Have you ever wondered how a bird can land on the top of a cactus without getting his feet pierced by the sharp spines?
Well, here is an unusual saguaro cactus I photographed this morning as I left Usery Mountain State park.
A closer look, which is a bit fuzzy because I had to use my telephoto, shows that this cactus has a nice, smooth surface on top. In fact, it has a nice smooth metallic surface on the sides as well because it is a fake. The state park has chosen to disguise some sort of communication antenna by paining it green and adding some arms. In any case, this bird likes his perch.
Just down the road is a rather attractive fake palm tree. This one might be hard to land in because it has a lot of metal spikes among the palm leaves.
My plan today was to check out of my campsite and run some errands. I had to pick up my new shoes I had ordered and stop by Lowes to get some supplies for a couple of projects I need to do next weekend. Even after picking up some KFC to take with me on the plane tomorrow and stopping at McDonalds for lunch, I had quite a bit of extra time to get to my next campground, so I saw the sign for the Casa Grande National Monument, and headed that way.
I had been here about ten years ago, but I wanted to see it again. It was not too far off the freeway and the day was sunny and almost warm!
Casa Grande is a very old native American three-story ruin in the center of an area that once was a major farming area for the local O'odham Indians for a thousand years, ending in about 1,450. There were several rivers in the area, and the ancient peoples had dug many miles of irrigation ditches to make the area green with crops.
Following are the visitor center and some of the displays.
The main structure is made of blocks of mud, smoothed over by more mud which hardened in the sun. However, the park service built a roof over it to protect it from rains that would eventually destroy it.
In this photo, you can see the layers and blocks of mud that built up the walls. Floors were constructed by embedding long timbers in the walls.
This drawing shows how the main structure was surrounded by a plaza and many smaller buildings.
This model shows the interior as it was originally, and how the floors were constructed of logs.
The next photo shows how beams have been added to keep some of the walls from falling down.
This shows how irrigation make the desert into gardens for crops.
The weather has been cold and rainy for the last couple of weeks, and I have been occupied with motorhome repairs, so I have not done much sightseeing as I wanted to, I have to make a quick trip this week to visit a family member, but will be headed to New Mexico when I get back. Hopefully, I will be able to do more posting then.
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