Elevation Matters and Another Rare Sighting

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I mailed my raincoat home while I was in Big Sur.  My mother said don't but the postman in Big Sur said go ahead (watch out for those mailmen), so I did, and then I had to buy a windbreaker in Flagstaff.  This town is at 6,900 feet elevation!  I didn't take that into my do-I-need-to-carry-this-raincoat-around weather/temperature calculations.  I was freezing in Flagstaff, even with all my layers on, including an NYU sweatshirt.  I was nearly 2,000 feet higher than Denver!  I felt fine, no altitude problems, but I didn't exerted myself by walking up mountains, either.

I explored the red rocks of Sedona, which included a quick stop at a seriously upscale shopping center.  I kept my wallet under wraps, but looking at this fountain was free.

A beautiful church built overlooking the red rocks.

This can be seen from the church.  It's known as Madonna and Child.

Rare sighting:  me and a dog.  This is me and Summit, a full-blooded Huskie who helps his master do tours of Sedona.  He has blue eyes.  A kid said, "Hey, Mr., your dog looks like a wolf!"  Summit's master calls him a "nonchalant" dog -- he doesn't insist on constant attention.

Outside the church, beautiful pansies.

I hope you can see a narrow rectangular window below the cliff.  This is a cliff dwelling ruin near Sedona.

A shaggy-bark juniper

This is a cave dwelling ruin.

Walls still standing in the cave dwelling ruin.

The doorway has been filled in with dirt over the years.

This is a pueblo ruin.  Some Indian tribes built pueblos on top of mesas.  All these ruins, plus one of a pit house, are in the same protected parkland near Sedona.

This is an irrigation canal built by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.  A maidenhair fern delights in the steady moisture.

The Indians used the irrigation canal to direct water in complicated ways to some nearby flat land, where they grew crops and fruit trees.

Thursday I went to the Grand Canyon.  Fri. I proceeded to Albuquerque.  Pinch me, is it possible that I'm doing all these great things and going all these places I've always wanted to go and seeing things like Saguaro cactus, mesquite trees, aspens, Ponderosa pine, sagebrush, all these icons of the great Southwest? 

An interesting fact from Summit's master:  Saguaro cactus won't grow above 3,800 feet.  That's when shaggy bark juniper takes over.