Look what the wind blew in!

Last night's wind storm really had us rockin', and when we turned off the lights and looked outside, we could see about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Today's forecast was for light rain, but it turned out to be light snow all day. So it was an indoor day - I did some baking and read and Frederick worked on the taxes.

These pictures were taken this morning about 8 a.m.

A winter wonderland!

More snow heading our way.

Thirty Degrees and Five Thousand Five Hundred Feet

It was 80 degrees when we left Phoenix this morning and it's 54 degrees in Williams. We are less than 200 miles north of Phoenix but the big difference is in elevation - Phoenix was at 1,117ft. and Williams is 6,752ft. Currently, Williams is under a High Wind Warning and it is howling out; I'm glad that we are off the road!

This is our second time in Williams, we stayed overnight in January on our way south. We are here because it has the closest RV park to the Grand Canyon. Contrary to what we had originally planned - to wait on a visit to the Grand Canyon until the South by Southwest Caravan - we decided to come now and hike, which we might not be able to do on a caravan. When I checked on availability of RV camping in the Park, they were all booked up until June. Next best is Williams, 60 miles away.

Just north of Phoenix we were warned to watch out for wild burros.

Since we were heading north of Phoenix, we said good-bye to saguaro cactus.

Soon we were beginning our climb into the mountains where we had....

marvelous vistas.

We also began to glimpse Mt. Humphreys, at 12,637ft the highest peak in Arizona.

Mt. Humphreys is one in a chain of extinct volcanos in the San Francisco Mountain Range 11 miles north of Flagstaff.

We stopped at an interstate rest stop and, once again, noticed that they have jailed their vending machines. 

Almost to Flagstaff.

At Flagstaff we made a sharp left turn off I-17 back onto I-40 (and  Route 66). Then it was 30-miles to Williams - in the increasing wind.

Good-bye Apache Junction

Chore day as we get ready to move on. That means laundry, shopping, hair cut, baking biscotti and dumping our tanks (thank-you, Frederick!). We're not the only ones getting ready to move, this RV park has mostly Snowbirds, and this being the end of March, those that have been here all winter are getting ready to move back north. Of the four RVs to the east of us, two are from Saskatchewan and two from Alberta. The two from Alberta left on Monday. There are now a lot of empty sites in the RV park.  It is time to move north, it's getting mighty hot here - in the mid-80s today.

Last summer, on the Airstream caravan to Alaska, we met another couple who, as we do, travel full time. They take their picture at every Costco they encounter as they travel around. Maybe we'll do that! This Costco is in Mesa. Note the blooming palo verde tree.

Heard Museum

Unrivaled for its celebration of the history, life, arts and culture of Native American tribes in the Southwest, we  found the Heard Museum to be a worthwhile visit today. We also enjoyed the contemporary interpretation of traditional arts and crafts. Special exhibits were also presented in the 12 separate galleries. The moving Boarding School Experience, examined the controversial federal policy of removing Native American children from their families and sending them to remote boarding schools in order to 'Americanize' them. Another exhibit entitled ,"Over the Edge: Fred Harvey at the Grand Canyon and in the Great Southwest", seemed controversial to me because Fred Harvey either 'exploited' native artists or 'promoted' their work by featuring their baskets, pottery and weavings as an enticement for travelers on the railroad from Chicago to Los Angles. Of course, he also built hotels and restaurants to serve the RR customers.

At any rate, we did take advantage of three separate tours of the various exhibits including the Fred Harvey one. We also went on a tour of the "Home: Native People in the Southwest" Gallery, a sort of historic overview of the Hopi, Navaho and Zuni people. The third tour was entitled "Highlights of the Heard". Our docent for this tour focused most of her attention on the "Beauty Speaks For Us" in the newly opened Grand Gallery and featured many contemporary works of art.

(You will really need to enlarge the pictures by clicking on them!)

According to the Heard, "Some of the most exciting and moving American Indian fine art of the 20th and 21st centuries has been created by sculptors." This one greeted us at the entry plaza.

To one side of the plaza were several 'heroic' sculptures that recognized the American Indian Veterans and their service to their country.

Map of current day Arizona and New Mexico and the location of the lands and pueblos of the Native American Indians.

Our tour guide for "Home: Native People in the Southwest".

Sculpture in clay and glass by two artists. (The glass artist was a teacher of Dale Chihuly.)

Hopi katsina doll gallery (many of the pieces were a gift from Barry Goldwater).

Harry Potter bowl tucked in amongst more traditional pottery.

Silver work of the Zuni's.

Contemporary interpretation of the Grand Canyon by Tony Abeyta (born in 1965).

Another work by Tony Abeyta just outside the new Grand Gallery - painted right on the wall! It depicts the under-world.

The following pictures are from the Grand Gallery.

Katsina doll.

A 'phase one' "Chief's Robe", before dyes.

Contemporary weavings called 'eye dazzlers'.

A huge weaving depicting coyotes.

Weaving of Ship Mountain in Monument Valley.

A weaving of a sand painting - very unusual.

baskets

Contemporary jewelry using multi-colored stones.

Dress

We left the Grand Gallery and went outside to view some of the sculptures.

The original museum.

Spanish Colonial architecture

Sculpture by Alan Houser

And his son, Bob Haozous - Woman in Love

Spring at Desert Botanical Garden

A colorful blog post today because we visited the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and the height of the wildflower blooming season is March through May.

Palo Verde tree at the entrance. It is the only tree with a green trunk and it is capable of photosynthesis through its bark. It is the state tree of Arizona.

There were many different kinds of prickly pear that were blooming.

Papago Peak in the background - a very unusual looking peak.

More prickly pear!

Blooming palo verde trees in front of the Butterfly Pavillon. 

Now for the butterflies - 

These are called zebra long-wings.

A whole flock of zebra long-wings.

Golden barrel cactus.

A very full blooming ocotillo.

Frederick's favorite tree - the boojum tree.

More boojum trees.

Desert rose (We only saw the one bloom that was rather hidden. Most people were just walking by and missed seeing it.)

There was only one of these crested Saguaro - very rare.

https://www.nps.gov/sagu/learn/nature/why_crested.htm

One of the garden loops was called "Plants & People of the Sonoran Desert". There was an example of how the early peoples used ocotillo for a fence - which was now blooming.

Blooming palo verde on the right and a boojum tree on the left.

There were five of these cyclists - all speaking French - we came in with us and toured the gardens in parallel with us.

At the entrance, Dale Chihuly had these glass sculptures called "Desert Towers."