All Around Arizona

North America » United States » Arizona
February 10th 2010

Published: February 10th 2010

Edit Blog Post

Far and Away

Cabela's Store Glendale, AZ.

My Dad came to visit us from Oregon last week and we showed him just about the whole state of Arizona in 7 days!

First stop was the Cabela's Store in Glendale. That place is an amusement park for hunters. What makes it more than just a retail store is the amount of trophy animals displayed and a huge fish aquarium with many endangered species of river and lake fish. We spent about 2 hours in that man's mecca, but it was fun for Aliesha and I as well.

Next stop on the agenda was Wickenburg, a small town just over an hour northwest of Phoenix. We did not explore the historic old town but drove out into the back country and did a little hike in a dry creek bed. Hiking trails and dry creek beds in Arizona make it easier to avoid cactus needles in your boots!

On Friday we drove to Camp Verde and toured Montezuma's Castle and Well. These are both National Monuments and are well taken care of. The trail at Montezuma's Castle is paved and has very nice informative markers along the way describing the life of the Sinagua Indians and the

By the Moose

Dad and Aliesha by the moose and racoon in Cabela's

flora and fauna in the area. A neat fact is that Montezuma never was near this cliff dwelling. The pioneers that first discovered this ancient site just assumed he would live in such a place and the name stuck.

Sedona is just a half hour drive north of Montezuma's Castle so that was our next stop. We only had time to take one hike so we chose one we had not taken before and again, as always, it was beautiful. The only thing I did not like about it was that it followed the Pink Jeep Tour road. So we had pink jeeps within our sights pretty much the whole hike. This was the Broken Arrow Trail, in case you want to avoid the pink!

Saturday was a trip to Tombstone. The famous OK Corral shootout between the Earp's, Mc Laury's, and Clanton's came to life as we walked down the streets of this historic town. Men were shot for not herding cattle correctly, wearing a fancy shirt from "Back East" and of course cheating at cards or just plain drunkenness. Not a place you would want to live during the late 1800's. We had our portrait taken

Primitive Road

Near Wickenburg

in old time clothes just for fun! Boot-hill is definitely a must see!

Then finally on Sunday we took a drive to Gila Bend to the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site. The Hohokam people once lived and farmed here. This rock mound has about 800 drawings on it, over time the rock developed what is called desert varnish and the artists used sharp rocks to chip away the varnish layers to expose the rock underneath and created their petroglyph art work. It is an awesome feeling to be in a place where it is so visible that others lived, worked and played such a very long time ago.

Additional photos below

Photos: 22, Displayed: 22