You know how an airplane enters the runway before taking off? A somewhat slow, ponderous turn onto the runway. Then it straigtens itself out, slowing or sometimes stopping altogether as it gathers itself prior to starting takeoff.
Not today. Our Southwest pilot took the turn onto the runway at speed and accelerated out of it. No pause. No deliberation before flooring it. Making up for lost time as our flight was delayed or simply efficient?
Turns out mid-February is a busy time in Phoenix. The line at the rental car desk was 30 deep. The rental car garage was overwhelmingly huge with “extra” cars parked not in parking spaces but smashed in nose to tail in large impenetrable blocks. A maze of dead ends trying to get to our car.
No visitor center. No passport stamp. No park sign. No public access.
A National Park Service site you can’t actually visit. Well, actually you can… kind of. Interstate I-10, at Goodyear Road, crosses through the corner of the Hohokam Pima National Monument boundary. So visit it we did. Twice. At 75 miles an hour traveling from Phoenix to Tucson and then back to Phoenix.
Hohokam Pima National Monument recognizes the significance of Snaketown, a Hohokam village inhabited from about 300 AD to around 1200 AD. This ancient village, which may have had as many as 2,000 inhabitants, is within the Gila River Indian Reservation near Sacaton, Arizona. Due to the sensitive nature of this site, the Gila River Indian Community has decided not to open this site to the public.
The Huhugam Heritage Center (HHC) highlights the ancestral, historic and current cultures of the Gila River Indian Community including archeological holdings from Snaketown. Alas, at the time of our visit the museum was closed for construction.
Located approximately an hour from Phoenix, we stopped at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument on our way to Tucson. We arrived via Arizona State Route 87 and spied the monument in the distance - recognizable because of the large roof over Casa Grande (the “Great House”). It was disconcerting to find a Walmart just down the street from the entrance to the monument. Located in the city of Coolidge, AZ, this is not an isolated National Park unit.
The ruins are dominated by the Great House and its large steel shelter roof. It is reminiscent of a car canopy placed in the driveway with a car parked underneath it for protection. But unlike a prized older car finding refuge from the weather, there is a four-story ruin constructed of unreinforced clay (caliche). Held together with modern beams, the building and site were defaced by graffiti (carved into the clay) and damaged by souvenir hunting and vandalism during the late 1800s. There is something incongruous about the juxtaposition of the sturdy steel roof and the forlorn ruin hunched beneath it.
We snapped a few pictures and read a few signs before hopping back in the car for the rest of our drive to Tucson.
Wayside Exhibits - text, artwork and audio of the park interpretive signs
History and Culture - history and culture of the ruins including information on the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument Image Collection - historic photographs and architectural maps
Day 1 - Wednesday, February 12 - Travel to Tucscon, AZ with a stop at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Day 2 - Thursday, February 13 - Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Day 3 - Friday, February 14 - Chiricahua National Monument and Fort Bowie National Historic Site
Day 4 - Saturday, February 15 - Tumacácori National Historical Park, the Javelinas de Tubac and Mission San Xavier del Bac
Day 5 - Sunday, February 16 - Coronado National Memorial, Tombstone
Day 6 - Monday, February 17 - Saguaro National Park (West) and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Day 7 - Tuesday, February 18 - Saguaro National Park (East), travel home
