Coconino National Forest June 8 -11, 2013

We have been hanging out at the Coconino National Forest, known locally as the Navy Campground.  It is located just west of Flagstaff, AZ, and at the bottom of the hill below the US Navel Observatory.

                                                  Here we are among the Pine trees.

                      Our camp is just below the Observatory you can see at the top of the hill.


We have spent our days hiking in the area as well as driving some of the many forestry roads.

 

                                           While I have been taking pictures of the flowers,

                  Jim has been most interested in some of the unusual trees we have run across.

Look very closely at this last one and you will see that it is actually some kind of cell tower.

Sunday on our morning walk we walked along one of the forest roads and then followed a power line trail for a ways before circling back to the camping area. We ran across only one critter and he actually paused to have his picture taken.

Monday we drove up to the observatory and had a tour of the facility.  Their main telescope is 1.3 meters and was installed at the observatory in 1999.  The gentleman that took us on the tour showed us a huge machine used to re-coat the back of the telescope mirrors every couple of years. The mirror for the largest telescope weighs about 3,000 lbs. so you can just imagine what a job it is to take it down and load it into the machine for re-coating.   We went out onto the cat walk at the base of the dome.  It was amazing, you could see in all directions for miles.  Although this observatory belongs to the Navy we were told that it is operated by an all civilian staff.  They do observations almost every night, the only exception being when weather does not permit.  While I found all of the information interesting if not a bit beyond my understanding, Jim was completely enthralled and full of questions.

Today instead of our morning walk we drove into Flagstaff, visited Starbucks and then drove over to the Arboretum only to find that it is closed on Tuesdays.  Rather then drive back on the paved road Jim decided to try driving back by way of the forest roads which we did without much difficulty as we were able to see the observatory on it's hilltop for most of the way.  We were gone a little longer then normal and arrived home to find Zoe awaiting our return.