Saguaro National Park East

Over the last couple of years Byrce and I have started a tradition of going to Tucson for the weekend when I go for my other work. These little getaways are fun because it is just the two of us and we get to go on adventures to new restaurants, museums, and both years we have gone to Saguaro National Park.

These two years couldn’t have been more different weatherwise. Last year, right at the same time of year, we went to Saguaro National Park West and it was a warm December day, tanktop weather really. This year the weather was cool and rainy. In fact, it rained almost the entire time we were gone from Phoenix, which never happens!

The park is divided into two parts and the two parts are about an hour away from each other and in the middle is all of Tucson. Since we visited the west side of the park last year we wanted to try out the east side of the park this year. Both sides are stunningly beautiful! I love getting to walk around surrounded by saguaros, which only grow in the Sonoran desert and only in certain parts of it, knowing that these cacti have been around longer than I have been alive.

Getting to see this park in cool and rainy weather was such a contrast from last year. The grey clouds hung over us and almost every time we got out of the car it would start to rain all over again! This was so enjoyable because it doesn’t rain as often as some of us would like. So Bryce and I wandered down this path and then that path all the while getting rained on and hiding my camera away so the rain wouldn’t wet.

As always, it was a wonderful trip and it was so much fun to get to experience an Arizona National Park in the rain and with interesting weather. I loved that we have gone twice and had two totally different experiences. I included my reel from Instagram to show you some of the beauty of Saguaro National Park!

Botanical Garden in the Fall

There are some days that seem super heavy or overwhelming and for those days the best pick-me-up that I have found is to get out in nature. I have known it for a long time but really leaned into this when Bryce and I were in graduate school. It was just the two of us in a new place and I felt lost in a big city where I wasn’t spending any time in nature. Soon enough I was able to turn that around once I started photographing flowers. I know I have shared before that my studio was covered in fresh flowers, ones that had passed their prime, and of course the flowers I had hanging to dry. All of these flowers created a little oasis for me at that time.

Now we live in Phoenix and I am still always looking for that nature escape! Last week I took a morning trip to the Botanical Garden after I dropped the kids off at school. I like to go when they first open because there are times that it can feel like it is just me in the desert with no one around. As the morning goes on more and more people show up but you can always find those moments where it feels like the entire garden is yours alone.

These trips take me away and give me a moment to breathe and stop thinking about all the things that need to be done. I find inspiration in the cacti and gardens filled with flowers. As I walk around I find that the garden is filled with soooooooo many types of cacti that I have never seen, which inspire me to learn more about that type of cactus, and then I question if that would be a good cactus for my growing cactus garden.

They change up the art installations at the Botanical Garden, I’m guessing around every six months or so, which is an extra reason to go there. Earlier this year they had Chuluy in the Garden, check out this blog post from earlier this year to see Chuluy art, and now Playing in the Garden: Rotraut. Her art is large bold colorful sculptures that are both abstract and yet give you a feeling that you know what it is about at the same time. When I first walked in there was a little girl telling her mom, “That one looks like a G.” Her mom told the garden attendant that everything looks like a G because her name starts with a G and she associates everything with that right now. I loved overhearing that moment and knowing that these sculptures have a different meaning for every person.

A photograph of a Ferocactus glaucescens cactus.

Have you been to the Botanical Garden in Phoenix this fall? What was your favorite part? Is it the art, getting to walk around, the plants, or is it a little bit of all of it?

Showy Lady Slipper

You know that thing that you have wanted to do or that place that you have wanted to go? I got to check one of those things off the list this year. I am a note taker and I have about 20 places where I take notes, notebooks, scraps of paper, plain paper, lined paper, my arm….I think you get the idea! Anyhow, one note that pops up a lot in things that I dream of photographing is the Showy Lady Slipper in Minnesota. I was born in Minnesota and spent a lot of summers there growing up. 

This summer the kids and I got to go up in June. My cousin, Dawn, told me that the Showy Lady Slippers blooming late this year, as she and her hiking buddy, Gail, love to see them as well and had been on the lookout for them. We made plans to meet up that Friday and we would all head out to where they would often find the Showy Lady Slippers. We, Dawn, Gail, my dad, my kids, and I, climbed the small hill up to where the hilltop was covered, just covered, with so many plants that were dotted with the pink and white of the Lady Slippers. Honestly, you would think that I would have had my phone out to record the moment that I first saw them, but, I didn’t. I was so incredibly wrapped up in that moment but I just kept saying, “wow” over and over, while turning to see all of them.

So, I asked you, you know that thing that you have wanted to see or do? Well, I already told you, I got to do one of them. You know how sometimes after you have done that thing, that thing that you have been thinking about non-stop or planning forever, you can feel a little let down or like it didn’t meet your expectations? Well, this was not that way at all! My expectations were blown out of the water! I could have stayed there for a few hours, and in reality, I did have to go back because this isn’t an opportunity that will come along often, but I know that watching me photograph flowers can’t be all that exciting.

So, what did I learn from gettting to visit this beautiful location filled with flowers? My take away is that I need to keep making lists, telling people about the things on that list, (because how will anyone know what your dreams are if you keep them to yourself), and plan on completing the things you have written down!

A GIANT shout out to Dawn and Gail, my buddies, for helping me check this amazing experience off of my list! Thanks for waiting around while I took a lot of photos!

National Monuments - Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot

“It is better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times.”

— Asian Proverb

This year is the start of our adventuring to all of the National Parks and National Monuments that we can possibly visit! I have wanted to explore all of these places for many years but, as we all know, something always seems to come up. But this year we started out by learning more about our state and the history that is all around us!

During the kids’ spring break, we had an adventure going to visit two National Monuments. We explored Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot. Both are ancient ruins of the Southern Sinagua people living in the Verde Valley in Central Arizona.

Montezuma Castle

These locations are thought to have been built around 1000 to 1300 A.D. Montezuma Castle is a five-story apartment-style building built on the side of a limestone cliff. This structure had around 45 rooms, Montezuma Castle is nestled into a cliff recess which is around 100 feet from the valley floor, and was accessed by a series of ladders. There is a diorama there that shows what life could have looked like, including one wild child running away from his mother. I can only imagine the panic that a mother would feel with living up high and having a rambunctious child!

We learned that visitors used to be able to access actually going into the castle, which would be seriously amazing, however, that practice thankfully stopped back in 1951 after excessive damage was caused to this landmark. This is a good reminder to keep this type of monument around for future generations to see.

We then drove over to Tuzigoot which was built at the top of a long ridge, raised 120 feet above the Verde Valley, that had around 87 rooms. It was super interesting to not see many entryways, and we wondered how they would enter their houses. After questioning that, we learned that they entered rooms from the roof by ladders. It was super windy when we were there and that made us wonder if that was part of the reason behind them entering from the roof.

We learned a lot about things we had never known before and there was so much more to learn! One of the great things we have learned from going to the different monuments is that they have a junior ranger program and that helps the kids, and us, look for and learn many more specific things! These are just little booklets that encourage us all to go around looking for answers to certain questions. In the end, they earn a junior ranger badge. Just make sure you ask for one when you go, they really are super fun!