Riordan Mansion State Historic Park

When a cold front blew in on Thursday, touring the Riordan Mansion was a nice way to spend part of our day indoors. Built in 1904 by brothers Michael and Tim Riordan, the mansion includes two mirror-image homes connected by a 1000 square foot common room, and easily became the largest duplex in the Arizona Territory.

You may be wondering how the Riordan brothers' wives felt about having their home adjoining another family's home. Since the Riordan brothers married sisters, the arrangement was as natural for the ladies as the men. The common area was one large room where both families could comfortably meet to relax around the fireplace or billiard table. With 40 rooms and 13,000 square feet of living space in the entire structure, each family had plenty of privacy when they desired it.

Although not exact mirror images of each other, the floor plans of the homes had more in common than not. Tim's side of the mansion was furnished like it would have been when the family lived there, but photographs are not allowed in those areas. The interior photos I have were all shot on the first floor of Michael's home, which now includes many posters and displays concerning the families and their influence on the community of Flagstaff. Karen and Gretel are in the fireplace nook (inglenook) of the reception hall in this shot.

The formal dining room is in the foreground of this shot, while the girls are looking over some items in the informal dining area. On the dining table is a scale model of the lumber mill that first employed the Riordans as managers, and which they eventually purchased and ran successfully for over thirty years. The mansion was built over the winter so workers from the lumber mill could be employed in its construction during a period of the year when there was normally little work performed at the mill.

You may have noticed in the preceding photos that the house is an excellent example of the Arts and Crafts style. The architect, Charles Whittlesey, also designed the Hotel El Tovar on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and many pieces of furniture were designed and produced by Gustav Stickley and Harvey Ellis. There is no record of who produced the stained glass panes that crown many of the first floor windows, but Michael's home was adorned with the poppies shown above, while Tim chose tulips.

Typical of Arts and Crafts, there are many built in cabinets, seats, and storage areas. The homes possessed several modern features including electric lighting, central heating, and indoor plumbing featuring both hot and cold running water.

Each home has its own formal entrance on the front outside corners of the mansion, but Michael once wrote that the family almost always uses this arched entry leading to the porch in front of the common room.

Like the interiors, each exterior possesses its own unique features, while mirroring its neighbor in many respects.

Quite obvious on the back of the homes is the log cabin look achieved by siding the frame house with fall-off pieces from the lumber cutting operation. Michael added more living space to his home on the second floor as his family grew.

What is used as a visitor's center today was once the six-car garage in the rear of the property. Although there are glass windows in the middle section today, the original doors are still attached in the interior of the building. Thanks for visiting!

Montezuma Well National Monument

Just a few miles down the road from Montezuma Castle is another little oasis in the Arizona desert: an amazing natural spring called Montezuma Well. We weren't expecting much, but were pleasantly surprised again by the natural wonder of this unique place.

The main feature of the well is a basin of water 55 feet deep and 368 feet in diameter fed by a couple of subterranean springs at its bottom. Geologists think this sink was once a water-filled cavern that collapsed, exposing the water source to the atmosphere and creating the bowl shaped feature we see today. In the middle of the image above is the swallet where the water exits the basin, but we'll get to that in a little bit. Meanwhile, you might be interested to know that the growth on top of the water is Illinois Pondweed that must be removed periodically lest it prevent the water from flowing out of the well.

The girls are making their way down from the rim around the well to a section of shoreline that's accessible. The temperature of the water entering the well from below remains at 76°F all year round.

This is part of the walking trail near the water level that was amazingly lush compared to the desert less than 100 feet away. Karen thought this part of the trail was almost like the path behind the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg.

This view from the edge of the well reveals more cliff dwellings on the east wall of the well. Because of the high levels of carbon dioxide in the water, there are no fish in the well, but tiny shrimplike amphipods feed on the algae, and are themselves food for leeches, water scorpions, turtles, muskrats, and many other animals.

The placard shown here explains how the water runs out of the well into an irrigation ditch below. Over 1.5 million gallons of water flow out of the well every day! That source of water made a huge difference in the ability of farms to survive in this region.

This is the irrigation ditch where the water flows out of the well, and it was surprising how much cooler and lush it was in this protected area. Notice the huge sycamore tree growing at an angle out of the ground near the well's outlet.

Here's another view of the irrigation ditch and the relaxing environment it creates just outside the well.

Finally, here's 21 seconds worth of video so you can get a slightly different perspective on this unique section of the site. Thanks for visiting!

Montezuma Castle National Monument

When one is looking for an outdoor site to visit on a windy day in northern Arizona, we recommend the Montezuma Castle National Monument. Some of the earliest miners and soldiers to discover this cliff dwelling believed it to be an Aztec ruin built for their emperor, Montezuma. Hence the name. Archaeologists now believe it was the Sinagua people that built and inhabited this structure.

A short walking trail below the castle affords views of the cliff structure and rare protection from the sun and wind. The bottom level of the castle is about 100 feet off the valley floor, and past visitors used ladders to access the rooms, much like it is believed the previous inhabitants did.

