While on a business trip to Alice Springs, Australia, I explored Todd Mall, snapped a couple pictures of the dry Todd River, fed the rock wallabies outside a nearby hotel, and went to Bojangles Saloon and Restaurant to enjoy a good beer and some live music. Enjoy the pictures!
My cousin Tony was in town from Minnesota for the holidays so he, my parents and I decided to try to find Skull Cave. This was the site of a massacre of Apache warriors, women, and children. We rented a boat at Canyon Lake, went upriver, and hiked up to what we believe to be the site.
The Apache thought this fortress to be impregnable, but the soldiers fired off the roof of the cave, ricocheting their bullets and murdering everyone inside. This trip was a very humbling experience.
The Smoldts were in town for Thanksgiving, so we decided to do a hike in the McDowells. We were looking for the rumored WWII plane crash wreckage, but didn’t find it. We did stumble upon a live desert tortoise and the remains of another, less fortunate one. Finally, I prepared some cholla for my disbelieving parents & family friends. The taste is similar to cucumber.
To prepare:
Another rock climbing trip on Mount Lemmon, this time with Lorien, Mike, and Laurent. Fun times!
Jason plans a yearly trip to the base of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff in the fall. We try to time the trip to coincide with the aspens changing colors, since we don’t have regular seasons here in the desert. This year we were a little late, so in addition to having few colored leaves, we came right after the first snowfall. It was a bit cold, but we still had a great time.
