Arizona

Casa Grande, Arizona in Pinal County has had such rapid growth in the past couple of years that it has created demands for more shopping, restaurants and entertainment. The city of Casa Grande has grown to be the largest community in western Pinal County. Casa Grande is approximately halfway between Phoenix and Tucson in the Golden Corridor.

Recently constructed and still growing, “The Promenade” at Casa Grande, is a regional outdoor shopping center which sits off of I-10 and Florence Blvd in Casa Grande. Over 100,000 travelers drive along that area each day. The Promenade at Casa Grande features an open-air and pedestrian-friendly layout, but you’ll probably want use your car to go from store to store in the heat of the summer.

You can spend the day shopping at the new Promenade Mall or Tanger Outlet Mall only minutes from each other both off Interstate 10. Victoria Secret, Aeropostle, Tillys, Ah Ho Sushi, the Olive Garden, Mimi’s, Dillards, Target, Michaels, J.C. Penney’s, Petsmart, Kohls, Best Buy, Olive Garden are just a few of the stores at the Promenade. An In-and-Out Burger place is just being built. You can take in a movie at the mall at one of the 14 shows in the Harkin Theater.

Today I looked out my patio window and saw a massive swarm of angry bees buzzing around the patio. The buzzing sound was loud enough that I could hear it from inside my home. I quickly made sure that my dogs were all inside and closed the doggie door so none of them would venture outside. I was very relieved to see that my pets were all still inside. Early this morning one of my dogs was snooping around the area where I had spotted a few bees. I knew these bees were most definitely Africanized bees by their attack. They are fiercely defensive and will leave a hive in swarms to attack a person or animal that disturbs them. Africanized Bees are also known as ‘Killer Bees’ due to their aggressive territorial gang up defensive behavior. Africanized bees are an extremely vicious type of honeybee when it comes to protecting their hive. I was extremely upset to see the bees attacking some baby doves that appeared to have just fallen from a nest. In a matter of minutes the poor little birds were stung to death. I felt so helpless that I couldn’t rescue them.

I do know that disturbed colonies may remain agitated for as long as 24 hours, attacking perceived threats up to a quarter mile from the hive. Once disturbed, colonies may remain agitated for 24 hours, attacking people and animals within a range of a quarter mile from the hive. As the number of Africanized bee colonies increases in an area, so, too, does the likelihood of human and animal encounters with them. I will stay inside today, a prisoner in my own home until the bee service arrives to fumigate them.

Every year I have to deal with this problem. I try to be very vigilant in sealing outside openings in my home and walls. Last year they came and nested in my meter box. The year before, they entered a tiny crack in a block wall. A lot of my neighbors have had problems with the bees as well. One of my neighbors even purchased a beekeepers suit to try and take care of the problem. This is certainly a bad idea if you are not experienced. People in Arizona have died as a result of an attack. It is not necessary to disturb the hive itself to initiate an African bee attack. The bees do not like loud sounds such as lawn mower. They do not like perfumed smells or dark colors either. The best method of escaping a bee attack is to cover your head and run for shelter.

In the middle of the Tonto National Forest, situated in Arizona’s eastern mountains, just below the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of 5,200 feet is the town called Young, Arizona. This town was formerly known as Pleasant Valley. It is a very small, remote desert town and home to a variety of interesting people and old western history. It is about a 3 ½ hr drive from Phoenix, Arizona. You can also experience Arizona wilderness at it’s finest with hiking, horseback riding, camping and fishing in the Tonto Forest.

The town is known as the site of the Pleasant Valley War aka the Graham-Tewksbury Feud. This Old Western feud was between cattlemen and sheepmen and their struggle to control access to the valley grasslands. It is one of the most famous and violent feuds in the history of the Old West.

I first came to know of Young, Arizona by accident. I had purchased a picture of an old Union 76 service station/museum at the Flagstaff County Fair back in the 90s. On the back of the picture were the words “Young, Arizona”. Being a prior Union 76 owner and wanting to see this place, curiosity got the best of me so I decided to take a road trip to that area which is in the White Mountains. After driving about 24 miles down a winding dirt road, my adventure soon ended and to my disappointment it was now a “ghost” station and no longer operating. The scenery was well worth the drive and I still have the photograph of a little bit of history.

