DEVIL'S BRIDGE

Yesterday, we decided to do a hike.  We were going to get up early and go and get back in time to do something else in the afternoon.  My friend, Sammye, had told me to take the trail hike on Doe Mountain.  She said the view from the top was fantastic.  Mr. W had looked it up and printed off a map.  Of course, he couldn't just let it go at that hike.  No, he found another hike to do that went to Devil's Bridge.  In his defense, every single hike we had checked into has been way off in the distance they say it is.  One hike had said it was 2 miles to a very scenic pool.  When reading reviews of doing the hike, everyone was saying that it was 4 miles, not 2 and most people were not happy about that.  But back to our hike.  So, the information he read and printed off about Devil's Bridge said it was a little over 3/4 mile hike to it from the trailhead and 3/4 mile hike back.  OK, I'm good with 1.5 mile hike. 

The plan was to hike to Devil's Bridge in the morning, pack our lunch and eat at a picnic area, hike Doe's Mountain trail, and drive a scenic loop in the area.  I figured we would be back by 2:00ish.  We left at 7:30 a.m. 

We arrive at the overflow parking lot for the Devil's Bridge hike.  There was a road that you could try to drive to the trailhead but it clearly said high clearance/4-wheel drive vehicles were the only thing recommended.  Even though we have a truck, it is not 4-wheel drive and I'm not sure I would want to take my vehicle on this road even if it was 4-wheel drive.  So, we park in the overflow parking lot.  Now, Mr. W isn't sure if we start hiking down the bad road or down a trail at the other end of the parking lot.  I see a sign on the trail at the other end of the parking lot that says Devil's Bridge and so we take off.  Have I ever mentioned that I hate hiking?  I have tried to build a "like" for it because Mr. W loves to hike and always wants me to go with him. But deep down, in my true inner being, I HATE hiking.  I just wanted you to know.

Mr. W as we are starting out.

Some pretty scenery along the hiking trail

We start out on this trail and it 8:20.  We walk and walk and walk and keep walking.  We finally reach where the bad road and this trail come together.  We are still no where near the trailhead for Devil's Bridge.  So, we keep going down the bad road and we walk and walk and walk some more.  Finally, we reach the trailhead.  At this point, we had walked well over 3/4 of a mile that I believe we are walking on this hike.  Now, once we reached this point, we have 3/4 mile to walk and it is straight up.  Oh boy.  Yay.  I can hardly contain my excitement.

Once we reach the trailhead.

So, up we go.  Have I mentioned lately that I hate hiking?  According to the information on this hike, once you get close to the top, you can either continue to the top and go to Devil's Bridge or there is a trail that veers left and it will take you to an arch in the mountains that you can stand under, look up, and see the sky.  You can walk out on Devil's Bridge but the information says that it is not for faint of heart.  It is narrow and you should use good judgment when walking on it because it is a long fall down.  I have a fear of heights.  Walking on Devil's Bridge sounds just like something I would want to do, right?  I'll stick to the trail leading to the arch.  Mr. W can walk out on the bridge.  Of course, by the time we finally reach the top,  I'm about ready to trip him while he is on the bridge! 

Once he gets off the bridge, we walk the trail to the arch.

There is a rock area that sticks out from the mountain and people were walking out on the area to take pictures and to have their picture taken.  I don't know what came over me, (I think it was the lack of oxygen from hiking so far and in a higher altitude), but I decided to walk out on the rock and have Mr. W take my picture from under the arch.

Can you see me?

Needless to say, this really tested my fear of heights.  I tried to watch my feet as I walked out so I wouldn't trip on a rock or uneven surface.  Once I reached this spot, I tried to look straight at Mr. W or straight out.  I wasn't about to look down.  On a side note, I did have a dream last night that I walked out on this rock, tripped, and started falling.  I woke up with a start, was gasping for air, and had to sit up and turn over just so I knew that it really wasn't happening and so I wouldn't go right back to sleep and start dreaming it again.

