Lynn and others - I'm not seeing much in the way of replies about where to observe in northern Arizona, and I suspect that's because those of us are up here are stumped ourselves about where to go. Having the Coconino National Forest completely closed for the first time (as of today) is the big problem, as pretty much all of the sites that I have used and know of are in that forest somewhere. This includes Anderson Mesa, Beaver Creek Trailhead, Slate Mountain, and also the site we've been using quite a bit of late, the Doney Mountain picnic area near Wupatki National Monument. Off list Tom Polakis suggested that there must be some BLM land somewhere up there that could be used, but I'm not aware of any relatively close to Flagstaff. There are of course vast BLM holdings north of the Grand Canyon, some of which are now also National Monuments, but that's a good drive from here, and more so from central AZ. Some other options I can think of are: - Navaho and Hopi reservation land, and private ranch land. But in these cases I would think one would want to get permission somewhere for anything other than a short observing session. The (undeveloped) area around Grand Falls on the Navaho reservation might for example be an excellent site, as would be the ranch land near SP Crater off US 89 (on the other side of US 89 from Wupatki). - There are "no overnight parking" signs at the Sunset Crater Monument lots, but it's not clear if this would eliminate parking for observing sessions. A check with rangers there might be best. The Wupatki parking lots are definitely off-limits at night as they are always concerned about security for the ruins within the Monument. (The Doney Mountain parking lot is beside Wupatki, but in the Coconino Forest, so normally observing is okay there.) Anyway, the main Sunset Crater parking lot and the Cinder Hills Overlook parking lot would both make for good observing sites if it were possible to use them. There is a bit of a glow there though from Flagstaff to the southwest (although blocked from the Overlook by the volcano itself). - Certainly one area that could be used is Grand Canyon National Park itself. All areas of the park remain open, so setting up for observing at one of the overlooks (south or even north rim) is obviously an option. With advance notice, it also might be easy to still get campground reservations nearby. Light pollution from Tusayan in the south is noticeable from areas right around Grand Canyon Village, but still the skies overall are pretty good. - Finally, the one area that we have used for observing that is still apparently open is the Willard Springs transfer station off I-17 south of Flagstaff. This is county land that is still apparently open, although adjacent to National Forest land. Directions (from the CAS website at http://www.lowell.edu/cas/) are: "Take the I17 Willard Springs Exit (#326) and [going west] follow the paved road for about a mile. Once clear of the trees, the road turns sharply to the right but continues through as a dirt road. Set up is about 100 yds on the dirt road near the cinder pile." As to camping, again, all of the Coconino and most of the Kaibab is closed, so camping in undeveloped areas is no longer an option and the developed campsites have also been closed or are being closed. There are however many commercial campgrounds in Flagstaff, as was as a county one at the Fort Tuthill Fairgrounds just south of Flagstaff, and these should all be open. I don't know of any available campsites though where one could also observe from. Anyway, hope this helps out with options. If the weather holds (which we hope it doesn't, considering how much we need the rain!), you'll likely see more posts from folks "up here" if we do plan to go out observing. - Brent Archinal "Lynn blackburn" <LynnRB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent by: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 06/27/2002 05:39 PM Please respond to az-observing To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> cc: Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Coconino National Forest closes due to fire danger To Flagstaff observers I'm looking for a cooler observing site not affected by the forest closures. This would be for the weekend of 7-6&7-7, next weekend? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Need a break from the Phoenix heat! A site with camping would be a plus. Lynn Blackburn Sagauro Astronomy Club ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Dickson" <dickson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: "AZ Observing" <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 12:17 AM Subject: [AZ-Observing] Coconino National Forest closes due to fire danger > > Starting Friday, the entire Coconino National Forest will be closed for > the first time due to fire danger. So reports azcentral.com... > > -Paul > > -- > This message is from the AZ-Observing mailing list. See this message's > header if you want info about unsubscribing or the list's archive. > > This is a discussion list. Please send personal inquiries directly to > the message author. In other words, do not use "reply" for personal > messages. Thanks. > > -- This message is from the AZ-Observing mailing list. See this message's header if you want info about unsubscribing or the list's archive. This is a discussion list. Please send personal inquiries directly to the message author. In other words, do not use "reply" for personal messages. Thanks. -- This message is from the AZ-Observing mailing list. See this message's header if you want info about unsubscribing or the list's archive. This is a discussion list. Please send personal inquiries directly to the message author. In other words, do not use "reply" for personal messages. Thanks.