Hangin' Out in Harcuvar

For those of you who think you know Arizona, I challenge you to find Harcuvar. For the rest of you, go west on Hiway 60 from Wickenburg and when you get to Salome, you are in the area - seems like the two burgs run together. We spent a week there and what a week it was; we did backroad driving, found a spectacular and spiritually moving shrine and ... panned for gold. Of course, now that we have internet service again, I will tell you about it all.

The Shrine of St. Joseph of the Mountains is found in Yarnell, a very small town on highway 89 north of Congress. We almost missed this wonderful tribute, in fact we did the first time through. It was 10 in the morning and Yarnell has a bakery that is beyond compare - they serve up cinnamon rolls that took Mike two sittings to finish, no kidding, it was huge! But we found it on the way home.


The Shrine is a memorable tribute to the earthly father of Jesus. I loved this statue of Joseph holding his little boy - notice the hand tools - seems like Joseph just returned from work.
Just as with the Shine of Our Lady of The Sierras that we visited last year, this Shrine has built the Way of The Cross into the mountainous hillside. But, I have to say that this one is even better!

The pilgrimage begins at the table of His Last Supper. As you go up stone steps, you enter the Garden of Gethsemane. When you follow the steps, you follow the Way of the Cross - each nestled in the rock. And then

And a few steps further, As I moved away, I looked back and this is what I saw...
The Shrine and Way of the Cross is truly memorable!

And now on to our other adventures. We have been enjoying the saguaro cactus on our desert and mountain drives. And, as predicted, I have taken many many pictures of them. This is just a sampling.


Yes, that really is a lake (reservoir actually) and not a mirage.

AND we visited the Vulture Mine, as in gold mine! This mine produced millions of dollars of gold in the 1800's gold rush days. BUT, most importantly, it produced flakes of gold when Mike learned to pan! And now he is hooked - oh yea, he definitely wants to be a gold miner, bought a pan and everything! Now all he needs is about $1500 worth of equipment and an ATV and membership in the 24 Karat Club (a miners club) and Carharts, flannels, boots,.... well, you get the idea. He might just tinker with the pan when we find a likely spot that isn't someone's claim - we were told you could get shot that way!
The mine itself was very interesting - but, it is getting late so I will publish those pics at a later time. We are now south of Sedona at Camp Verde and will be here for two weeks; it is a little cool but very beautiful, snow on the red mountains...

Stay in touch.