Visiting the Sahuaro Ranch in August, Glendale, Arizona


It's the middle of August, with temperatures well above 100, and high humidity, so let's go visit the Sahuaro Ranch (yes, it's misspelled that way). At least it won't be crowded!

The Sahuaro Ranch is a magical place, which goes back to the 1880s, not far from where I live, in Glendale, Arizona. It's one of those places that you drive past a million times, and never even know it was there, even though it's huge, occupying the space between 59th and 63rd Avenues and just south of the Glendale Main Library, which is on Brown, south of Peoria Avenue, down to Glendale Community College, which is on Olive. I've been there more times than I can count, and I love it there. You have to get out of your car.

Palm trees at the Sahuaro Ranch, Glendale, Arizona.

Although you really can't tell by the pics, it was really miserable out there today, with the high humidity of the monsoon season, and the temperatures over 100 degrees. I traveled from shade spot to shade spot, and the trees, even the palms, made a big difference. Contrary to popular belief, the weather was just as hot and miserable in the 1880s as it is now - that hasn't changed. What has changed, of course is that we now have air conditioning, and no one in their right mind would go out in the midday sun.

I was there for about an hour, and saw a total of five people. One person, who worked there, was operating the irrigation, one person walked by, looking very miserable, and asked if I had a cigarette, and I saw an elderly woman walk past me (as I was sitting in the shade taking the above photo), and a couple more people who seemed to be walking across the park towards the library. Come to think of it, I saw some kids on the patio of the Foreman's House.

Terratrike at Sahuaro Ranch Park, Glendale, Arizona.

Anyway, I rode over there on my "lawn chair on wheels", my recumbent trike, which is wonderful for this kind of thing. It's definitely a lot less effort than walking, and unlike a two-wheeler, it can go as slowly as I want (I brake for peacocks!) and don't need to keep moving forward in order not to tip over (a disadvantage of a two-wheeler).

I packed a lunch, and found a nice shady spot. Even then I really can't recommend doing this kind of thing in August! Better to wait for the nicer weather, which is from October to April. Open to the public, no admission.

I like the ranch, even when it's hot and humid.

The barnyard area of the Sahuaro Ranch, Glendale, Arizona.

If you liked this article, and would like to see more, please consider subscribing to history adventuring on Patreon. If you're already a subscriber, thank you! You make this happen!

Click here to become a Patron!
History adventuring posts are shared there daily. The basic tier is a dollar a month, and the PhD tier, which includes "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, videos, and super high-definition photos, is five dollars a month, and is discounted for seniors, veterans, and students.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more