Staycations & Vacations
Old West attractions to enjoy in your home state and in the wild West beyond.
By: Meghan Saar 03/01/2009
This past winter, when I finally made my way to Mystery Castle at 800 E. Mineral Road in Phoenix, Arizona, I was glad to hear I was not the only slacker among my friends in the tour group.
“I am so happy to finally visit this landmark that I’ve been wanting to see for years,” shared Vanessa Torre of Phoenix.
Boyce Luther Gulley built this three-story, 8,000-square-foot stone mansion in the 1930s. And he built it out of the trash that was piling up in the town dump behind this plot of land he owned. Old car parts, cement, adobe, stone. When a Life magazine photographer happened upon the house, it ended up on the cover of the January 26, 1948, issue: “Life Visits a Mystery Castle.” The name stuck, and people have happened upon it ever since. Gulley’s daughter Mary Lou still lives there, and we even got to talk with her during our tour of the home.
This castle certainly did not compare to Neuschwanstein Castle, the royal palace in the Bavarian Alps of Germany I visited back in 2006. But touring “Daddy Gulley’s” castle on my home turf felt comforting—beauty, in all its shapes and forms, truly does surround us everywhere we go.
I moved to Arizona from New York in 1996, yet for far too long, so much of the state’s treasures, like the Mystery Castle, were merely storybook accounts to me. I started taking trips regularly around the state once I graduated from the University of Arizona and settled into my first home in the outskirts of Phoenix.
I do still take grandiose vacations outside the state (and even outside the country) — it is nice to get away from the succulent desert plants and blazing sun. But ever since I realized that I could “get away” without really going all that far, I have been riding on every back road I can find and hiking every trail dotted with petroglyphs that friends recommend to me. Sometimes a person’s soul needs a long, extended break, and other times, just a short jaunt, among all the flowering cacti, with a bald eagle darting out from its perch on a mountain crag, above a trail that leads back to home that very same day.
I’ve hiked the Palatki ruins outside of Sedona (by the way, that’s how I learned about this issue’s Old West Savior). I’ve ridden the train from Williams into the Grand Canyon. I’ve geocached to Mattie Earp’s grave in the Old Pinal Cemetery. I’ve taken lessons in cutting and loped my horse on Weaver Mountain trails at Rancho de los Caballeros in Wickenburg. And I’ve panned for gold in Turkey Creek at Bradshaw Mountain.
None of these excursions are going to keep me from planning trips outside of Arizona. I still can’t stop boasting about my hike last summer up 21 switchbacks to the top of Angel’s Landing (about 1,500 feet above the main canyon floor) at Zion National Park in Utah. It was 106 degrees that day. And I loved every second of it.
This is your year to wander. Explore. Dream. The road less traveled can be found in your own backyard, or in a far-away locale. If you’re saving up money, don’t scrimp in rejuvenating your soul, take a Staycation and enjoy the attractions that surround you. If you’re looking for some new horizons, use this guide to inspire your next vacation. And if you’re anything like me, staycations and vacations are both luxuries you can’t afford not to take.
—Meghan Saar
Managing Editor
P.S.
I’m sharing here with you some of my personal photos from my trips. To view more about my travels, please visit my page on our True West community site. Don’t forget to post your trip photos on your community profile too!
Post A Comment