Wood's Prairie Travels

“Oh, the places you’ll go and the things you’ll see...” We are pretty certain that Dr. Seuss paid a visit to the Joshua Tree National Park before illustrating his books. Located in southeastern California, we saw this park on the map. Since neither of us knew what a Joshua Tree was, we thought we’d pop into the park for a visit. This national park turned out to be nothing like we expected. The word “forest” has a different connotation for Pacific Northwesterners. It was an arid desert habitat with interesting mountains and rocks. Our first stop was to Oasis Springs. A short walk brought us to towering palm trees nestled in a small rocky canyon. These trees presented quite a different canopy than we are used to. Continuing on through the park, we noticed changes in the desert. Sometimes there were more of one type of cactus or another. And then when we got to a summit, we saw them. The Joshua Trees! They are a strange looking tree which seemed like a cross between a palm tree and ...

Something that neither of us had seen before, and wanted to, was a saguaro cactus. Well, we found way more than one, as we headed towards Phoenix! Driving south on Highway 17 once you get through Black Canyon, there they are. The epitome of the desert southwest, the saguaro cactus. Their dark green forms were standing on the flats and hillsides of the arid lands with their arms extended upwards. Often, these large cacti were silhouetted on the hillsides. To get a closer view and more information about this cactus, we went to the White Tank Mountain Park, a short distance west of Phoenix. There are numerous trails, picnic spots, and camping areas in this great local park.  We learned that the saguaro cactus, which is a protected plant, get very old. In fact, they are about 50 to 75 years old before they grow their first arm. In some instances where the land is really arid, a saguaro may be 100 years old before it grows its first arm. Ultimately, they may live for several hundred y...

Imagine digging at the top of a hill through what looked like rock, sand, and rubble and then coming across rocks that appeared to be held together with masonry in a straight wall! That is what happened in the Mesa Verde Valley during the late 1890’s. Pat was curious how the settlement got covered up so much? Floods, wind, or on purpose? It is hard to believe the amount of material that had to move uphill to cover the pueblo.  Once excavated, this location turned out to be a large pueblo style dwelling of ancestral people of the valley who settled in one place and farmed the surrounding valley in roughly the years 1,000 to 1,400 AD.  They came to be known as the Tuzigoot, which comes from the Apache word meaning “crooked water”. The Tuzigoot are thought to be ancestors of the Hopi People, and according to Hopi legends, the Verde Valley settlements were one stop in a longer migration northwards. The Tuzigoot National Monument outside of Clarkdale, AZ, has many of the artifact...

Traveling further south we entered the town of Sedona. It had sounded like a neat place to visit... red rocks, vortexes, crystals, and sunshine. What could go wrong ? Well, for some folks it’s a super place, but for us it was waaaaaay too crowded and the parking lots in the main part of town are too small for our pickup-camper to manoeuvre in. A breakfast restaurant we had planned to stop in on a Monday morning had people standing in the door to get inside. Just not our style. So on through town we went. The Red Rock State Park was past Sedona and it turned out to be more our style. The Visitor Center had interesting information about the plants, animals, and geology of the area .ifuitlutylu6tg. Also, there were some trails that we could take from there. Amazingly, parking happened to be available too.  Cathedral Rock was a central landmark during most of the day and hard to miss regardless which angle you saw it from.  The Ocotilla were blooming in the area. Their strik...

In the mid-sized town of Wickenburg there is a great up and coming brewery called Vulture Peak Brewing Company. This veteran owned brewery was one of our Harvest Host stops. The owners, Bryce and Jeremy, opened their establishment in 2024, so it is a very young business. When asked how the first year went, they said it went well overall, but was definitely a learning year. They had to try to fit into a cowboy culture while at the same time appealing to the tourists. Both Bryce and Jeremy were home brewers for decades, but their collaboration on Vulture Peak Brewing began with a quest. Bryce said if they could make a real Scottish Ale as one of their brews, it was a go. Well, that beer is what they call the Lost Scotsman, and we agree that it is a very tasty brew. The dark amber ale was delicious on a hot afternoon. In our opinion, a close second was their Irish Cream stout beer. They call that one Barsa, which is Portuguese for “wide shoulders” and is what they plan to enter into com...

Just a short drive south of the Grand Canyon National Park, we pulled into the Tusayan Forest Service campground to look around. The campground was quite large and spread out. The campsites were in a dry Ponderosa Pine forest with very little underbrush. Surprisingly there were only a few other campers scattered among the various loops on the hillside. We pulled in to a site that would great for our rig and stepped out of the truck. The air was fragrant with the scent of pine, the temperature was a comfortable 75 degrees, and birds were chirping in the trees. It didn’t take more than a glance at each other to decide this would be camp for a few days.  Often when we travel we move to a new camp each day as we ramble along. However, periodically it feels good to settle in one spot for a few days. It gives us a chance to rest, relax, and in this case sort through hundreds of photos from the Grand Canyon to narrow them down to a few for the the blog. It isn’t something we plan, but r...

We have already posted about the gigantic canyon carved by the Colorado River. However, here are just a few more photos we took away from our experience at the Grand Canyon. Most of the viewpoints along the rim of the canyon have historical or geological points of interest. One viewpoint also added a quirky tone. This formation is called “The Duck”.  Can you see it? Weather can change from one location to the next. We had been watching a rainstorm as it moved over the canyon. And then I looked over to see a rainbow near the desert watchtower.  When encountering animals like deer, elk, and bison, people are supposed to stay at least 200 feet away. However, what do you do when the elk walks right up to you like this guy did at our campsite? He didn’t seem to mind that there were people, and dogs, and noise in camp as he grazed his way from one campsite to the next. The Grand Canyon is an area designated as an official “Dark Skies” location. In this instance with a waxin...

When you visit the Grand Canyon National Park, if you have the time, watching the sun set behind the rim of the canyon is an experience like no other. We arrived at our chosen location about two hours before sunset. The crowds had thinned out and the canyon was peaceful. The upper portions of the canyon walls were taking on different hues of golden red while the canyon depths were shades of blue and lavender hues. And the colors changed by the minute.   Far below the rim, the Colorado River was running its course already in the shadows of evening. While thousands of feet above the river crows, eagles, and condors soared on the wind currents. As the sun neared the horizon this day, it had to sink through clouds until it emerged above the rim. The golden orb lit the bottoms of the clouds with a glorious artist’s color palette of gold, peach, pink, mauve, and lavender.  Finally, the sun dipped below the horizon leaving a glow on the rim. A peaceful quiet fell over th...

As we travelled further south, we planned to drive to the north rim of the Grand Canyon since it typically has smaller crowds. However, the road was still closed for the winter, so we drove around the eastern side of the Colorado River’s path and arrived on the south rim of the canyon . It was interesting to see the changes in the Colorado River as it traveled along the Colorado Plateau. In the north, near Arches, it was a big river flowing through one steep-walled golden canyon. Then, further south near Marble Canyon, we crossed over the river again. At that point the river was in a deeper canyon with steep red sandstone cliffs. Finally, when we reached the south rim of the canyon, the Colorado River was about 5,000 feet below the surrounding plateaus with a multitude of tributaries each carving smaller canyons to join the Colorado on its journey toward the sea.  Although we had seen the huge canyon many years ago, viewing the Grand Canyon again was still awe inspiring. The ex...

It always interests us when the landscape completely changes in a short amount of time. Sometimes in the space of a half hour you can go from pine forest to desert. Or maybe your trip starts near farmland and you end up in rugged mountains. The following are a series of photos from one day’s drive, in the order we encountered them. over the course of 3 hours: What surprises will tomorrow's drive hold?