Mike Jones

Ez-Kim-In-Zin Picnic Area in Tucson's Saguaro National Park West is the most remote in the park... and it's an easy drive from anywhere in Tucson.

This lovely rock structure is easily the most unique (and beautiful) picnic spot I've seen anywhere in the southwest.

Check this out:

• Unparalleled views of Wasson and Amole peaks, in the Tucson Mountains.
• Magnificent evening sunsets surrounded by a forest of Giant Saguaros.
• 1,000 year old petroglyphs at the nearby Signal Hill Picnic Area
• Children-friendly, the picnic area has bathrooms!
• Quiet and peaceful. Tucson is on the other side of the mountains.
• Hiking trails created by the CCC nearly 100 years ago - some with hand-carved granite steps (Hugh Norris trail)
• Friendly Active Rain Ambassador for Arizona would love to be your guide. (That would be me. Call in advance.)

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

all photos copyright Mike in Tucson
map courtesy of the National Park Service

A pelican in Tucson, Arizona?

I was shooting a video with REALTOR Kevin Wood, Realty Execs just down the street. Sitting at the kitchen table with the Flip Video camera, I was asking Kevin about the home he had just listed.

"Just down the street, there's a lake" he said. I had to see for myself. What I saw took my mind back to my high school english days, with the poet Ogden Nash.

A wonderful bird is the Pelican.

His beak can hold more than his belican.

He can hold in his beak

Enough food for a week,

But I'm darned if I know how the helican.

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photo copyright Mike in Tucson

EDIT: Here's a link to the home for sale

Large 4/2 SE Tucson Home with Huge Backyard and Lake Nearby

Chance of rain, 10%. Overnight low in the 60's. That's what Jimmy Stewart, our Channel 4 Weatherman, predicted on last night's news for the Tucson area.

Look at the downpour in the center right of the photo. This is a true desert thunderstorm.

When it rains here in our desert southwest, we rarely have the sort of storms I experienced back on Long Beach Island, NJ, where the entire sky would scud over with low gray clouds, and the rain or drizzle seemed to be universal.

Here in our quiet little community of Tucson Estates 2, (east of the Avra Valley, and west of the Tucson Mountains) what you see in my photo is much more the norm. It will be pouring down rain somewhere else, while the sky above us is blue.

Chance of rain, 10%. What it means is that 90% of the viewing area will stay dry. It sure makes for a beautiful photo op, though, doesn't it? Picture postcard perfect! You'll have to come visit soon.

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photo copyright Mike in Tucson

I've resisted the "wordless" thing, but I'm giving in today. Wednesday, September 16, 2009. I've resisted because this is a blog, after all. A web log. A chronicle of images painted in the mind with words.

Your mind doesn't think in words. It translates words into images in your brain, and then "sees" and processes the images.

Think of this image as a shortcut for your busy mind.

It's my favorite saguaro. You'll see it along Golden Gate Road in Saguaro National Park (west.)

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photo copyright Mike in Tucson

Tucson's Signal Hill Petroglyphs are thought to be as old as 1,000 years or more. Signal Hill is located in Saguaro National Park West, on the western flank of the Tucson Mountains. It's immediately south of the community of Picture Rocks, so named because of the ancient rock art you see here.

I spent my Sunday afternoon hiking in the Park with the intent of photographing some of the petroglyphs to share with you. They're beautiful, aren't they?

No one knows just what they mean. Created by ancient Amerindians known today as Hohokam, the images of the sun, snakes, lizards, game animals and humans may have had religious or ceremonial significance. They may have been clan markers. There's even the possibility that they are just 1,000 year old graffiti!

Abstract designs outnumber life forms (human figures, lizards, game animals, etc.) in Tucson, and petroglyphs like these are found all over the southwest.

In the world of modern art, I'm a fan of Robert Motherwell, so the idea of ancient abstract art just around the mountain from my home gives me a certain sense of joy. Then again, if it's outdoors and involves hiking and photography, I'm all for it.

Creating the finished petroglyph took the Hohokam artist quite a while. Do you want to know how they did it?

The basalt boulders you see here are covered with a substance called "desert varnish," a hard dark coating that hides the lighter basalt rock beneath.

Hohokam artists would "peck" at the surface, striking one rock tool against the surface with another rock repeatedly until the varnish gave way, creating the outline of the petroglyph. If you had the time and inclination, you could do it yourself. (Not in the Park, though.)

Next time you visit Tucson, you can watch modern artists creating petroglyphs in exactly the same manner. You'll find them working periodically at the Tohono Chul Park.

One such artist is Desert Little Bear. His website is www.rockartcreations.com Check him out.

And come visit Tucson soon, but not without calling me first!

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090