A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted to see the sun rise from the old Cloud Nine restaurant, located near the top of Shaw Butte in North Mountain Park, which is about twenty minutes north of South Mountain Park. I know, they're really creative with the park names here. Now, we just need a Central Mountain Park.
Inspired by Dave (daacon), I got up
early, packed my things, and drove off. I arrived at the park at 5:00, where a sign told me that it opened at 5:30. Well, there were no gates, and no one was awake to stop me, so off we went.
Now, when I say "park," think "nature preserve." There are no benches, picnic tables, sidewalks, or lighting of any sort. Just rocky paths through a sudden patch of desert wilderness in the middle of the city. It was just me, Skippy, and the flashlight.
I made it to the restaurant around 5:30. Not that I ever had any doubts, but the view made the pitch-black hike at 5 in the morning totally worth it. The city was like a sea of fire spread out below us, and the stars were still visible in the sky.
Obviously, this restaurant is not open for business anymore. An eccentric millionaire built it as a house for his family in 1958, and opened a posh restaurant on its bottom floor in 1961. That's the circular platform most of these pictures were taken from. Clients included such political heavyweights as Barry Goldwater and Carl Hayden, but it didn't last long. It was destroyed in a fire on November 8th, 1964.
There's an excellent article about it here, for anyone interested:
Cloud of Suspicion - Phoenix Magazine. The second picture in that article was taken from the same place as this one:
Once it got marginally bright enough for my other camera to tolerate, I set the yellow brick up for a time lapse on what used to be a 50-foot-tall pole with a giant lighted "9" on top. It was cut down at some point, presumably to eliminate the hazard to low-flying aircraft.
The rectangle in the lower-right of this picture, filled in with stones and mortar, used to be a stone bathtub.
Skippy, as always, was very patient while I was taking pictures.
Somebody had spray-painted a trite hippy slogan on the wall of what used to be the house's bomb shelter. They were sloppy about it, and an "N" looked more like a "V." Someone else came along and added an "E," turning the message into "MAKE LOVE, VOTE WAR."
The sun finally appeared over the mountains at 6:43 AM.
This is looking east, towards the rest of the park, and the mountains beyond the city.
This is south, towards downtown and South Mountain Park in the distance.
Of course, the series wouldn't be complete without a saguaro.
They're actually pretty scarce in this park; there's tons of them on South Mountain, though.
Originally posted by slowpez 
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