The
longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. Frank Lloyd Wright
Usery Mountain is a beautiful, verdant Regional Park.
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| Just as the sun is beginning to set, the cholla shines... |
The
staff are incredibly knowledgeable and outgoing. There was a Full Moon Hike and
Campfire scheduled with Ranger B. We decided this would be interesting, and
invited our friends from Mesa Regal, and Bob, the President of Wally Bynam, Region
10, and his wife, Darlene.
After a pleasant afternoon and dinner, we met along with
about 280 others, at the Trailhead Staging Area. After an interesting, intro,
we split into two groups, self-guided and guided hikes. We chose to go with
Ranger B and headed out on Blevins Trail. It was an incredibly beautiful walk
on an easy trail through the desert. The moon was indeed full, but behind a
film of cloud for most of the hike. We were amazed, however, how clearly we
could see the trail and the surrounding cacti. Ranger B answered questions, and
described the surroundings with knowledge, humour and passion.
When our group finished the hike, we discovered that the
self-guided group had finished first, and with a large number of children, had
finished 5 bags of marshmallows. So we drove back to Run Around Sue and had our own campfire!
John developed a bit of a cold, and was a bit sneezy, so
slept a fair bit the next day. By afternoon he was feeling better, so we decided
to go for a hike on Cat Peaks Trail and Cat Peaks Pass. To get there we drove
to the Trailhead Staging Area
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| a picnic area as well as the trailhead |
and headed out on the Pass Mountain Trail to Cats
Peak. The trail is a bit rocky to start as it wound down into a wash
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| The Wash [ dry river bed] |
and back
up the other side. From there it was an easy hike to Cat Peaks,
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| A walk through the beautiful Sonora Desert |
through the
beautiful Sonora Desert.
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| The south end of Pass Mountain |
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| A different view of the Pass Mountain in Usery Park |
The first part wound around the east side of Cat Peaks.
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| The first Cat Peak |
We
had a wonderful view of the beautiful Superstition Mountain.
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| Looking south to Superstition Mountains about 25 Km away |
The climb up through Cat Peaks Pass wound up between
the two peaks
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| Cat Peak 2 from the Pass |
of the Cat Peaks,
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| Starting Down... |
and down the other side.
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| A narrow, but easy hike down... |
We took Blevins Trail
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| sandy soil, wandering trail |
back to the Trailhead. There were a variety of
different-shaped Saguaros.
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| We thought this one had a lot of arms... |
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| An iconic Saguaro |
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| Some even have holes right through, and still flourish |
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| Beautiful as the sun sets across the campground... |
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| This one is probably about 100 years old. |
I think we found the one with the most arms we have seen.
Even the arms had arms.
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| I think there about 25 on this on [some are on the back side] |
The next day we were up early to go to Taliesin West, Frank
Lloyd Wright’s home and School of Architecture in Phoenix. We drove in off
Cactus Road to the entrance on Taliesin Road.
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The entrance- The symbol is from a petroglyph. He saw this
as the linking of 2 hands and adopted it as the symbol of Taliesin West. |
Drawn to Arizona by the beauty
and inspiration of the landscape, Frank Lloyd Wright created one of his most
personal designs here. In 1932-33, he and his apprentices [“the Fellowship”]
built Taliesin West out of the stone and sand in the foothills of the McDowell
Mountains in what he called “Desert Rubble Style”.
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| For walls, wooden forms were built about 18-24in apart, 3ft high. The space was filled with rocks, then concrete was poured in. When it dried, the forms were moved up and the process repeated, until the wall height was reached... |
Some of those apprentices
who worked and lived alongside Mr. Wright, still live here as do current
students and faculty of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Interns,
or apprentices, have a Bachelor of Architecture, and receive their Masters here
at a cost of USD $40,000 per year. $1000 of this is refunded if the intern
decided to build a residence in the desert.
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| A student designed and built residence in the desert |
Our guide, Jim, was knowledgeable
and had a lot of interesting stories.
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| Jim, our guide |
Large rocks with petroglyphs are placed
around the estate,
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| Petroglyphs |
in the same orientation in which they were found. The
buildings are built into the brow of the hill.