Here's a closer view of the five levels of living and working quarters. Before 1951 visitors were allowed to climb ladders up to and inside the building, exploring each of the rooms as they were left hundreds of years ago (excepting the looting and vandalizing that occurred earlier). By 1951 it was apparent the structure was being loved to death, so only Park Service personnel are allowed access now.

This pleasant little oasis in the desert was a delightful surprise both in its comfortable climate and abundance of vegetation. The white-barked trees along the path above are Arizona Sycamores that seem to be pretty prolific in riparian regions like this.

This is Ranger Laura describing another structure to some guests. The foundation walls visible here are only a few hundred feet from the cliff dwelling, and may have been part of a larger housing structure. Unfortunately, we have no written history of the original structure since it had collapsed by the time of the first recorded visitors.

This beautiful little meadow appears to fare well in the Arizona climate, and may have been the location of gardens or orchards for the Sinagua that lived here. The cliffs are partially composed of limestone, which when washed down into the meadow, probably acted as a natural fertilizer for the valley floor.

Beaver Creek runs less than 100 yards from the dwellings, and was doubtless an important aspect of the success of the community.

What does one do with spare time back at the timeshare? Sewing, of course! Doesn't everyone travel with a sewing machine in tow? Here's Karen working on her quilt block...

... while Lily creates a mockup of a new dress on the living room floor. Thanks for visiting!

Sedona & Oak Creek Canyon

We were still a little tired on Tuesday, so we decided to do some "sedentary hiking" in the Red Rock Country around Sedona. We define sedentary hiking as driving around in the van viewing beautiful scenery and occasionally stopping for photos. I don't have any pictures of the girls "hiking" today since they didn't get out of the van much.

There are lots of beautiful rock formations around Sedona, but it appears the best photos are found by those who climb the rocks for good vantage points and wait for sunrise or sunset when the rocks are purported to glow with color. We didn't do that. Do you see the little hiking trail in the foreground of this picture? It beckoned, but we ignored it.

Like other parts of Arizona, pictures don't really do the landscape justice. As we traveled about, I decided a movie shot out the van window might come closest to capturing the variety and magnitude, but I doubt many of you would be interested in viewing three hours of driving around the desert.

One thing is for certain: I haven't seen roads like this in Illinois. But then, in the end, you've seen one red rock, you've seen them all.

My brother from Phoenix had told me about Oak Creek Canyon, and how he joins friends there for the weekend to take a break from life in Phoenix. We were halfway through it before I realized this was the same place he was talking about. It seems to be unique for Arizona, and a nice change from the high desert or pine forests we've seen so far -- there were actually deciduous trees with leaves on them! This view is from the rim at the north end of the canyon, and if you look closely you can see the highway running along Oak Creek. This 10-12 mile drive reminded me of similar roads we've driven in Montana and Tennessee, except the cliffs were a bit more steep here, and the red rocks were evident even in this canyon. A pretty drive, but hard to photograph sufficiently.

This shot shows the road from the rim to the creek, including a minor traffic jam near the top. Google maps only shows four true hairpin turns on this section, but when you're driving it, it feels like you are constantly making sharp turns. Good idea for this section of road: Bonine. Thanks for visiting!

Grand Canyon National Park

This was the primary reason we traveled all the way to Arizona: the Grand Canyon. No other place on earth bears testament to the Great Flood like this canyon does, and yet it is so vast it's hard to believe it's real.

This is one of our first views of the canyon. I couldn't help but imagine myself a traveler in the early 1800s making my way north across a gentle desert plain and then suddenly facing this. Your options at that point are few and painful.

In order to make the canyon seem more real, we decided to hike down into the canyon a short distance. The NPS warns against trying to hike to the Colorado River and back in one day, and since the river was 5,000 feet below us, we decided to heed that advice. Our alternative: hike down for 30 minutes, and then plod our way back up. The picture above shows the girls near the beginning of the South Kaibab Trail, and you can see several switchbacks below them. Looking at this picture now, I get a stronger sense of vertigo than when I took the photo.

This is the view down to our turnaround at Ooh Aah Point, the rocky point in the middle of the image with steps beneath it.

Here's a view from the point, 780 feet below the rim. There's still a long way down to the bottom!

Here we are making our way back up. The beginning of the trail is just in front of the leftmost little cloud on the rim, several hundred feet above us.

Another view of the canyon from the South Kaibab Trail. I was impressed with the quantity and variety of vegetation in the canyon.

This is how we all felt on the shuttle bus back to our car.

Some friends in Tremont recommended this restaurant in Cameron, Arizona east of the GCNP. If you're ending your visit by exiting the east end of the park, we recommend this little oasis in the desert, especially since we were not in a mood to delay dinner another hour until we arrived back in Flagstaff.

Another good idea that accompanies us on most of our vacations is bath salts for aching muscles. We tired flatlanders appreciate a little help in recovering from a day of hiking. Thanks for visiting!