Where to See Arizona's Spring Wild Flower Show

PHOENIX AREA:

Go eight miles southeast of Apache Junction to Peralta Road. Hike along the Peralta Trail for a picturesque display of gold-poppy, lupine, bluedick, saguaro, gold-field, sugar sumac, manzanita, verbena, penstemon, lotus, Indian paintbrush, wolf berry, bar-berry, bladder-pod, ragged-rock flower, desert mallow, and hedgehog cactus.

TUCSON AREA:

SOUTHWESTERN ARIZONA:

NORTHWEST ARIZONA:

ARIZON TREES FOR TRAVELER

JAMES TALLON PHOTOS More and more tree-shaded rest areas are springing up along Arizona's interstates thanks to the Arizona Federation of Garden Clubs (AFGC) fiftieth anniversary project "Trees for Travelers." The AFGC donates funds to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) which then plants the shade trees and installs concrete benches with the AFGC emblem on them. ADOT maintains the trees and benches, and nearly everyone benefits from the cool shade and beauty of the clubs' beneficent green thumb.

THE PHOENIX RODEO OF RODEOS

Desert Foothills Drive celebrates its twenty-first birthday this year. The drive, looping from Phoenix through Cave Creek and Carefree to Scottsdale, takes travelers through the beautiful high Sonoran Desert. Twenty-one years ago concerned citizens formed the Cave Creek Improvement Association and preserved this scenic route from encroaching development. They also erected rustic signs along the road identifying desert plants for passing motorists. And all without government funding.

CACTUS CRIME DOESN'T PAY

"There are people serving ten to fifteen years in Arizona prisons today who have been convicted of grand theft of cactus," warns "Cactus Cop" Richard Countryman. "The minimum penalty for stealing protected plants is $500 and/ or thirty days in jail." Countryman and a handful of investigators oversee 90,000 square miles of Arizona, protecting 212 species of native plants from theft, destruction, and mutilation.

Cactus stealing in the state has become big business, with nearly half a million dollars of endangered and rare plants stolen each year. Most kidnaped cacti wind up as desert landscaping for homes and other buildings.

At $2800 per gram, it would seem that scorpion venom would be a lucrative commodity. But obtaining the venom, used in vaccine research, isn't all that easy. First you have to catch the scorpions by hunting them at night with a black light (they glow green in the dark). Then you have to milk them, and each arachnid is good for only about five milkings, yielding two or three drops total. Everyone who handles scorpions is stung eventually, and the poison causes a painful and debilitating reaction in most cases, and death in a few. So at 6000 milkings to produce that precious gram, easy money it's not.

If you're ready to rodeo, or spend a day at an oldfashioned fair, Phoenix and Tucson offer opportunities for the finest of both in the coming weeks.

The Phoenix Jaycees Rodeo of Rodeos celebrates its fifty-fourth year. High points include: the Rodeo of Rodeos Parade, March tenth, with world-famous Western author Louis L'Amour as Grand Marshall, the Bill Williams Mountain Men, hoe-downs, and more. The rodeo itself with 700 contestants participating for a $140,000 purse, runs from March 14-18. Contact the Phoenix Jaycees, (602) 263-8671.

The 1984 Maricopa County Fair also runs March 14-18 in conjunction with the Rodeo of Rodeos. Rodeo ticket holders get a discount at the fair. Call (602) 267-1996.

DAVID ALEXANDER PHOTO guide to places, events, and people unique to Arizona & the Southwest

RIVERA'S 'CUBIST YEARS' OPENS IN PHOENIX

The world debut of the major international exhibition "Diego Rivera: the Cubist Years," opens at the Phoenix Art Museum, March tenth in Phoenix. In conjunction with the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes of Mexico City, the Phoenix Art Museum has assembled approximately 100 of Rivera's works from 1909 to 1921 executed in oil, watercolor, and various graphic media-most of which have never been published or publicly shown. From Phoenix, this exhibition, chronicling the artist's maturation into one of the art giants of the twentieth century, travels to New York, San Francisco, and Mexico City over the next year. For more information, contact the Phoenix Art Museum, (602) 257-1880.

ENDANGERED WADERS

The endangered Yuma clapper rail, rallus longiros-tris yumaensis, a small roadrunner-like wading bird, may be the latest victim of the 1983 flooding of the Colorado River.

The entire population of these birds (approximately 1700) nests in the marshland along the lower Salt and Gila rivers and the Colorado River of southern Arizona and northern Mexico. High water flooded the marshes at peak nesting time preventing some of the eggs from hatching and drowning fledgling birds. Flooding also reduced available food and forced mature birds from their habitat, leaving them vulnerable to predators.

TUCSON FESTIVAL '84

Tucson turns into a festival-goers' paradise with fiestas, craft markets, parades, ethnic foods, dance performances, and more, from March 31 through April 29. Emphasizing the rich blend of Indian, Spanish, Mexican, and pioneer American heritage that flavors the "Old Pueblo," more than 3000 individuals and 100 civic and social groups volunteer time and effort to fill every weekend (except Easter) with colorful, entertaining cultural events from the Fiesta de los Niños (Children's Parade), where children from all over the city dress as early Tucson settlers, to the famous San Xavier Pageant and Fiesta when Indian dancers, Spanish dancers, robed monks, and pilgrims celebrate the founding of the 200-year-old Kino mission. For a complete brochure of events, contact the Tucson Festival, 8 West Paseo Redondo, Tucson, AZ 85705. (602) 622-6911.

RODEO TUCSON

Rated among the world's top ten rodeos, Tucson's La Fiesta de los Vaqueros (celebration of the cowboys) happens from March 1-4 and features a host of Western activities including "the world's largest non-mechanized parade" that annually draws 150,000 spectators. For information, call (602) 792-2283. Tucson also hosts the Pima County Fair with an antique car exhibit, mining displays, 4-H exhibits, fine arts, home arts, and more. Contact Southwest Fair Commission, Inc., (602) 624-1013.

On these pages are only a few of the fascinating events scheduled this month in Arizona. For a more complete calendar, please write: Arizona Office of Tourism, 3507 North Central Avenue, Department CE, Suite 506, Phoenix, AZ 85012 The Four Corners Monument, where Ari-zona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico meet, is the only spot in the United States where you can be in four states at once. (You put a foot or hand in each state.) More than 2000 people per day visit the monument in the summer. They stay an average of only seven to ten minutes.