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| set into the brow of the hill |
The large pillar of rock at the
entrance is built at 30 degrees, the angle the rocks were in situ.
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| At the entrance. Look closely at the narrow side, about a third of the way down is a hammer accidentally dropped into the wooden frame. He decided to leave it there! |
This angle
is found duplicated throughout the whole structure. Our 90 minute tour took us
through outdoors
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| living rooms to the right, dining room to the left, Triangle shaped grass |
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| A triangular pool in front of the drafting studio |
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| Breezeway separated the private family rooms from the work areas |
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| There are several pools around the property |
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| The view across to Camel Mountain from the house |
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| Entrance into the movie theatre |
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| His love of angles is evident |
and indoors, the office,
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| Most rooms have a fireplace |
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| Chinese art, the blending of rock and wood |
private quarters, at right angles to the living room open to the courtyard
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| The "Day Room", and his wife's room |
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| Bedroom- 2 beds, one on either side of the wood half-wall. |
and living room,
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| Living room from the courtyard- more triangles... |
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| Living room- was in the deep blues, then oranges. Here the students were invited to gather each night to socialize before the bell rang for dinner |
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| Angles in the ceiling - triangular lights with attention to detail |
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| There are 2 panels of art using local materials |
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| The fireplace- note use of triangles on the chairs and tables are made of triangles |
walkways,
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| The bell was rung each night announcing dinner |
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| The back garden |
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| The fire dragon atop the barbeque - black from smoke |
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| Classroom |
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| Drafting Studio |
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| Pergola along the long wall of the students' studio |
and buildings
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| Inside the door to Movie Theatre- a Chinese artifact |
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| Walkway to the back of the Movie Theatre |
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Movie Theatre - the ceiling lights are to simulate stars-
to create a sense of watching movies under the stars |
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| View from the front |
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| Pavillion Theatre- for music and drama, with Prompter's box at right |
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| Pavillion Theatre |
he called his winter home and workplace. There is also
evidence of the influence of Chinese and Japanese cultures,
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| There were several statues in gardens |
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| One of these plaques is at each entrance and exit to each building |
his love of art and sculptures,
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| Art of various types is evident outside and inside |
and of course his love of triangles. He was also the first
to use indirect and corner lighting.
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| Corner lighting |
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| Apongan'ny ntaolo drum- Madagasgar |
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| Mbira Lamellaphone, Zimbabwe |
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| Slot Drum |
and the Middle East,
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| Israel Shofar [animal horn], Rahabi |
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| Malay- end blown trumpet |
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| Pakistan |
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| Turkish Tulum [bagpipes] |
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| Mihbaj- Mortar and pestle to crush coffee beans and play rhythms |
Asia,
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| Pat-waing- Mandalay, Burma circle tumes drums |
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| Video of a performer |
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| Ancient Vietnamese instruments |
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from the video -playing courtship instruments,
holding the coconut against his chest to control the resonance |
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| Japan |
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| Shakuhachi Flute- Japan |
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| Savon- Central Java |
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| Yu [Scraper] Beijing |
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| Bells China |
Latin America
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| Peru |
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| Andean Ensemble |
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| Argentina- Flutes, drums and single string violin |
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| K'ai Organ -Aruba and Curacao |
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| Bow Marimba- Nicaragua |
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| Mexico |
and Oceania,
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| New Zealand |
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| Vanuatu- slot drums |
United States,
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| Musical Glasses |
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| Marching bands with TV monitor |
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| Hawaii- Hula accompanied by gourd and drum |
and Canada,
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| Violin Makers |
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| Ireland |
Each gallery is further divided into
countries, and in some areas, into cultural divisions. The exhibits are exceptional.
