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O’Leary Lookout in the San Francisco Volcanic FieldO'Leary Lookout in the San Francisco Volcanic Field

O’Leary Lookout in the San Francisco Volcanic Field

Friday, April 11, 2025

After spending an easy day around Flagstaff on Thursday, we still had one more day to wait until our Crack-In-Rock Pueblo hike which was scheduled for Saturday and I was wanting to go on a longer hike early this morning to help pass the time. Last October while Diane and I were hiking the trails in Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument I had noticed a road switchbacking up O’Leary Peak to a fire lookout tower on top and thought to myself that I should hike up there the next time I am in the area and have a little extra time, so that’s what I decided to do this morning before it started getting too warm out. Diane wasn’t interested in hiking another 2,000 feet of elevation today, so she stayed back at the hotel while I headed out to visit the fire lookout on the summit of O’Leary Peak.

CONTINUE READINGO’Leary Lookout in the San Francisco Volcanic Field
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Wupatki National Monument & Sunset Crater VolcanoWupatki National Monument & Sunset Crater Volcano

Wupatki National Monument & Sunset Crater Volcano

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Well, this extended weekend trip that I planned for Diane and myself certainly did not start off on the right foot! The initial plans for this three-day weekend started to come together back in early September when I was finally able to sign us up for a Ranger-Led hike to the Crack-In-Rock Pueblo at Wupatki National Monument. I’ve been trying to get on one of these hikes for many years without any luck, so I was very excited to finally get on the list this year. Unfortunately, the first winter storm of the season would have other plans for us as it impacted the Colorado Plateau just before our scheduled hike. Although I had been watching the weather closely the day before our hike and it appeared that the storm mostly missed the Wupatki area, when we were near Cameron on Saturday morning and just less than an hour away from Wupatki we both received the following message from the Ranger in charge of the hike:

CONTINUE READINGWupatki National Monument & Sunset Crater Volcano
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Ancient Architects of ArizonaAncient Architects of Arizona

Ancient Architects of Arizona

Wednesday – Saturday, April 24-27, 2019

Earlier this year two of my favorite bands, Architects and While She Sleeps, announced a tour that started in late April and went through May. These two bands don’t tour in the US very much so I knew that I really needed to go to this one! I’m just glad the tour dates closest to home didn’t coincide with a weekend that I had already made plans for! We were unable to go to the Denver date, which was the closest one to us, so we decided to go to the Phoenix date instead and would plan a short easy trip around it. I had never been anywhere between Flagstaff and Phoenix before, so I thought it would be a good idea to play tourist for a change and visit all of the popular National Monuments as an introduction to the area. I also figured that since we were going to be seeing the Architects in concert on Saturday night, that it would be nice to visit the ruins left behind by the ancient architects of Arizona on our way there!

CONTINUE READINGAncient Architects of Arizona
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