OK, now we have to start the trek back to the truck.  This time, we decided to stay on the bad road the entire time.  Mr. W kept saying, I think the end is just around the corner or a little ways down this road or I think this is the last road that we have to walk up.  You know what I think of that don't you?

We got back to the truck at 11:30.  My feet felt like they were on fire. My legs felt like rubber.  I had put a few band-aids on spots I knew would get blisters easily, but I had blisters on places that had never had blisters before.  This 1.5 mile hike had taken 3 hours.  I wasn't going anywhere else but back to the trailer. Did I mention that I hate hiking?

It was mostly a quiet ride back to the trailer.  At one point, Mr. W said, "All I can say is they do a really poor job of explaining these hikes and estimating the length of the hike."  That's an understatement if I ever heard one, but he is definitely correct. When I got back, I started looking on the internet to see if I could find something that told us exactly how far we had really gone.  According to reviews on Yelp, we actually walked somewhere between 5 and 6 miles. Oh boy. Yay. I can hardly contain my excitement.

I will go on other hikes eventually.  But I will only do hikes that are 2 miles or less (preferably less) and Mr. W will have to promise me that he knows that it will be what it says it will be.  Have I mentioned lately that I hate hiking?

SEDONA, ARIZONA

When my friends found out that I was traveling to Arizona, most everyone asked me if I was going to Sedona.  They all said that Sedona was beautiful and not to miss it.  So, I asked Mr. W to work Sedona into the trip. 

We arrived here on Monday.  We are actually staying in Cottonwood, AZ at a state park named Dead Horse Ranch State Park.  Sedona is only about 20 miles away but they only have 1 nice RV park in Sedona and they are very proud of it, if the cost is any indication of how proud they are.  So, we opted to stay at the state park.  It has water and electricity but no sewer.  We have figured out that we can do without sewer if we are careful for about 9 days.  We will be here for 7.  There is a dump station before we head out, so we should be fine.  It is $25 a day.

This is almost the same view I have from my 5W.

They also rent cabins.

Tuesday, we decided to drive into Sedona to see some of the sights.  It was a really nice, scenic drive.

I had several people tell me to not miss the "big church with the huge steeple on the side of the mountain" while in Sedona.  No one knew the real name of the church, so I Googled it.  It is the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  It is absolutely beautiful and thousands of tourists visit it every year.

Most of the parking is down at road level and it is a 500 ft. walk straight up to enter the chapel.  The chapel inside has an amazing view.  Other than that, it is really pretty ordinary.  The scenery and the views from up top are pretty awesome.

This is a house that is down below.  More on that later.

 

They had beautiful plants all around the little bit of grounds they had.  This cactus had yellow buds that turned into pink flowers.

The "house" is right by the chapel.  Everyone who visits the chapel has to drive by the "house".  Mr. W and I talked about  it after we left.  Who do you think owns it?  How much do you think it cost?  How big do you think it is?  I even had him stop so I could take a couple of pics through their gate.  It is pretty amazing.

Close up shot from up on the hill

Through the gate

Also through the gate

Well, it seems that I am not the only person curious about the house.  While Googling the correct name of the church, a blog popped up with an article about who owns the "house".  So, of course I read it. So, here's the scoop on the house.

• It is owned by Ioan and Elena Cosmescu.  He is a doctor.  They were born in Romania but moved to the USA to have the American dream.  
• He owns a company and made his money by inventing surgical instruments that are successful in their use and are considered "standard" instruments now.  His latest invention is a vacuum for the smoke created by the laser/electrical instrument used in eye surgery.
• Home is 11,223 square feet.
• The lot is .89 acres. 
• The land was purchased in 2001 for $286,000.
• They spent about 6 years building the house and grounds.  Someone even posted pics from different years and stages of the build.
• Someone said on the blog that they spent $29 million on everything. 
• Someone went to the tax office and looked it up.  The tax assessor's office has it valued at a little over two (2) million and they pay $16,000 a year in taxes.  There were many outcrys on the blog for the tax assessor to be fired for not upping the value on the "house".

