National Monuments vs. Historical Group Monuments: Not a Tough Choice

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

VS.

Lost Dutchman Monument

Far be it for me to every criticize a monument, but the latter of these two was a little bit of let down. The pile of rocks known as the Geographical Center Monument in my hometown, puts the Lost Dutchman Monument to shame. On the other hand, the first of our two day trip stops for the weekend was actually pretty cool and impressive. Late Saturday afternoon, after watching 3 boys basketball games and going to the mall, we still had plenty of time to head to Coolidge, AZ to check out the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Oddly enough, this monument is not located in Casa Grande, AZ, so if you go to Casa Grande looking for Casa Grande someone will probably just point you to a big house and you will be quite unimpressed.

Casa Grande Ruins is the closest national monument to the Phoenix area. A quick 45 minute drive on AZ 87 will have you there in no time. The ruins are quite amazing to look at especially the Great House compound. To think it was possible to construct such a large structure before the invention of modern tools is amazing. If you have the time be sure to watch the video in the visitor's center. It does a great job describing the culture and life the of the ancient Sonoran people. I'm always impressed when I'm reminded of the engineering ability they used in designing their canal systems. 

In probably the best decision of the day, I finally forked over the $80 for a National Parks and Monuments annual pass. Casa Grande would have been $10 for the two of us, so only $70 until it's paid for itself. I have a feeling it will be paid for many times over in the next year. Great investment for anyone who wants to do some serious wandering in our nation's beautiful parks and monument areas.

The second "monument" (and believe me the quotes are appropriate) we visited was the Lost Dutchman Monument in Apache Junction. Honestly, this was just something I saw on a sign on our way out to the Superstition Mountains area on Sunday afternoon. Thankfully, we hadn't gone to AJ with the sole intent of visiting the "monument". On a side note, if I die and someone wants to build a monument for me, great! But if it looks like the one above, please don't put a big sign directing traffic toward it like it's a big deal. Thank you in advance. 

The real reason we were there was to take advantage of a Groupon Jenn had gotten for Superstition Zipline in Goldfield. I think she summed it up best in her comments about it on Facebook, it was good, cheesy fun. It wasn't a long ride and it was all done in about 45 seconds. I will say it does get a little freaky when you come into the end, only because it seems for a second like you might crash, but at no point is the zipline going all that fast and it doesn't get very high. Despite this we were suckered into a second go-round because we wanted to capture it on the GoPro, so here it is:

After, we finished ziplining we walked around the Goldfield Ghost Town for a bit. It really wasn't the type of ghost town I enjoy. Everything there was just a cash grab, so it was all about trying to make it seem like an old west town. Given the choice, I'll take an actual ghost town over a tourist trap any day. But all in all it was a fun day.

I always like to try to work in a little bit of a personal lesson and this weekend was definitely not an exception to my own learning and growth. As much as I try to revolt against the concept of planning, there are times when I need to realize that I'm not the only one involved in my plans anymore. I have someone who I care about deeply and yes (even though I've said it thousands of times to her personally, I'll say it here for the first time) someone I love who is impacted by these plans. 

On Sunday, we had our plans in place for the day: Breakfast, finish watching a movie, then head out somewhere for the day. I followed through on the first two parts, but let a little laziness set in momentarily and gave off the signal that final part of the plan was out. I did this without really asking her or explaining that I hadn't scrapped things but just didn't think we had to leave right away. I didn't really understand how much it bothered her until she indicated that she was ready to take off to do other things for the day. I feel terrible she had to go to that extreme to send the message but it was received loud and clear. I guess my point of this is that even if you want to wander, if you're going to make a relationship work you better be able to stick to the plans you make with the one you love. This is true even when the person is a bit of a wanderer themselves.