South Mountain, AZ

Today we took a good look at the Arizona Geology by touring South Mountain, the largest municipal park in the US, purchased by philanthropists years ago, then laid out by the National Park Service with the original buildings set up by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

It's kind of an interesting birth - established by wealth, but developed by the federal government, another example of the role of government when there is no vested interest on the part of corporate America to build a public domain.  We took several pictures, like this one, that shows the geology - with the city of Phoenix in the background.

There were other locations where there were far more cactus, and this lacked the elevation since we were only two miles into the park.

According to our friend Jack Kensler, who referred us to the park in the first place, all the mountains in the area were created by lava eruption, and we were beginning to see them on every horizon.  At left is a sample.  It occurred to me as I looked around that it must have taken YEARS for all the rocks to cool down.  Thank goodness it was a billion years ago. These boulders were only a small part of the accumulation.

At the top a stone building presumably built by the CCC stands as a shelter from which more photos could be taken.
It looks sort of like an adobe hut, cool inside and the source of a scenic view.

Far off in the distance you can see downtown Phoenix and all the high rises.

In the center of this photo, in the downtown area, you will notice two white arches separating another building, the baseball stadium where the Arizona Diamondbacks play.


I pulled out my phone and looked the stadium up on Trip Advisor because I knew it would tell me how far away the building is located.

From where we stood, the stadium is 6.99 miles to the north, as the crow flies.  Not that we planned to fly there, but, you know . . .

From here we followed the road to a couple more locations, ending at the Gila River overview where, to our surprise, a fellow was about to take off on a paraglider.  I whipped out my camera but  failed to record his takeoff or flight because in the bright sunlight I couldn't see the Start Recording button, until it was too late.  Lonna started talking to their "pilot" before we left and found for $250 I could enjoy a tandem flight.  Their website, Fly High Paragliding, had a video of a tandem.  Scroll to the bottom of the page to view it..

Paragliding may be a challenge for another day.  Lonna said maybe next year . . .

The Gila River lies far below the south side of the mountain and presents a different view.  The housing developments here have seemingly just begun.  All the photos are on the trip album - click here.