Some of these people commenting on this blog about the "house" need a job, or at least something to do with their time! Good grief.  Sedona is an artsy type of town.  Everything is organic and natural.  The bakery in town is heavy into gluten-free.  Everyone shops at Whole Foods because it and another natural grocery store are the only grocery stores in town.  So, there were mostly unkind words about people building this type of home in Sedona.  I'm not against organic and natural and my daughter-in-law has gluten intolerance so I'm all for finding options that are gluten-free.  However, I have found that most towns (not all of them) that advertise themselves as such tend to think they are a little better than most.  Their town "motto" is, God made the Grand Canyon but He lives in Sedona.  These types of towns show intolerance for anyone they deem to be more successful than they are and thus messing up their town by said riches. In my opinion, well, they are full of themselves.  Sorry if that makes anyone mad but it's my blog and I can say what I want and what my views are.  There were a couple of comments on the blog from a neighbor of the Cosmescus and also from a relative.  Both talked about how nice, generous, and caring to a fault these people are.  They both said that they would hope that people would read about his inventions that have helped so many people instead of bashing his house.  Their comments were torpedoed too.  Go figure.

OK, on to something else.  One of my friends gave me a couple of recommendations of places to eat while in Sedona.  I tried the first place and there was no place to park.  So, I went to the second recommendation.  It had a patio on the ground floor and one upstairs.  The weather has been perfect for sitting on a patio.  The view was great and so was the food. Thanks Sammye for the recommendation!

 

Our view while we ate.

OLD TUCSON STUDIOS

Yesterday, I went to Old Tucson Studios.  Old Tucson Studios is a movie studio and theme park just west of Tucson adjacent to the Tucson Mountains and close to the western portion of Saguaro National Park. Built in 1939 for the movie Arizona, it has been used for the filming of numerous movies and television westerns since then, such as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone, Three Amigos, Gunsmoke and Little House on the Prairie. It was opened to the public in 1960, and historical tours are offered about the movies filmed there, along with live cast entertainment featuring stunt shows and shootouts.

In 1959, entrepreneur Robert Shelton leased the property from Pima County and began to restore the aging facility. Old Tucson Studios re-opened in 1960, as both a film studio and a theme park. The park grew building by building with each movie filmed on its dusty streets. John Wayne starred in four movies at Old Tucson Studios. Rio Bravo (1959) added a saloon, bank building and doctor's office; McLintock! (1963) added the McLintock Hotel; El Dorado (1966) brought a renovation of the storefronts on Front Street; and with Rio Lobo (1970) came a cantina, a granite-lined creek, a jail and a ranch house. In 1968, a 13,000 square foot (1,208 square meter) soundstage was built to give Old Tucson Studios greater movie-making versatility.

On April 25, 1995, a fire destroyed much of Old Tucson Studios. Buildings, costumes and memorabilia were lost in the blaze.  It was determined that it was arson.  A person who had applied for a job but was turned down became the prime suspect.  Eventually this person was arrested for other fires in the area.  The suspect confessed to those fires but before the suspect could be questioned about the fire at Old Tucson, he invoked his Miranda Rights, effectively stopping any further questioning. Not enough evidence could be collected to positively identify this suspect as the arsonist in the Old Tucson fire. No other information pointing to any other individual was ever found, and the case remains open to this day.

After 20 months of reconstruction, Old Tucson re-opened its doors on January 2, 1997. The sets that were lost were not recreated; instead, entirely new buildings were constructed, and the streets were widened. The Reno locomotive that served as the train that travels the rail around Old Tucson was cosmetically restored. The soundstage was not rebuilt. Film production at Old Tucson was seriously affected by the fire and in 2003, Old Tucson reduced its hours of operation because of financial difficulty.

