Hatch

The Hatch valley in New Mexico is home to the Hatch chile.  The Rio Grande River flows south from the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado through Albuquerque, Truth or Consequences, Hatch, Las Cruces and to El Paso, Texas where it becomes the border between Mexico and the United States all the way to the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. 

When Hatch chiles are picked they are green.  They can be eaten fresh or the can be dried to preserve them.  When they are dried they turn red.

Hatch chiles are of the genus "capsicum" and the species "annum".  Interestingly, so are bell peppers and jalapenos.  

We had lunch at the Pepper Pot

Hatch Chile Burger.  Yum.

We added a new member to the trailer guardian crew.

Hatch was full of roadside statues from decades gone by.

Dinos from an Enco gas station (perhaps)

The New Mexico cousins of the A&W Burger Family that we met in Oregon.  Sadly Baby has dropped her burger.

The A&W Burger Family and friends

Uncle Sam likes things spicy!

WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU BIG BOY!!!

As we finished our walking tour of Hatch a dust storm was building.  We stopped into the Hatch Chile Express to buy some peppers then hit the road.  Visibility never got bad enough that we had to stop, but there was sand in everything when we got to Alamogordo. 

Big windmill blade.  Maybe 200 ft long?

Leaving Hatch in a dust storm

Las Cruces in a dust storm

San Augustin Peak, east of Las Cruces, in a dust storm

City of Rocks, New Mexico

Just like City of Rocks in Utah, City of Rocks in New Mexico is the top of a magma chamber that solidified underground.  When the rock that the magma intruded into eroded away, the rock structures visible today were exposed.

Today it is a NM State Park where we spent the night on our way east.

Tucson

San Javier del Bac Mission

San Javier del Bac Mission

 

If you are Wil-E-Coyote then this is a door

We took the tram up Sabino Canyon then walked out.  We followed the road until it parted from Sabino Creek, then we followed the trail through the wash.

Sabino Canyon wall

At the bottom of the canyon there are exposures of Gneiss.  This is a metamorphic rock.  It started life as sedimentary rock, then was buried under millions of years of sediment and heated by an intrusive magmatic chamber, causing it to recrystallize.  Then the canyon eroded to expose the rock you see here.

Gneiss rocks (pronounced nice)

Parent rocks of the Gneiss

"Shade" in the wash

If a bridge has no space under it is it still a bridge?

Saguaro National Park (West)

A Saguaro "forest"

Petroglyphs

An old Saguaro with 24 branches.  That was the most we counted.

A friendly Saguaro want to give you a hug

Careful where you sit!

Spikey Boy

Prickly Pear

Barrel Cactus Flower

Cholla Cactus

Once again we found some local food specialties.  The bread is called popovers by the Navajo and is typically served with stewed meat.  Add lettuce, cheese and tomato and you have a Navajo taco.

Navajo Popovers

A Sonoran hot dog is a hot dog wrapped in bacon and served with pinto bean, jalapeno salsa and some other condiments.

Sonoran Hot Dog

Phoenix

In Phoenix we visited Taliesin West, the winter workshop of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is not a home, but rather a sort of camp where he would bring students to escape the winters in Chicago.

Taliesin West

Outside the drafting room

Shaded walkway outside the dining hall

The drafting room with a central display for designs

The meeting room where the students met

The Biltmore Hotel in Scottsdale is Frank Lloyd Wrights most famous design in the Phoenix area

We strolled around downtown Phoenix and had lunch at Pizzeria Bianco

The Rosson House at Heritage Square

Pizzeria Bianco at Heritage Square

The wood fired oven at Pizzeria Bianco

Our pizza with homemade mozzarella

Saint Mary's Basilica

We stopped at the Desert Botanical Garden.  They have a huge variety of cacti and other desert plants.

Phoenix is in the north eastern part of the Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran desert is home to the Saguaro cactus

Barrel Cactus

Bunny Ears Prickly Pear

Uh, I don't know, but I like it.

The purple prickly pear is positively pointy

We partook of the local food, which is heavily based on Mexican food.

Everyone likes tacos.  We are no different.

Mexican Pizza