Parking the Beast—Round 2

If you read the November update, you may remember what a hard time we had backing the trailer into our space at the Voyager. While we were there we met Jim, one of our neighbors who had quite a bit of trailering experience. We got his perspective on backing and parking and quite a few other tidbits of useful knowledge. (Hi Jim! Bet you didn’t know you would be famous on the Internet did you?) With his helpful advice, pulling the trailer out was extremely easy, even with the narrow street. We listened carefully as he explained his technique for backing into any spot and when we got to Apache Junction, the trailer went into its space in 3 tries. One to get lined up with the patio pad, one to get straight, and one to back the downhill side onto some leveling lumber (see the entry at the bottom of the page on trailer savvy. It explains lumberyards.)

Superstition Mountain,
The Apache Trail, and
The Goldfield Mine Museum

January 3, 2000
It is absolutely amazing that during the 6 years that we lived in the Phoenix area, we only visited a few recreation sites. I don’t know what we were waiting for. One of the pamphlets we found showed a museum with information about the Superstition Mountains. The museum is in a mining camp re-creation called Goldfield. The museum costs $3.00 apiece and has a number of uninteresting exhibits with very little information. There is a restaurant/saloon, mine train ride, some guys who dress up like cowboys and put on a “shoot-em-up” show, and a couple souvenir shops. Now, I understand that for many people, it is fun to go through this type of place, but remember, Gary and I were police officers in a town that had nothing but “rubber tomahawk” stores. We really try to stay away from places like that. We are much more into natural scenery. Besides—when you live in 30 foot long, 12 foot wide house, there is no room for a lot of knick knacks. We take pictures for memories. (Here are a few from Goldfield.) After we left the ghost town, we drove a little further up into the Superstition area and passed the Lost Dutchman state park and saw the Weaver’s Needle formation. It is a well known formation because it seems to have a link to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine.

The Superstition Wilderness Area is about 45 - 60 minutes east of the heart of Phoenix, covers about 242 square miles, and has been the source of stories and tales about lost gold for a long time. Legends of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine and numerous other lost gold mine stories still attract lots of people. The Pima Indians called Superstition Mountain Ka-Katak-Tami meaning “The Crooked Top Mountain.” Superstition Mountain rises 3,000 feet above the surrounding desert floor and dominates the area. The origin of the name Superstition Mountains seems to be the early farmers of the Salt River Valley who grew and cut hay for the Army at Fort McDowell during the late 1860s. These farmers constantly heard stories from the Pima Indians how they feared this mountain. The farmers thought the Pimas were superstitious about the mountain hence the name Superstition Mountain.

In Apache Junction, where we are staying through March, is the starting point of the Apache Trail. It is a 120 mile scenic route that goes around the Superstition Mountain Wilderness area past the Tortilla Flat stage stop, a few reservoirs, dams, another pueblo ruin site and the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Rumor has it that a good section of the road is only about a lane and a half wide and gravel, so we probably won’t take the whole trip, which would take us past the Roosevelt Dam, but we will visit the Arboretum and the pueblo ruins. One of the reservoirs has a paddleboat called The Dolly that takes people for cruises around the lake. If my family is interested, we might all go for a boat ride.

At one time the Roosevelt Dam was the largest masonry constructed dam in the world. Apparently, the Apache Trail was used for hauling goods to the dam site. The dam was dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 10, 1911, and it was refitted and reconstructed between 1993-1995. The old dam was raised seventy-seven feet. Today it looks like a modern structure, rather than the traditional masonry facade. If you are interested in the Apache Trail ride, you should take a look at this website which is a narrative of the entire trip. It tells you where to look for everything along the way and contains a lot of information.

A Sad Event

January 6, 2000
Something that probably nobody thinks much about happened to us today. We came home from a trip to the grocery store and found one of our cat, Babs, dead. She appeared to have died during a nap, with no pain or suffering. The other cat, Tucker had taken up a protective position next to her and seemed to understand what had happened. Both cats were only about 8 years old so it was quite a surprise for us. All three of us will miss her, but we do have many good memories.

