Casa Grande, AZ

We made it to Casa Grande on Monday. We are staying at the Casa Grande RV Resort which is an RPI. They just spent over a million dollars renovating the park and it really shows! Because Casa Grande is in the desert there is no grass here, but there are some trees. There is a cement pad with gravel to keep the dust down. We were lucky enough to get an end site.

Site 77

They have 2 swimming pools and a Jacuzzi, and a pond in the back. I'll try to take pictures before we leave next Monday. Although it has been chilly here they do keep the pools warm and we have used them already. 

Here is a picture of our truck this morning at about 8:00. It got into the low 30's last night. With our fireplace going we kept toasty!

Frost on the truck

We decided today to go to the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Casa Grande was named after the ruins, however the ruins are actually in Coolidge which was named after the Coolidge dam.

Coolidge

Coolidge has a population of about 12, 000 people yet it has a SuperWalmart, a Sonic Burger, a Safeway and other stores. The ruins can be seen from the Walmart parking lot.

They consider this a Prehistoric Ruins, because although the buildings were built about the year 400, and in Europe tools were being used from copper and brass, the Hohokam Indian tribe built this using sticks and by hand. They also had no written language so the engineering is amazing.

Saguaro Cactus

The current covering you see was built in 1932 to protect the ruins from further erosion. As you can see there is also a lot of Saguaro Cactus around here.

Every hour they provide a guided tour to give you information about the area. Also in the visitor center they had a movie with the history of the 'Great House', as well as the Hohokam Indians. The Hohokam's no longer exist, but they believe the O'odham may be decedents of the Hohokam.

Almost as old as the Ruins!

Patty was perusing this 'condo' property, but I convinced her that the 5th wheel was a better fit for us!

Patty's Condo

The walls are build out of Caliche which is a hardened deposit of calcium carbonate. It is really a precursor to modern day cement and is why the 4 story "Great House" has stood for 1800 years! 

I just like the way this picture came out with the prisms of the lens showing through in the picture!

Sun spots

Patty took this picture of the purple cactus. Don't know what kind it is, but is was pretty.

Purple cactus

We ended up spending about three hours at the monument. We took a picnic lunch, ate sandwiches and then went back and looked some more and took more pictures. After that we headed back home to Casa Grande.

It was a wonderful day.

Thanks for reading and please leave any comments you may have!!

God Bless you,

Brian and Patty