# Our First Springtime in Phoenix



## imp (Jul 15, 2015)

Phoenix South Mountain Preserve is one of the largest city parks in the world, at 16,000 acres or so. It's usually bleak-looking mountainsides normally have typical scrubby growth of the most hardy desert plants, such as creosote bushes, lots of cactus. Normally, South Mountain looks pretty much like the upper left slope in this pic. Our first spring living about 1/4 mile from where my wife took this pic, almost the entire mountain slope, within a few day's time, turned a brilliant orange color. Not quite understanding, we hiked over to the closest slope: millions upon millions of flowers, all of the same type, we learned later they are "California Poppies", absolutely left us speechless! We two Midwestern hicks, transplants to the ruggedness of the desert, had no idea that at times, it could put on a show unequalled elsewhere! That guy is me, gaping in wonder, dressed in my usual "informal garb", which had not yet "rotted off". Undated, this was likely in March, of certainly 1980. Every 100 or so flowers, was to be found a red one! The "black" sheep mutants? The winter had produced unusually heavy rainfall and snowfall in the areas where water for the Phoenix area is entrapped by a series of 5 dams. In reality, there were 3 one-hundred year floods in 3 consecutive years! Billion to one odds. Nature at work, again. The first occurred in 1978. '79, again, when we had already moved there. That one produced flood-released water flow into the normally dry Salt River, which cuts diagonally across the entire PHX metro area, of such magnitude it took out all but 2 of the "river crossing" bridges, or culverts as it were, cutting off traffic from PHX, north of the river, to the cities south of it, Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert. The flow rate peaked in the Salt at 160,000 cubic feet per second; compare that to the maximum ever recorded rate in the Colorado River, which was used to predict Hoover Dam strength and height, of 100,000 cfs. We saw huge logs, cars, debris of all kinds, being brutally carried away by the flow. 

There is much more historical info to add to this story, but safe to say, the desert is a "harsh master", which takes unusual strength to overcome.  imp







The poppy seeds had lain dormant for years, we heard, awaiting a precip. event of unusual amount. This was the result. No poppy plants could be seen at all, two months later! Reports stated that S. Mt. produced poppy blooming about every ten years. S. Mt. is 1,000 ft. higher in altitude than PHX. Our second winter there, it received several inches of snow overnight! Gone by 10:00 AM!


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## Rocky (Jul 16, 2015)

_Wish you'd decided to relocate to Tucson rather than Phx ... [ ugh, ugh, ptooey! ]  Okay, I admit I'm a Southern Arizona gal ... Baja Arizona, y'know.

Tucson has 5 mtn. ranges ringing the city.  I was able to leave my home, drive 32 winding miles in 50 minutes to be at 10,000 ft. ... 30 degrees cooler in Summer.  BTW, the road to Mt. Lemmon is known as "the most dangerous road in Arizona" ... used to do it twice a day -- to work in the morning and back up the mountain in the evening.  Oh, and it also has the Southernmost ski area in the U.S.

I wish I'd never given in to my kids' wishes and moved away from Baja Arizona! ... but I did. _ :chargrined:


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## SeaBreeze (Jul 16, 2015)

Love the photo Imp, beautiful poppy flowers for sure, I'd get a kick out of standing in the field.


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## imp (Jul 16, 2015)

Rocky said:


> _Wish you'd decided to relocate to Tucson rather than Phx ... [ ugh, ugh, ptooey! ]  Okay, I admit I'm a Southern Arizona gal ... Baja Arizona, y'know.
> 
> Tucson has 5 mtn. ranges ringing the city.  I was able to leave my home, drive 32 winding miles in 50 minutes to be at 10,000 ft. ... 30 degrees cooler in Summer.  BTW, the road to Mt. Lemmon is known as "the most dangerous road in Arizona" ... used to do it twice a day -- to work in the morning and back up the mountain in the evening.  Oh, and it also has the Southernmost ski area in the U.S.
> 
> I wish I'd never given in to my kids' wishes and moved away from Baja Arizona! ... but I did. _ :chargrined:



Understood! Mt. Lemmon is a fantastic place, beyond a doubt. Tucson was on the list of choices when I left the Chicago area in 1972, as was PHX, Flagstaff, and Vegas, which of course, won out! We actually lived south of the Phoenix city limits, an unincorporated community called Laveen, had our own post office. South Mountain Park lies on the very southern-most boundary of PHX, so is a nicely desolate area. 

During our time there, the Central Arizona Project (CAP) was built and began delivering Colorado River water to Tucson. Nowadays, there is considerable agitation about water availability, and CAP will be one of the "water deals" to be have scrutiny placed upon it. I know water has always been comparatively more expensive in Tucson, and am just curious: Here in Mohave County, along the River, about 12 miles south of Laughlin/Bullhead City, our residential usage of about 7,000 gallons currently costs around $20. How does yours compare?    imp


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