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I must
tell you right now August is not the best time to
go to the desert. Temperature was 104-107F /40-42 C. Dry
heat is usually better tolerated but this is also the monsoon
season. Humidity was running about 38% most of the time.
However I have family there and it was the time I had available.
Some common sense precautions are needed in the desert; try to not overexert yourself and to drink large amounts of fluids. Some evidence of dehydration or impending heat stroke are flushed, dry skin, lack of sweating, dizzyness, nausea, and vomiting, disorientation and hallucinations. The antidote is to get to a cooler place, drink water with a little bit of salt in it. Never have someone drink something if they are unconscious or near to that. Cool cloth compresses will also help. Salt helps to retain water.(caution: a little salt goes along ways here) One thing you will usually see a lot of in the desert states are people carrying water bottles everywhere. More on heat stroke and prevention here I used pricelineagain to book my flight and got a reasonable price. For this to be effective though one needs to plan ahead. I booked this flight about two months beforehand. I am not an early morning person and my flight left at 6:30am. I came back at a more reasonable hour, 5:45pm. Another problem with using priceline is having to take any available seat. If you are not a flexible person this may not work for you. You have a little more choice at expedia.com, and another good online service is, travelocity.com. I had a straight flight through, and it took only 2.5 hours. I stayed in Phoenix, Tempe area webcam the first week, (Tempe area). Phoenix itself has a population of about one million, and is the 5th largest city in the U.S. and, with the small cities that are part of the greater Phoenix area, such as Tempe, Mesa, and Scottsdale you can add another one million. The highest temperature ever recorded in Phoenix was 122 degrees Farenheit recorded on June 26th, 1990. |
We went to Sedona for two days. Sedona webcam Sedona has a higher elevation,about 4500 feet, and was slightly cooler, about 5-10 degrees and can be as much as 20 degrees cooler. I wanted to check out the vortex areas and we did manage to locate one of them.(more on vortex) Vortex is a configuration of energy in one place, usually between two mountains. The Vortex have been described as a collection of electric energy, magnetic energy or a combination of both.
I am not sure what I expected to feel. I was keeping an open mind and trying to be as objective as possible. I did not feel anything in particular but I did walk halfway up this mountain three times, and perhaps just having that kind of energy was good enough. I haven't gone mountain climbing in years. At a guess, halfway was probably 200-300 feet at a fairly steep climb. I don't have a problem climbing, but I do have one in coming down, so this is why I ventured only halfway!
The monsoon season brings the desert to life with a multitude of wonderful blossoms. I arrived toward the end of the monsoon and missed the most spectacular of these, though I did manage to capture some blossoms on film. The desert has its share and more in the wildlife department too. I saw a coyote prancing through the parking lot of our hotel. I also saw several hawks and at least one eagle. (Unfortunately all of the above mentioned wildlife were camera shy!!)
One of the most spectacular ways to see the desert culminated this trip and that was by helicopter. I think everyone should see the desert this way. You can, as our pilot said, get "up close and personal" with some of the cliffs. We saw some native indian cave dwellings that you can only see by backpacking in or by helicopter. I am sure we got the better view since some were quite high off of the ground. I may get brave enough to try hot air balloon or byplane next time!
Arizona offers a lot for the naturalist and the adventurer from backpacking to
mule and horseback rides to camping, as well as helicopter and jeep tours.
You can read
more of the happenings in Arizona on this webpage here. Follow some of those links
to some other interesting webpages in Arizona.
I hope you enjoy the following pictures. I have tried to make loading as easy as I can. Click on one of the pictures below to take you to that page, and as always your comments are appreciated either by signing my guestbook on my communication page or
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