big enough to hear. They supposedly have invisible "feelers" that sense your presense. You don't have to touch a cholla to have it's hooks take hold. They will jump right out and find you, double barbed so that they become one with your skin.



One of my favorite parts of the park is a long walkway lined with pomegranates. A wall of pomegranates. Some burst open, feeding ground to birds and bees. Others waiting patiently to share their fruit. Arizona is ripe with pomegranates. A complete treat.



In honor of Rebel Down Under, I posed at the entrance to the outback. The gum trees/eucalyptus made me a little wistful for home. The Red Gum might be my all time favorite tree. At home they're sentinals for Mission San Luis Obispo de Telosa. Here they were gorgeous walkway shade providers, white trunks dappled like sun reflections on a ocean bathing whale.



Of the cactus family and extended familes, the ocatillos are my favorites. Boyce Thompson has a bench with an ocatillo shade structure. And I wish I had one at home, too.