Forest of Cacti

This weekend we took a drive to the Usery Mountain Regional Park. The park is located between the eastern edge of the county and separates Mesa from the Tonto National Forest. We started the day by hiking up Pass Mountain to Wind Cave. The hike felt truly like a hike in the desert due to all of the cacti and the terrain. The kids had a blast hiking to the wind cave, where the wind has carved out an overhang in the mountain. Bees have since bored into the cave and you could hear a continuous buzzing from behind the rock wall. There was only one spot where you could see honey comb leaking out of the rock.

The view of the valley was spectacular. On the closet mountain is a huge sign pointing the way to Phoenix. Apparently the sign was build by Air Scouts in the 50s to help lost pilots.

Unfortunately, we were not able to hike around Pass Mountain because of the late start and increasing temperatures. We are expecting 100 temperatures on Tuesday, but there is a chance it could get to 100 on Monday. May 1st, is the "average day" when we get to the 100s.

Below are pictures from the hike:



I have also included pictures from the Army ROTC's departure to their drill weekend on Thursday:

Furlough Friday #4 on South Mountain

Friday was the fourth of my twelve furlough days and it was also the day of the girls' "spring holiday" from school. We picked up Dawn from campus and drove up to the top of South Mountain using the same road that I biked up two weeks ago. We went to several of the lookouts on the mountain and found the spots that ESPN, ABC Sports, Fox Sports, etc. like to use for those scenic pictures of Phoenix and the valley. From here you can easily see Chase Field and and the Cardinal's football stadium in Glendale, as well as the entire valley. Unfortunately, it was a very windy day so there was a lot of dust and clouds obscuring the clear views of the distant mountains that ring the valley. But we were able to take a lot of great pictures anyway.

Saturday was a special day as well. It was the first time in over a month that it rained. The official rainfall for March was "a trace".

Here are some more pictures, you can click on them for a larger view:

Best of both worlds?

Playing catch-up again...

April 5th was the date for Tempe's Bike-A-Palooza, so we headed over to Kiwanis Park for the community event. The event features bike swap, demos, and of course a ride through Tempe. All four of us had a great time on the twelve-mile loop through Tempe. Despite Dawn getting knocked off her bike by a little kid during the ride, a good time was had by all.

Radio Disney was at the event and as soon as a contest was announced where they were looking for a family to participate, Lexi immediately put a death grip on Dawn's and my wrists and drug us up to the DJ. We had to answer a few questions about the environment and carbon footprints, which we easily answered We won tickets to the monster truck rally at the end of the month in Chandler and to a sneak preview of the new Hannah Montana movie.

So on Monday night we headed up to Scottsdale hoping to get in, we did. The girls loved the movie and so did Dawn and I. If I was given the choice to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Hannah Montana again, I would easily choose Hannah Montana. Despite getting home a little after 9pm, we missed the NCAA Basketball Final, but we had DVRed it and was able to watch that one-sided game very quickly.

Furlough Fridays 2 & 3

Once again, it has been too long since we have posted anything to the blog. This is partly because we have been pretty busy and I was trying to get the old site moved over to here. This posting will focus on what I have been doing on my furlough days. Since most people in my office tend to take furlough days on Fridays, we call these unpaid vacations "Furlough Friday"

The second Furlough Friday was during Dawn's spring break, so we spent the day hiking up Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. It is an amazing hike that is pretty tough. From the top of the mountain you can see pretty much the entire valley from Scottsdale to the east and Glendale to the west. Dawn did a great job hiking up the mountain and we had a nice little lunch at the top while taking in this great view.

The third Furlough Friday I spent on a long solo bike ride. The idea was to do a lap around the iconic South Mountain that dominates southern Phoenix. When you watch an NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, or PGA event and they have a scenic view of Phoenix, it is more than likely a picture from South Mountain. I have been working to get my old road bike running again, and this was the first trip for the bike. The route took me south and then out into the Gila River Indian Community, it was amazing to go from city to desert so quickly. Eventualy I came around the mountain into west Phoenix and then on the way back home decided to take a recommended detour and bike the 8.5 miles up the mountain to the TV towers that can be seen from almost the entire valley. It was a strenuous ride up, but the view was worth it and the ride down was exhilarating. At the end of the day, I biked over 75 miles.

Below are some pictures from these two days:
Camelback Mountain


Lap Around South Mountain

Moving the web site

We are moving the web site to a new location on the internet. We have decided that it does not make sense to pay for the MobileMe service when most of the services that we get are offered around the internet for free.

So the blog is moving to: http://thecrawfordsinaz.blogspot.com and the photos will be at http://picasaweb.google.com/srcrawford

All of the blog posts and a lot of the photos have already been moved over. This site should remain available for most of April.

Please make a note of these changes.

There is a hole in the rock

This past weekend we went hiking in Papago Park in Phoenix. Papago Park is located in Tempe and Scottsdale as well, and there is talk about a grant being issued to develop the park into something grand like NYC’s Central Park.

Papago Park is home to the ancient The Hole in The Rock, a formation where nature has literally carved a hole in the rock. It is believed that the Hohokam people used this formation as a solar clock a thousand years ago. Today, you can walk up to and through the hole.

We spent the rest of the day hiking throughout the park, hiking around and over the buttes. It is amazing to find such a beautiful desert landscape in the middle of such a large metropolitan area.

We have uploaded some pictures in the AZ fun album of the day.