It's National Park Week

I'm a little late in announcing this, but April 20-28 is National Park Week. There's still a few days left to take advantage of it. There are no entrance fees to any of the national parks until Friday, April 26th.

Bombing Arizona

In Arizona, most people don't like graffiti taggers. But a growing number of artists choose graffiti to express themselves or tell a story. And each has a reason.

Bombing Arizona, a documentary now showing at the Arizona Film Festival.


Reel from Ricardo Bracamonte on Vimeo.

San Tan Mountain Regional Park

San Tan Mountain Regional Park is pretty cool, huh? Ranger Adam Martell explains where the park is located and what it has to offer. BTW, that wasn't a Gila Monster, it was a chuckwalla.

Consisting of over 10,000 acres, the southeast Valley park is a fine example of the lower Sonoran Desert. The park ranges in elevation from about 1,400 feet to over 2,500 feet. Goldmine Mountain is located in the northern area, with a spectacular San Tan Mountain escarpment in the southern portion of the park. The vegetation changes from creosote flats to dense saguaro forest.


Source: San Tan Mountain Regional Park and East Valley Tribune: Get Out

Hiking In Phoenix

Did you know that, according to National Geographic, the City of Phoenix is one of the top cities in the country for hiking? Phoenix’s desert preserve system contains more than 30,000 acres and has close to 200 miles of trails located within the city limits.

Here's Part 1/5 of a DiverseCity video presentation describing the various trails.


Watch the entire video series: [Part 2][Part 3][Part 4][Part 5]

The Year in Hate and Extremism

The number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups involving the American radical right reached an all-time high in 2012, the fourth consecutive year of powerful growth by a movement that is becoming increasingly militant as President Obama enters his second term and Congress debates gun control measures, according to a report issued today by the SPLC.

28 of those "Patriot" groups are reportedly located in Arizona.


Source: SPLC Extremism Report 2013

The Gadsden Purchase

How many time have you pulled your auto into the rest stop located between Casa Grande and Phoenix, and not think twice about the historical significance of the place in which you were about to stretch your legs or take a leak?

I was just watching The Desert Speak's presentation of the Gadsden Purchase on AZPBS. Little did I know that if it wasn't for often-forgotten James Gadsden, Americans wouldn't be taking for granted our portion of the beautiful Sonoran Desert.

The Sonoran Desert, one of North America's largest and driest, takes its name from the Mexican state of Sonora, now located to the south of Arizona. Until 1853, however, Sonora's boundaries extended all the way to the Gila River. In this year the United States pressured Mexico's President Antonio López de Santa Anna to sell 30,000 square miles of northern Mexico to the United States for ten million dollars. Included in this sale were the villages of Tucson, Tubac, and San Xavier del Bac as well as Aravaipa Canyon and the future grounds of Camp Grant, all of which would be incorporated into the new territory of Arizona.

Finalized in 1854, the Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. At about 33 cents per acre of Sonoran (and Chihuahuan) desert and mountains, undoubtedly both Mexico and the U.S. would agree that the Gadsden Purchase was a bargain for the U.S.