Moominmama Makes the Most of a Mistake

In which Moominmama makes a mistake and seeks ways to keep her cool...

It turns out smart campers abandon the Phoenix valley by April for good reason. Temperatures in Phoenix today (Sunday) are headed to 98°. Fortunately, Moominmama is not in the city but on the outskirts. Still, the sun has been relentless, and temperatures moved in the high 80°s the last several days. Given I had a week's reservation before my next stop, Moominmama had to think carefully about her daytime activities.

One plan involved a two hour's drive to higher (and cooler) elevation in Sedona, where I'd heard of the red rocks and creative community. A morning walk on rust-colored trails plus a bit of scrambling up stone steps got me to the Devil's Bridge above.

Another popular activity on this trail is apparently adding to this collection of little cairns at the edge of a cliff face.

With the sun climbing and the morning's application of sunscreen wearing thin, I turned to town and followed a recommendation to a boutique-y shopping area called Tlaquepaque, designed in the style of a traditional Mexican village.

Thick walls and narrow, shaded passageways made this a great respite from the sun, with a variety of small courtyards and decorative alcoves with beautiful arrangements of Mexican tiles. Tlaquepaque was built in and around a sycamore grove and the trees are artworks unto themselves, tall, with strong limbs and ghostly white bark. Just the palest of green buds were showing -- not yet the explosion of green farther to the south.

Moominmama enjoyed a relaxing meal of "Navajo pizza,"  fry bread loaded with refried beans, cheese, fresh peppers, onions and tomatoes, which restored me after my hike.

From there, I wandered around, window shopping in this art gallery of upscale boutiques and listening to a gifted guitarist playing Leonard Cohen in one of the courtyards. It was a very pleasant way to spend an early afternoon.

Sedona is known for its New Age culture, and the number of crystal shops and alternative medicine venues do stand out. Sedona is supposedly home to several "energy" vortices with healing powers. Maybe if I come back, I'll pay one a visit since I barely scraped the surface of the varied hiking trails among the red cliffs and contrasting dark pine. 

Getting out early in the morning was one way to beat the heat and still enjoy the natural environment. Moominmama's next effort involved following a recommended trail along Bartlett Lake, northeast of Phoenix. 

Distractions meant I did not get started as early as I'd hoped. I set out on the trail around 8:30 a.m. but I had my swimsuit on under my clothes. 

I wasn't planning a long hike, but the trail went up and down and around the rocks and cacti, so I was climbing up and sliding down more than I expected. Every climb gave me a fresh view of the lake, and the twists and turns revealed beautiful flowers and natural rock gardens. But 2.5 miles in, I came to a cove with a sandy beach. A cool swim and a snack was just what an overheated Moominmama needed. 

By the time I got out of the water, the sun was climbing and the heat was building. I didn't want to be out at high noon with so little shade (tree above was a rarity). Despite setting out with a wet swimsuit to cool me, the ups and downs left me red and sweaty by the time I got back to my car. 

While I loved the hike, I figured I should pick something easier for the next day, like an air-conditioned museum. The Phoenix area is home to the Musical Instrument Museum, which features everything from a collection of slit drums at right to the guitar that John Denver used to compose "This Old Guitar."

The slit drums, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were new to me and created a variety of tones depending on where you tap with your hands on the hollowed out logs. While many of the instruments are just for display and carefully protected, they have a room full of instruments you can touch and play: small harps, a slit drum, djembes, ukeleles, n'goni (a West African lute), marimbas and bells. That gave me a chance to test the range of a slit drum, smaller than these sculptural ones at right.

The museum entrance fee includes a headset that allows you to walk from display to display, picking up a signal that feeds you the sound of individual performance videos when you approach.

In the "Artists Gallery," you can see instruments on display and watch them used by their famous owners. At left is a bass guitar with a Black Power fist carved at the top which was given to Prince after he freed himself from corporate recording contracts. A few steps away, I took a photo for my Swiftie daughter of an outfit and guitar Taylor Swift featured on her Fearless tour.

Moominmama also saw keyboards played by jazz great Chick Corea; an electric banjo belonging to the innovative Bela Fleck; a guitar with a playlist taped to the top owned by Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame; along with early music technology such as a machine that made rolls for player pianos and a "strohviol" that amplified a violin by attaching a trumpet horn where the body of the fiddle would have been.

And Moominmama saw only a fraction of the diverse international collection at the museum. The upstairs goes region by region, ethnic group by ethnic group, displaying the enormous variety of instruments, music styles and creativity across the globe. I can't think of anything I've done in a long time that refreshed my love and amazement at humanity as much this museum did.

Next up, higher elevation in Utah and a visit to Capitol Reef National Park, where the high temperatures are reported in the 70°s!