globallagarto

My dog Jack and I camped last night at Calabasas campground in Southern Arizona and hiked to the Atascosa Lookout today. My thermometer showed that it got down to the high 30’s last night, which was pretty chilly for Southern Arizona in April! Jack didn’t seem too happy about it. We missed the trailhead twice (not well marked) but the scenic route really was scenic so it wasn’t a problem. Had a great hike to the lookout, and from the top the views went on forever in all directions. To the south you could look many miles into Mexico. It’s a strange feeling to start a hike in cactus and end up in the pines. The lookout is an old fire lookout cabin. Edward Abbey worked there for a while and wrote about it. I hadn’t heard of this hike until last summer when I read an article on it and saw some photos of the views. Very beautiful.

This is one of the most amazing places in the world! Astonishingly unique and beautiful scenery with unbelievable systems of connected cave dwellings carved out like an ant tunnels by ancient people both above ground and underground. Frescoes and relief carvings have been damaged but still are amazing. It gets swarmed with tourists in the high season, but I’ve also been there in the late fall when there was almost no one around.

Phoenix might not seem like a very good place to hear blues, but the city is made up of transplants who have relocated here, and many of them are from Chicago or other spots along the blues migration trail; from Mississippi to Chicago. There are a couple places in Phoenix that offer blues, but this is my favorite. It’s small, dark, a bit dingy, and has great music. I used to go hear Chico Chisholm here, an elderly bluesman who had played with some of the greats in his youth. There’s a small dancefloor that gets very crowded as almost everyone gets out there at some point. Fun place. Most nights no cover charge.