November AZ exploring

We spent November aiming for a few places that have been on our radar around the Flagstaff area.

But first - a climb up Humphreys Peak before it got covered in snow:

It can get very windy up here.  Even the sign thinks so:

A random picture from one of our orienteering meets with the Phoenix O-club, including various spiky plants and the cute-but-DO-NOT-TOUCH teddy bear cholla:

John has been talking about SP (aka s**tpot) Crater and we finally made it out there, to the north of Flagstaff:

The side of the crater is quite steep and covered in loose cinders:

Admiring the San Francisco Peaks on the horizon:

Shadow posing on lava rock:

From the top there's an excellent view of the lava flow:

Also a look down into the deep crater:

Our car waiting for us at the trailhead:

John did a walk-about around the rim while I headed down to do some running on the plain:

One of our favorite types of photos - a mountain shadow as seen from the side or top of the mountain:

Now heading in the other direction, down into the earth, following the path through ponderosas to the Lava River Cave:

This cave is so long (over 3/4 mile) that there's a map:

This is the best lava tube we've seen (so far) - wide and tall, dark and long, easily accessible, super cool (and cold):

At the far end, John might have been considering trying to hide and scare the next group:

When in fact, all the lights bobbing toward us was a bit freaky:

Great experience, highly recommend!

Even better (and more highly recommended) was our afternoon and evening at the Lowell Observatory.  It's finally open again for tours, yay!

We got to see the historic telescope that was used to discover Pluto:

Even the structure around the telescope is interesting:

The two plates where a speck of light was found to be moving over time - it had to be something other than a star:

We spent hours going back and forth between exhibits, tours, talks in the auditorium, and celestial viewing on the patio:

In fact, I'd call this one of the top experiences in Flagstaff.  Come grab your 3-D glasses and you too can look like this!