Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Parkh

No sun at all today not really a bad thing because it did not get as hot as it would have if the sun were out. Our plan today was to visit the arboretum and it was very pleasant. I have included a description of the Arboretum from Wikipedia. I do not have all the descriptions of the trees and cactus that I photographed but I’ll try and muddle through it.

Information from Wikipedia
Boyce Thompson Arboretum is the largest and oldest botanical garden in the state of Arizona. It is, in fact, the fourth oldest botanical institution west of the Mississippi. Founded in 1924 as a desert plant research facility and “living museum”, the Arboretum is located in the Sonoran Desert on 392 acres along Queen Creek and beneath the towering volcanic remnant, Picketpost Mountain. Boyce Thompson Arboretum is on U.S. Highway 60, an hour’s drive east from Phoenix and 3 miles west of Superior, Arizona

The exhibits include a cactus garden, palm and eucalyptus groves, an Australian exhibit, South American exhibit, aloe garden and an herb garden to name a few

Over 2600 species of arid land plants from around the world grow at the Arboretum. Agaves, aloes, boojum trees, cork oak, jujube trees, legume trees, and, in the eucalyptus grove, one of the largest red gumeucalyptus trees (“Mr. Big”) in the United States. Cacti and succulents grow extensively throughout the Arboretum.

                                                                            Australian Exhibit
Australian Exhibit
Australian Exhibit
                                                                    Australian Exhibit
                                                                    Australian Exhibit
                                                                     Australian Exhibit
                                                                     Australian Exhibit
River Red Gum Tree from Australia
River Red Gum
View from the Aboretum
Palm Trees
More Palm Trees
Mexican Fan Palm
Olive Tree

                                                                              Aloe x speciosa

Aloe castanea
Aloe Aculeata

Suspension bridge
Suspension bridge another view
Maguey agave asperrima

Sotol
Golden Barrel Cactus



Along the trail
Roses in bloom

Monday, February 24, 2014

Lovely drive, mining towns and horses

Today started as a type of day that you just wanted to jump in the car and go exploring so that is what we did. Fifteen miles out of Florence to highway 60 and a turn right toward Globe and off we went. The area turned from desert to beautiful valleys between the Apache and Pinal mountains. This entire area was big in cooper and gold mining and the open pit Pinto Valley copper mine is still operating. We passed through small mining towns like Superior that is struggling to reconstruct their historic part of town to try and attract tourism.  Further down the road we passed through another mining town of Miami. A little further and we were in the town of Claypool and finally Globe where we had lunch and turned around to head back to Florence.


Back in Florence we had to make a stop at the post office to pick up any mail we may have as well as to change our address as we will be leaving here on Saturday and moving into Mesa. After the post office stop and before heading back to the campground we stopped at The Arizona Wild Horse and Burro Adoption holding area. The animals are trained by inmates from the local prison and are available for adoption in March.   

 Downtown Superior Arizona
 A Lot of closed store fronts
Nice Palm trees in town
 Pretty bushes as well
 The once famous Magma Hotel is getting a makeover


Total makeover to try and bring tourism to the otherwise dying town 
The building as seen below needs SOME work

 She is looking at a nice patio area at the La Mina Bar and Cantina


 Auctions every week
                                                                         Beautiful bloom
                                                                   Bob Jones Museum

Further on down the road we found this pretty church in Miami Arizona

                      Back to Florence and a look at the Wild Horse and Burro Adoption yard