A Monastery visit, 96 Ranch, and a memorial to a star

Wednesday, December 4
Hugh and Penny gave us some great tips on things to see in the area. Hugh is a photographer so he knows where to send me to get some great shots.

We started the day heading back toward Coolidge which is east of Arizona City. We went through the town then further east to Hwy 79. Turning south we stopped first at St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery.

This is a working Monastery so we must follow their dress rules. This meant for me that I needed to wear a long sleeved shirt. For Cheryl she needed to wear a skirt over her jeans and a scarf to cover her head. The nice lady that greeted us at the front gate supplied the required clothing. They do this for everyone. She gave us a map of the facility and explained the rules. No talking to the Monks, no photographs of other visitors or the Monks and adhere to rules posted on the doors. Some we can enter and others not. OK, we can do that.

The Monastery grounds has a number of churches as well as large orchards of oranges, lemons, grapefruit and olives. There are quiet areas to sit and reflect. A number of fountains dot the grounds.

Front gates to the Monastery

A new church under construction. Very nice!

St Anthony's Church.

Inside St Anthony's Church

Bishop's chair. Look at the woodwork and carvings.

The chandelier at the front of the church. The actual altar is hidden behind those murals. All the altars were hidden from view and off limits to visitors. You can just imagine their beauty.

Outside of St Anthony's.

The Phiali, or main courtyard.

St Nicholas' Chapel

The masonry work is amazing.

Inside St Nicolas'. Note the step ladder. The monks work on the chapels and grounds constantly.

Beautiful marble floors.

One of the fountains

Huge Bougainvillea

St Nicolas' from the back.

Orange groves.

St George's Chapel

Beautiful mosaics

Another fountain

St George's Chapel

The ceilings in the buildings were works of art. 

All the furnishings and icons were brought from Greece. Just a feast for the eyes. Look up at the ceiling and down on the floor. Everywhere you look is just a 'wow' moment.

The screen ahead is called an iconostasis (icon screen in front of the altar)

Look at the carvings!

Such intricate detail!

The bell tower at St George's Chapel

Fountain of the Cross

St Demitrios' Chapel

A lovely Monarch made an appearance.

Private chapel on a hill overlooking the grounds.

Orchards in the foreground. Pretty cool cloud formations.

The Monastery

What a great place to visit. So peaceful, so pretty, spotlessly clean, and fabulous workmanship inside and outside the buildings. We could have spent all day here, but as usual.....Dave has a schedule to keep and an old abandoned ranch down the road was beckoning.

We headed a bit further south on Hwy 79 and turned on the 96 Ranch Road. It's gravel but in very good condition. Just a few rough spots in the washes and where the rain has been running across the road.

Hwy 79 south is called the Pinal Pioneer Parkway. A very picturesque drive.

96 ranch Road

Other than in captivity we haven't seen a rattlesnake in the wild.....until today.

What is that on the road ahead?

Yep, a good sized Diamondback Rattlesnake.

As we drove slowly past his head followed me.

This is about as close as I intend to get to a rattlesnake. This picture is zoomed in and cropped. I'm safely in the truck. We are clearly annoying him so we move on.

A decent desert road.

We come across this nice crested Saguaro

Interesting.

The road gets a bit narrower rougher as we approach the ranch site.

Huge Saguaro cactus up here.

We didn't dig around the rubble too much. This is private property and we wanted to be respectful. That and the fact that the big ole rattlesnake we had seen earlier was still top of mind!

The new ranch house.

I bet it was pretty nice in it's day. Huge windows.

The old house, likely made into a bunk house later after the new house was built.

Although vandalized over the years, it still has the main structure intact.

The barn

Machine shed.

Pump house

Stone fireplace from a house that has burned.

After a good look around the old ranch we headed back on the eight mile road to the highway. We turned left and further south a few miles to the Tom Mix Memorial.

Tom Mix was a movie icon in the 1920's. His movie career was pretty much over by 1940 but he was involved in PR work for a circus. He died in a car accident at this spot on October 12, 1950. It's an interesting story. Hopefully you can read it below....

We kept on south on Hwy 79 to the Park Link Drive cutoff road that took us back to I 10 and then north back to Arizona City. A very busy day, but what sights we saw!

Mount Lemmon ahead of us.

Picacho Peak

We didn't get a great sunset again tonight. Lots of clouds building up, but pretty none the less.

....and that was Our View From Here!