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We Traveled the State of Arizona and it was Magnificent!

In 2007, we traveled much of the state of Arizona.  We started in Scottsdale and stayed at the Phoenician Resort, and visited the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Montezuma's Castle, the Giant Meteor Crater, and Taliesin West.  

Here we are at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  Petrified Forest National Park is an American national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the fee area of the park covers about 230 square miles, encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands.

Here's the Giant Meteor Crater near Winslow, AZ.  Meteor Crater is the result of a collision that rocked the American Southwest approximately 50,000 years ago with the energy of more than 20 million tons of TNT. 

Here's Montezuma's Castle.  Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a set of well-preserved dwellings located in Camp Verde, Arizona which were built and used by the Sinaguapeople, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States, between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD. The main structure comprises five stories and twenty rooms, and was built over the course of three centuries.

The Phoenician Resort is a luxury resort in Scottsdale. Built on the grounds of the historic Jokake Inn, the resort opened in 1988, a project of financier Charles Keating. The resort has been awarded a AAA Five-Diamond rating.

We had a nice room on the 2nd floor with a balcony that overlooked a beautiful desert garden.  I have sleep apnea, and I use a CPAP machine when I sleep at night.  I forgot to bring my CPAP on this trip.  Shelly couldn't sleep with my snoring, so I slept in the chaise lounge on the balcony!  It actually was quite comfortable.

Taliesin West is a National Historic Landmark nestled in the desert foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale, AZ.  It is also the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the School of Architecture at Taliesin.

Wright’s beloved winter home and the bustling headquarters of the Taliesin Fellowship, was established in 1937 and diligently handcrafted over many years into a world unto itself. Deeply connected to the desert from which it was forged, Taliesin West possesses an almost prehistoric grandeur. It was built and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices, making it among the most personal of the architect’s creations.