In 2011, Old Tucson embarked on a project to build new movie-quality sets that fill out the park, and restore the pre-fire feel of close-together buildings, providing the look and depth of a genuine old west town circa 1865-1900. The Heritage Square Project, a 5,000-square-foot spread with three new streets lined with 12 new buildings, was completed in November 2011 at an estimated cost of $300,000.

They do have one building that is full of the memorabilia that was saved from the fire.  I loved looking at all that stuff.  I can remember seeing some of the stuff in the movies or in TV series filmed there.

This is a cannon used in the filming of the Alamo.  The Alamo was not filmed here, but John Wayne filmed several films here.  He loved Tucson so much that he bought a ranch here and lived here most of the time.  He financed the filming of the Alamo out of his own personal funds.  It was a very stressful thing for him but the movie was a hit and he ended up making a lot of money off the film.

This is just 2 pages of movies/series that were filmed here.

2 more pages

Two dresses worn by Barbara Stanwyck  in Big Valley.

Some of the dresses worn in Little House on the Prairie.

They had many playbills/posters from the movies filmed there.

There were displays of costumes worn in High Chaparral and Bonanza.  One of the costumes for Bonanza was for "Hoss Cartwright" (Dan Blocker).  When you see his clothes, you realize what a really big guy he was compared to the other guys in the show.

Many TV series and TV movies have had at least one episode filmed at Old Tucson Studios in whole or in part including the following:

• 1962: Have Gun Will Travel
• 1963: Wagon Train
• 1966-1969: Death Valley Days
• 1966-1971: The High Chaparral
• 1966/1971-72: Bonanza
• 1972-1974: Gunsmoke
• 1974-1975: Petrocelli
• 1975-1976: The Young Pioneers
• 1977-1979: How The West Was Won
• 1977-1983: Little House on the Prairie
• 1978: The New Maverick (TV movie)
• 1980: The Gambler (TV movie)

An old wagon in front of one of the original buildings.

Replica of a school house

Replica of what the inside of the school house would look like.

The top floor of this building was added for Three Amigos

The inside of this saloon was used a lot but especially famous are scenes filmed here in John Wayne's McLintock.

Look what I found! Rosa's Cantina!  They actually did a tribute to John Wayne inside Rosa's.  John Wayne was well loved and respected from everyone who worked here.  This meant fellow actors, producers, directors, prop men, stunt men, and even the extras.  He knew everyone's names, about their families, and always very humble and approachable.

This is called the mission area. There are bleachers across from it and the Loop Rawlins show and the stunt shows happen here.

This area is where High Chaparral was filmed.

This is the ranch house from High Chaparral.  It was not hurt during the fire.

Nothing like a stagecoach ride to take you all around town.

OK, who remembers 3:10 to Yuma.  Here's the railroad station.

Meet Loop Rawlins

Loop did gun tricks.

Loop did lasso tricks.

Loop did bull whip tricks.

Loop was pretty good at what he did.  He was also entertaining and funny.

 

There was a show at the saloon and it said it was music from the "old west."  There were 3 dance hall girls that actually sang songs from some of the movies filmed here.  They showed clips from the movie during the songs.  It made me want to see the entire movies either again or for the first time.  I see Netflix in my future.

The Duke with Dean Martin in Rio Bravo

Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd

Steve Martin - first amigo from Three Amigos

Martin Short - second amigo from Three Amigos

Chevy Chase - third amigo from Three Amigos

Kurt Russell from Tombstone



The 3 dancehall girls

 

They had a stunt show back at the mission set.  It was pretty lame but I got some pretty good pics.



 



 

 

Some shots down the streets of Old Tucson.  Really does look like a cowboy on a horse will come riding down the street at any moment.



What western town would be complete without a hanging gallows?

This has nothing to do with Old Tucson Studios.  It was parked in the parking lot and Mr. W wanted a picture of it.

On our drive back, we drove through one of the subdivisions here to take a couple of pics of some of the houses.  I love adobe houses.  You should have seen the view that a couple of these houses had.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Sedona, AZ.  More to come from there!