Superior – RDZ Photography

Superior, Arizona – April 2023 – Spring Bloom at the Arboretum

The Boyce Thompson Arboretum is the oldest and largest arboretum in Arizona, covering almost 400 acres. A picture perfect, 75 degree Sunday in April was a great chance to check out the spring blooms.

A Texas Mountain Laurel (according to Google Images – which educate me each time I do a posting like this)

An unusual pairing, a barrel cactus and daisies.

The blooms of an aloe plant.

An Organ Pipe cactus

A Yucca in bloom.

The Clevenger House was built in the early 1900s, using the canyon as one of the walls for the house.

The Palm Grove

A mountain aloe

It is amazing what can grow on the rocks of a cliff, with as little rainfall as this area gets.

We ended our tour with this hummingbird doing it’s thing.

Pinal County, Arizona – April 2023 – Highway 177

Nature, Transportation

There are lots of scenic highways in Arizona, most far longer than the 31 miles of Arizona Highway 177. The road runs between two small towns, Winkelman and Superior.

While most of the route is very scenic, it does run along the massive Ray Copper Pit (no photos – why ruin the scenery).

The good news is the rest of the route have views like this.

The road drops more than 1000 vertical feet going south from Superior. It is a popular route for motorcycles, as we passed about 50 motorcycles going northbound in the 30 miles.

Many of the hillsides were covered in wildflowers on this early April day.

Once you reach the Gila River basin you find numerous fields of green.

A short line railroad runs up the valley from Winkelman, and ends our great ride along Arizona Highway 177.

Central Arizona – September 2021 – Wanderings

Architecture, History, Nature, Transportation

A 3 day weekend of wanderings resulted in a number of topics for a posting, and a few random shots that weren’t enough for a single posting.

Jerome, Arizona – What was once a medium sized town for a large copper mine, the town went nearly extinct, but has returned to life as a tourist attractions as … a ghost town full of people.