Each one has a monitor displaying a series of short video and audio clips with
performers using the instruments in the display, ancient, traditional and
modern, in their cultural contexts. The instrument displays cover every
historical period from the Silk Road
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| Silk Road |
to the Present, every geographical area
and country, every type of instrument from African thumb pianos,
East Asian nose flutes and lutes
from every region to modern artists. We heard music from beautiful cathedrals
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| Cathedral Music |
to the Japanese opera, to street jazz bands of New Orleans, to the Steinway
piano
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| The making of a Steinway Piano |
to Taylor Swift. It was very interesting to see that so many regions have
used variations on lutes,
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| Seto Ngbaka People in Ubangi River region |
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| Lyre Guitar |
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| Turkish Lutes |
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| Boat Lute from Southern Philippines |
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| Lutes from Indonesia |
and various types of flutes.
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| Vessel Flutes |
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| Bamboo instruments - Philippines |
The building itself was
spectacular both inside
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| The second floor |
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| The main floor |
and out. We walked outside and were taking pictures,
and a gentleman commented that we “must have liked it if we were taking pictures”.
He was the founder of the museum, Robert J. Ulrich. He told us that part of the
exterior is polished sandstone from India.
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| The main entrance |
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| A stunning exterior |
We didn’t give ourselves nearly
enough time. We did not have time to see the Artist Gallery featuring
instruments, concert footage, photos linked to world-reknowned musicians and
music innovators, or the Experience Gallery, where you can try out different
instruments seen in the museum.
The next day we had planned to go to the Botanical Gardens.
We waited to go in the afternoon, because we wanted to see the lighted Gardens
too. However, we checked it on the internet before we went, and discovered that
the daytime cost was $20, and it closed at 5pm. Then it cost another $25 to go
back and see the Gardens lit at night. Since we have been to the Desert Museum
a couple of times, we decided it was not worth the $45USD each to see the same
plants and then under lights.
As we drove around Phoenix, we were once again impressed by
the landscaping by the highway overpasses
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| Coloured sand and stones form beautiful patterns |
the beautiful freizes on the overpasses and the sound barriers on the side of the highway,
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| coloured sound barriers |
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| and beautiful designs, mountains |
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| and cacti |
and along the streets.
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| landscaping along by the road |
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| We loved the desert landscaping |
We discovered how you could tell where an RV Park was – just look for
the tall palm trees!
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| An RV Park Resort |
Our last day at Usery Mountain was filled with washing,
haircuts and cleaning.
Then it was off to Tucson.
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| From Hwy 60, our last view of the Superstition Mountain by Lost Dutchman SP |
We decided to take the back
road, Highway 79, rather than the main Highway 10. It is an excellent 2-lane
road through the Sonoran Desert. Initially, the terrain is flat with fewer
saguaros and chain-fruit chollas.
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| We were surprised at the change in terrain, flat and not as verdant |
Past
Florence, the Sonoran became more verdant, and with many more cacti especially prickly
pear, larger chollas, and saguaros.
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| Many more cacti and palo verde trees, |
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| and much more grass than up around Phoenix |
As we got closer to Tucson, we could see
the Catalina Mountains to the south, with just a dusting of snow on them.
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| Catalina Mountain Range |
In early afternoon, we pulled into Catalina State Park in
Oro County on the outskirts of Tucson, unhitched and moved everything from
travel-mode to living-mode. It was quite different from living right in the
desert with cacti all around, to a large flat area,
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| Larger,flat area, with grass but no cacti in the sites |
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| But right at the foot of the Catalina mountains |
with planted trees on each
site, and grass between. John called our friends who were staying in the south
end of Tucson, and arranged to meet them for dinner. We drove to their RV to be
greeted with great enthusiasm by the two dogs, Charlie and Tucker. Dave said he
was sure they remembered us, even though it has been almost a year since we saw
them at Santee Lakes. After catching up over a wonderful meal at the Desert
Diamond Casino, we headed back, hoping there would not be a gate that closed at
10, as there is at Picacho Peak SP. Luckily we were able to drive in, with no
barriers!
Since the weather has continued to be warm, we have enjoyed
coffee, just relaxing, walks around the campground, doing circuits at LA
Fitness and a visit to Mesa RV’s Show in the Oro Valley Marketplace parking lot
across the main road from the Park.
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| RV show in the parking lot, |
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| with RV's of every size |
The Tucson Gem Mineral and Fossil show is just opening. It
will be a new experience for us to see the show in all the areas all over the
city.
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