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Originally Posted by PHX31
2. The Mogollon Rim (big swath of N. Arizona) is all forest. I think it's the largest stand of Ponderosa Pines in the world. You would have loved the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Same views as where you went, but it's in the forest with Aspen and pines and everything. It takes way longer to get there than the South Rim, but it's way less visited by tourists.
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Do you know where the Ponderosa pine extends to? Is it in the Coconino National Forest northwest of Flagstaff?
What is the type of tree on the south rim, seen here after the entrance?
Quote:
Originally Posted by PHX31
Any thoughts on downtown Phoenix? And did you get to drive through the northern part of downtown and through the historic hoods of central Phoenix?
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Downtown Phoenix wasn't that bad. It was a little small, but that’s to be expected of a Sun Belt city. Phoenix isn’t necessarily a hub of business, either, like Miami is a hub for business between the US and Latin America. The warehouse district was bigger than I expected. I saw a little bit of that. I saw a little bit of Woodland, near the capitol, and some of the neighborhood on the east side (not sure what it’s called), but that was it. Woodland was clearly lower class or lower middle class, and was nothing special. It’s no different than Elsmere, a bungalow streetcar suburb here in Delaware that is a little grungy, if not ghetto. The difference would be the desert landscaping, obviously.
Some more observations:
~ I like Northeast/Midwest cities for work. I like a city where you actually work, and you use your free time to relax. Phoenix definitely feels like a city where there is no work to be done. It's a city that revolves around pleasure and partying. Here, it feels like the weekend is a break between weeks at work. There, and places like Las Vegas, it feels like weeks are breaks between weekends.
~ I set a new personal record for highest elevation on the ground. A nice thing about Arizona is that they mark the elevations by 1,000 feet with a road sign. On US 180 from Flagstaff to Valle and the Grand Canyon, a little before you descend into the desert (near Red Mountain?), the high point of elevation is 8,046 feet, which is easily the highest up I’ve been on land. I think the next highest was the valley floor in Las Vegas, at ~3,000 feet, or maybe the the top of a mountain in the Appalachians (Bloss Mountain in the Allegheny Range in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, is ~2,148 feet).
~ Scottsdale reminds me of a desert version of Clearwater. I was in the Tampa Bay area last year for an Eagles game, and stayed most of the time in Pinellas County. There, you see anomalies like a strip club next to a library, or a fancy restaurant next to a trailer park. It’s not as dramatic, but the way the city developed is very random; for instance, on Camelback Road in Downtown, you have a high-end mall with valet service next to a midrise office building, which itself is next to a motel, which is next to a bank branch or other low-rise suburban arterial commercial stuff. Phoenix, on the other hand, has evolved like an older city. There’s a poor Black neighborhood east of Downtown, which is like my city of Wilmington, and like several other cities. There’s wealthier neighborhoods in some directions, and wealthy development is continuing out in those same directions.
~ What’s the farthest that people commute to work from? Are there a lot of people that live in, say, Wickenburg and commute to Phoenix for work? Things are getting crazy here, with people living in the Poconos/NE Pennsylvania (Stroudsburg, Wilkes-Barre, etc) and commute to New York City, because of the lower land prices in Pennsylvania. People live in the eastern Lancaster suburbs and commute to Philadelphia. Even with a small city like Wilmington, people live in Smyrna or Dover, and other places in northern Kent County.