Out of Africa Wildlife Park

January 27, 2000
There is a terrific animal experience waiting for you at Out of Africa. It is a privately owned wildlife park that provides a home for lion lions, tigers, wolves, some reptiles, birds and bears. It isn’t really a zoo, and it isn’t just an animal show. They do several animal shows every day, each with a specific theme. In the morning, they show the big iguanas and the big cats. We haven’t ever watched the iguana show, but we have watched the big cat show more than once. Inside a fenced area with the owners are a couple of tigers. They throw in a couple huge hunks of meat which the tigers immediately snatch up. One of the people demonstrates how approaching a tiger who is Snarly tiger eating can provoke an angry response from the tiger. Then they show how approaching a tiger the right way is not only possible, but (in the park) safe. During the entire show, they talk to the people in the audience about animal instinct, fear and respect for animals, and a little about the lives of the animals in their natural habitats. Later in the day they have a show with their giant python and a South American cobra. The owner selects about 10 people from the audience to help carry out the 100 pound python and they walk it around the arena and let people in the audience touch it. He then asks people who are afraid of snakes to come in and learn to be less afraid. On this visit, he had several teachers there with their classes. The teachers touched the snake, but they didn’t look like they got over their fear, to me. After the python, he brought out the South American cobra. He doesn’t let anyone else near the cobra, but he does show how the cobra displays its hood as a defense mechanism and once again talks about the snakes in their natural habitat. After the snake show, you have plenty of time to get lunch at their cafe (which is not the greatest) and visit the animals again before it is time for the show called Tiger Splash. This show is two people acting like prey and a tiger being a predator. The people run around a pool with balloons on sticks and encourage the tiger to chase the balloons right into the water. The tiger’s name is Samara and she seems to really like jumping into the pool to catch the balloons. She is just a big ham too. As soon as she “kills” the balloon, she brings it over to the side of the pool and shows it off to the audience. Then to get the dead balloon away from her, they toss her a piece of meat. During the show, a narrator explains that the “run and chase” is instinctual. For predators like the tiger, when something runs away it is usually prey (also known as food), so they chase. This show used to have two tigers, Samara and her brother Elijah, but they said that Elijah started getting a little too rough and acting a lot more “natural” so they retired him from the show. I guess he started liking to chase the people instead of the balloons. In my opinion, being in a cage with a 350 pound tiger and acting like prey just sounds hazardous even with a friendly tiger. Here are the Tiger Splash pictures. Several days a week, you can stay and watch them feed the cats, and for $3.00 you can feed a tiger. A few years ago we were at the park for my nephew’s birthday and he got to feed the tiger. That was a very big deal!

There are several reasons we like this park so much. The first is that the fences are set up so that you can get within 3 feet of the animals. Until you can actually feel the breath of a roaring tiger on your face, you have not experienced a tiger. When we were there for my nephew’s birthday, the lionesses were all walking around calling to other lions in the park. Even when you are 10 feet away from a lion, when they roar, it vibrates the air around you. It is absolutely amazing! When you see and hear lions at a zoo, it just isn’t the same because you aren’t near enough to get the effect. When they have young lion cubs at the park, they offer the chance to play with them. It isn’t cheap at $300.00 for 15 minutes, but what an experience that would be! The cubs they have right now are five and a half months old and looking like they would be quite a lapful. Since we are both cat people, we have seriously considered spending the money, but so far haven’t done it. The second reason is that you can watch as the people who work at the park go right into the fenced areas with the animals. There is something very cool about watching people scratch a lioness on the head and seeing the lioness act just like a giant housecat. The third reason we like the park is that even though the animals are Cougar fenced into areas much smaller than their natural territory, it is definitely not like a zoo. Normally when we leave a zoo, we spend the next few days feeling sorry for the animals, but at Out of Africa, we feel like the owners go to a lot of trouble to get to know the animals, which means that they aren’t just exhibits. In fact, they do talk about their rule that the employees are required to get to know the animals. (Of course, they prefer to get animals when they are young, because it’s easier to make friends then.) In a zoo, when they clean up after the big cats, they send the cats somewhere else. Here, they walk right in with the cats, scratch them on the head and go around with an oversized poop scooper. It is just a different atmosphere. So, our rating:

Lost Dutchman State Park

Starting in late January and continuing through February, we have been hiking a terrific trail in the Lost Dutchman State Park. The park is about 5 miles northeast of Apache Junction and only about 5 minutes from where we are living. There is a “no hookups” campground, a day use area, and several hiking trails. We found one called Treasure Loop that we like enough to go 3 times a week. It is a vigorous hike because it climbs about 480 feet in a 2.4 mile loop. The entire trail took about 2 1/2 hours the first time we did it and now we’ve cut it down to an hour and 45 minutes. The trail covers about a mile on a gentle slope up a ridge, then gets pretty steep for about a quarter mile up the base of the mountain and then after a short crossover at the top, goes back down the other side of a couple rock formations. The entire hike is filled with terrific scenery—both desert foliage and distant mountains. Not to mention, just the opportunity to get outside in 70 degrees in February! The cost to get into the park is $5.00 per day, or $15.00 per week, or $35.00 for a yearly state park pass. We bought the state park pass because we plan to use several other state parks this year. What a deal! Take a look here for the most interesting thing we have seen since we started going to this park. Our rating:

What We’ve Been Up To

January and February have not been a particularly active months for us in terms of sightseeing. Gary has spent a lot of time updating his website, we are teaching my dad how to use his computer (which means we are the Help Desk), Help Desk Man we are taking several on-line computer courses, I’ve been working on a website for my sister-in-law’s boutique, and trying to get the hang of writing in the style of a magazine article (more on this at a later date) and we just haven’t been highly motivated. So, we thought it would be a good time to share some trailer savvy that we have learned in the last 10 months. This link will take you to the list.