My Trip To The Big House

Last month I took a trip to the Big House. No, I'm not referring to the Arizona State Prison, although its Florence facility was less than 12 miles from my destination. My trip was to the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, which to my surprise was in the city of Coolidge and not in Casa Grande.




For those of you who have forgotten everything from your high school Spanish class, Casa Grande literally means "Big House." And that it is! It sits alone on an open desert plain, where it has towered four stories above the cactus and sagebrush for more than seven centuries. If its massive size isn't impressive enough, the fact that it was built entirely by hand -- using no modern tools or beasts of burden -- should be.



You can take a self-guided tour that loops around the adobe ruins of the Big House and the structures in the surrounding village. Don't forget to stop at the circular ball court, which is across the parking lot. Volunteers also give a number of guided tours throughout the day, which -- in my opinion -- is the best way to go.

Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit missionary who helped settle the area in the late 1600s, was the first European to lay eyes on the ruins. Others soon followed, and many left their mark behind. Father Kino wrote about several similar structures in the area, but only the Big House survived. The others were destroyed by either the elements or man.

Man did some damage to the Big House, too. It originally contained a number of log beams, made of Ponderosa pine, that the builders hauled down from the mountains, some 90+ miles away. When Americans began to settle in the area, they found these beams useful in building their homes, as well, and removed them from the old adobe structure. Other settlers, traveling by stagecoach, stopped at the Big House to rest and marvel at the strange dwelling. Some took pieces of the building as souvenirs. Others, like Aidye, left something else behind.

Today, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is part of the National Park System, which cares for and saves special places, like this one, so that all may visit. If you go, be sure to spend some time in the visitor center, which features impressive exhibits and Hohokam artifacts. Allow an hour or two for your visit. This is a "must see" monument.

Oasis in the Desert; Sabino Canyon

I spent several years in Tucson attending the University of Arizona. It was five years to be exact, but who's counting. You might say that I wasn't in any hurry to graduate and face the working world, which probably was true at the time. Looking back, I do miss my carefree college days. There were plenty of things to see and do in and around Tucson and I did as much as I could -- my grade point average can attest to that. But one spot I missed was Sabino Canyon.

I now travel to Tucson once a month on business. Usually I make the trip from Phoenix and back in one day, but on a recent trip I decided to stay an extra day and check out Sabino Canyon.

I got an early start on a Friday morning, to avoid the crowd, which turned out to be the right idea. Sabino Canyon is one of the most popular recreation spots in Tucson. And no wonder, it's only a 30-minute drive from Downtown. It's estimated that nearly 1.25 million people visit Sabino Canyon each year to take part in a number of popular outdoor activities, including walking, jogging, hiking and cycling.

For those who are less athletic, there is a tram to take visitors up the canyon, 3.7 miles to the end of the gorge, and back to the Visitor Center. The 45-minute, narrated trip is worth the $8 fee.

My original plan was to take the tram up to the top and walk back down. However, the snow melt off of Mt. Lemmon had the stream flowing and water was running over the top of every bridge. Not enough that you couldn't cross it, but enough to get you pretty wet. So I thought I'd take the easy way out and stay on the tram for the return trip.

But on the ride back down, I realized that I couldn't cross this off my list unless I hiked at least part way through Sabino Canyon. So when I reached my first bridge, I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my pant legs and wadded across the bridge through the icy cold water. I started at tram stop 2, and by the time I got to tram stop 5 I had crossed the stream four times. I had also stopped removing my shoes and socks and was soaked from the knees down. But that's part of the experience, isn't it? You don't usually see water flowing in the desert, and when you do you should enjoy it.

The residents of Tucson are lucky to have such a beautiful, desert oasis, like Sabino Canyon, right in their own backyard. As for me, I was lucky to finally go there, even if it did take me more than 25 years to do it.