Kitt Peak National Observatory is an astronomical research observatory located about 56 miles southwest of Tucson, Arizona. It was founded in 1958. The Kitt Peak Observatory claims to hold the largest collection of research telescopes in the world. It remains the premier observatory of the southwest, and one of the best in the Northern Hemisphere. It is located on the Tohono Oodham Indian Reservation outside of Tucson, Arizona. Drive time from Tucson is about 90 minutes. The observatory is located on the 6,875-foot summit and the drive up the mountain is about a 12 mile distance with lots of pullouts to view and photograph the scenery of the Sonoran Desert. Kitt Peak is easily visible from Tucson and from various vantage points including the many mountaintops in southern Arizona.

You can bring a picnic lunch as there is a picnic area, but snacks and beverages are for sale at visitor center. Be sure to fill up on gas before you leave Tucson as the closest gas facility is 16 miles from the Kitt Peak Observatory. Some people prefer bringing a jacket or sweater as the mountain top is breezy and cooler than the desert.

Kitt Peak offers guided tours. They are open daily except holidays and more tourist information is available. There is a nightly observation program for only a limited number of people. An advance reservation from 2 to 4 weeks are suggested. There is a fee for this program. You can view live cam shots.

Sonoran Desert wildlife can be viewed at the world famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Founded in 1952, the museum is
dedicated to the conservation of the Sonoran Desert. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is located at 2021 North Kinney Road
which is about 15 miles from downtown Tucson, Arizona. The museum is much like a zoo, except that the animals are all native to the Sonoran desert. The museum is a nonprofit research and education institution. It is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden. Much of the museum is outdoors. Exhibits at the museum include mountain lions, javelina, black bear, white-tailed deer, Mexican Wolf.

First-time visitors need to know to wear walking shoes, a hat and use sunscreen. Picnicking is not allowed at the museum but there are places to eat available in the museum. Tucson Mountain Park has picnic grounds within a mile of the Museum entrance.

You can sign up to “Walk with an Animal Keeper” which is an hour and a half walking tour behind the scenes to see the animals up
close. You will walk about half a mile with an animal keeper at the museum. There is a fee for this tour.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has a great gift shops with regional and international gift items. Try The Mountain House Gift Shop and The Ironwood Gift Shop. The museum is open every day of the year! Enjoy!

Eloy is located south of Phoenix in the “Arizona’s Golden Corridor”, roughly 65 miles from downtown Phoenix and 60 miles from downtown Tucson. Eloy is a farming community and lies in one of the state’s more fertile agricultural areas. Private prison systems and agriculture are part of Eloy’s economy. Mention “Eloy” to most Arizonans and they will chuckle. The town really has not grown very much in the past 40 years. It is a serene place to live and quite different than living in the big cities. People are friendly and the pace of living is slower. Population in Eloy is around 10,800 people. The newspapers say that the growth is coming and developers are going to swallow up the land.

Decades Music Theme Park has plans to come and build a 240-acre rock ‘n’ roll theme park in Pinal County intended to rival Orlando’s Disney World complex. It will consist of rides, restaurants and hotels all built around the music from the 1950s through present day. This is just one of many more new industries coming to the area. Eloy already has one of the major sky diving centers is the country. It is called SkyDive Arizona and people from all over the country come to use this center. This year they will be hosting the USA 2008 National Parachuting Championships Oct 19-25, 2008.
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Florence has the nickname of the Cowboy Cradle of the Southwest and it is the fifth oldest town in Arizona. Florence, Arizona is a rural farm community and also the county seat and is situated in the central portion of Pinal County, Arizona. Some of the crops grown there are cotton, wheat, alfafa, milo and grapes. The Gila River runs through historic Florence. Florence has held the title of Pinal county seat since 1875. The town is about 45 minutes drive from the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas. It is one of the oldest towns in Arizona. The town is inside Arizona’s Golden Corridor.

