Author Archives: Rossi

Serene places to go in Arizona

Beautiful Madera canyon

Sometimes, we like to take a break and really reflect on life. And if your a nature lover and a road-trip enthusiast like myself, you just gotta get in the car and drive!

So, I looked up some places where you can go, where there are not a bunch of people, light traffic, and great scenery, especially if your into photography, camping, or hiking. See, it is okay to want to get away, and there is nothing bad about Calmness and peace!

Coal mine canyon

Navajo nation, need permit to hike, very beautiful for photography! This is 16 miles SE Tuba city


Bill Williams River National wildlife Refuge

Closest city is Parker and if your doing a road trip, it’s 25 miles S. Lake Havasu city

Madera Canyon

Open in winter, 20 miles south of Tucson, dogs are allowed on leash!Great trails, benches for sitting. Lots of wildlife and birds to go watch!

East Clear Creek

Located in the Mongolian Rim-Closest town is Winslow. You can hike there, but use common sense, check weather for each place, wear proper clothes, bring plenty of water!

So, these are great places to check out. But please be careful, as I have mentioned, use common sense, if you go alone, make sure someone knows where and what time you will be back. I bring a weapon when I go out to remote places, but most of the time, my husband goes with me! Plus, I have a 9-1-1 button in my car! Always check weather and use necessary precautions. Have a beautiful experience with nature!

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this article and please share! Like, comment and share, also positive reviews welcome, please no rude or vulgar comments! Have a great week! Happy trails!

Poison: Plants that can kill you in the southwest

Nerium Oleander is one of the most poisonous plants grown in the southwest!

Here, I am going to give you a list of plants that are poisonous to ingest and if you have pets, keep them away as well! Oleanders are everywhere but even though these plants are pretty, you may want to keep a long distance or just rid of them altogether!

Poison oak

Avoid these when going for a hike!


Jimson weed
The white flowers are so pretty, yet this weed is not safe to have near your family!

Poison ivy

Within up to 4 hours and up to 4 days after you have been exposed, redness, swelling and itchiness after rash. It usually contains fluid filled and blistered, ouch!

After being in contact with poison ivy, this will happen, here is what you can do to ease the itchiness and rash

First, scrub your skin with soap and water ASAP. Try taking an oatmeal bath, then put on a cool, wet compress on, put calamine lotion on or cortisone cream. Also, you can make a water and baking soda paste. If these treatments don’t work, tell your Dr to give you a prescription for a topical steroid cream.

Chinaberry tree

All parts of this tree are toxic

The Chinaberry has very high (meliatoxins) found in the berries. If you ingest these, you will vomit, have diarrhea,and depression. If you swallow a lot, it will lead to seizures and eventually death. So don’t eat the berries please!

Century plant

Very common in the desert, the sap of this plant is poisonous

Foxglove

Also known as Digitalis purpurea, a common bile oak plant.

This , although very beautiful, contains Digitoxin and Digoxin. Also contains other Cardiac glycosides that affect the heart. their is also a drug named Digitalis! A drug for Congestive heart failure.

Dumbcane

It is a common house plant, don’t let children or pets chew the leaves, it is poisonous! Cells of the plant contain a needle shaped calcium, oxalate crystals called raphides. Personally, I would not have this plant around with children or pets, but that’s my personal take on it!

So, hopefully you learned something new in this informative article! Make Desertexplorations.com a household site and subscribe and share! Thank you and god bless!

Wupatki National Monument; A place of wonder!

Driving through Sunset crater and passing through the pine trees, you will be in amazement how the landscape switches from Pine to crossing into the painted desert! What an exciting transformation it is!

The visitors center
There are 13 different Native American tribes claiming blood or history to Wupatki

When Sunset crater erupted in 1064-1065 C.E it altered life out in the painted desert, spreading ash Over 800 miles and would definitely been a great spectacle in the sky for the Ancient hohokam indians to see!scientists and archaeologists both believe the fertile soil was created by the ashes from this volcanic eruption, making it easy to grow corn and cotton.

During excavations, archaeologist s found pottery and tools, as well as 41 skeletal remains of Scarlett Macaws, which showed political power and was bartered from other tribes near Mexico! They were used for religious ceremonies.
Gorgeous Scarlett Macaws were found in the painted desert, meaning these people did a lot of bartering.

When going through the visitor center, you will see great information and also receive the pamphlet labeling the different rooms, what these rooms functions were.

This pamphlet shows what number to each room is, when you take a tour with no guide.
Follow this staircase all the way through and check out this magnificent Pueblo that’s been occupied by Sinagua, Anasazi people and made with red Mownkopi Sandstone basalt and Kaibab limestone.
Look at how well and tight the stones are to each other, they must have been highly skilled to build these Pueblo’s that are still strong and standing after hundreds and hundreds of years!

There are other accessible Pueblo’s here as well, The Citadel, Lomanki, Nalakihu, Wukoki, and the box canyon.

Now as you follow down the trail, you will notice the large circles, ballcourts or used for ceremonies

These ballcourts were for social gathering, religious ceremonies and playing ball.

To the right of a ballcourts, you will notice this

This is called a blowhole, if you stand over it, you will feel a strong gust of cool air hit your body! As you see me below having fun!
It’s pretty strong air flow!
A crevice in the earth that appears to breathe! But to the Hopi Indians iris the wind spirit, Yaapontsa. They and a lot of the Zuni believe this land is sacred and should be treated with much respect and love.

Another fact is archaeologists do believe that pre-historic Clovis hunters hunted Mammoths and Bison out there at Wupatki.

Hope you liked this article, and maybe you will take your family out there to this historical landmark! Make sure to subscribe to receive more great informative articles, it’s you guys that keep me writing and Thank you so much followers!

Sunset Crater; The volcano in Arizona

Sunset Crater is located North of Flaggstaff. It is the baby of a string of volcanoes related to the nearby San Francisco peaks. It last erupted in 1085.

You may ask, how did they get that year? Well, it was derived through tree rings, and archaeologists and geologists have come up with the eruption around A.D. , when lava flow went out about 2.5 K.M. Northwest.

This landscape is so amazingly beautiful, you can see how black the ground is from the lava that crawled over this land in 1085! It created a blanket of ash..

You can see the partial revegetation of pines and in Spring, flowers will grow out!

This volcano is a cinder cone volcano . Sunset Crater is composed of lava fragments called fragments called Cinders created when molten rock is spewed from a crack in the ground.

Surrounded by the beautiful San Francisco Peaks! A definate place to go, this road trip will take you through with pines and switch over to the painted desert to Wupatki National monument!

Twenty five bucks per carload, free to disabled vets, show V.A card. Open 9-5 P.M. There are many trails to hike, you cannot climb the volcano and this volcano is still considered active but won’t erupt for another 1,000+ years so don’t worry, lol 😂

Yes, I highly recommend you going, it’s drop dead gorgeous and a great road trip into the painted desert!!!!

Again, Thank you so much for reading this, please subscribe, it really helps keep this site going! Share, comment, and Like! No rude comments please and have a great day, Next, article on Wupatki National Monument!