Arizona’s State Prison complex is located in Florence as well as a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration jail. There are many prominent landmarks and areas of interest in this area. The Pinal County Historical Museum on Main Street in Florence has a display and information on Arizona history. The museum has lots of exhibits ranging from Indian artifacts to descriptions of life as a prisoner in Florence. In the early days, it was a stagecoach hub and a center for freighting supplies to the nearby mines. The museum is located on Main Street.

Did you know that Main Street in Florence was also the setting of the motion picture “Murphy’s Romance” filmed in 1985. It featured James Garner and Sallly Field?

One of the first things you’ll see when coming into the central part of Florence is the old courthouse. It is a main feature of the town of Florence. It has a big clock at the top of it. It is one of the oldest public buildings still in use in Arizona today. Residents are proud of their town’s history and the designation of the historic downtown as a National Historic District.

Florence is on the grow with the 2nd Anthem development in the state of Arizona being built by Pulte and Del Webb.

You can take a hike up Picacho Peak Mountain in the cool springtime in Arizona. Winter visitors love this area. Remember to bring your photo equipment whether it be your digital camera or your movie cam. I always wear hiking boots or good walking shoes when I hike this mountain trail. There is a small mountain trail you can take the kids on if you think the main hike is too much for them. There are also trails that weave in and out around the south side of the mountain with wooden markers with pictures of wildlife.

In the spring in Arizona the native plants, such as palo verde, ocotillo, creosote, and mesquite start to bloom. If there is abundant rain in the Sonoran desert, the desert wildflowers and blooming cacti will be at their peak during May and June. Purple lupine, baby golden sunflowers and poppies can be found everywhere. The California poppy is the state flower of California. I have seen it in shades of white, yellow and bright orange. It is self seeding as is the African daisy which also blooms in Arizona. In a good year, desert wildflowers are in abundance a short drive from Phoenix and Tucson. These lavish desert wildflowers are a treasure to look forward to year after year. After the rains the mesquite, acacia, and palo verde trees and the prickly pear and cholla cacti have all added significant growth. The desert is not aways lush and green, in the summers they are quite uninviting.

Planting desert wildflowers is also a good way to attract native birds and butterflies to your yard. You’ll see cactus wrens, finches, wrens and roadrunners at Picacho Peak, along Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson, is a popular destination for those looking for desert wildflowers in the spring. The Arizona State Parks encourages visitors to call ahead to check on which parks have wildflowers blooming. Wildflowers often attract birds and other wildlife, perhaps you might even spot a javelina.

Did you know that Picacho Peak State Park in Pinal County, Arizona and the surrounding areas are in danger of become an industrialized area?  Soon thousands of visitors will no longer see the beauty and enjoy the natural landscape that the park offers.  Rumor has it that there is a move to allow Union Pacific to build a railroad yard at the foot of Picacho Peak stretching for 6 miles along I-10.  This addition would be opposite the park off  the interstate.  This yard will more than likely destroy the natural environment and future economic development of Picacho Peak State park area as well as bring pollutants into the area.Union Pacific wants to use this area for a switching yard, but one wonders if the the real intention is for a sorting yard for cargo containers before they are to be shipped to other parts of the country. The Federal goverment regulates railroads so there is little residents can do in to stop this.   Arizona is in the process of passing a bill to see what can be done about this.

Arizona is so varied in elevations and scenery that there is always something new to see.   The town of Jerome is located in central Arizona to the east of  Prescott, Arizona and now a thriving artist colony and major tourist center .  Jerome, Arizona is built on the side of a mountain some 7,000 plus feet above sea level.  Jerome, Arizona is probably the largest “Ghost Town” in the United States.   It once had more than 15,000 inhabitants and was the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory.  This area around Jerome was mined for silver and copper since the Spanish colonial era.  Jerome was incorporated as a town in 1889. 

Jerome has a large mining museum, presenting the town history, labor-management disputes, geological structure models, mineral samples, and equipment used in both underground and open-pit mining.  The Jerome State Historical Park is located in Jerome.  You can see a map of Arizona State Parks on this link.  

There is lodging and accommodations with places to eat and shops to visit on your visit to Jerome.