We were already on the road to Colossal Cave Mountain Park, when we realized we’d overshot our original destination. We had heard about the cave but hadn’t ever been there. So, instead of doubling back and trying to find the entrance for the nature preserve we had probably just driven through but weren’t sure how to access, we kept going!
We weren’t even sure if we’d be able to get into the park or if it was still closed due to the coronavirus. And we certainly weren’t planning on going into any caves since Quijote was with us. But it was Phillip’s birthday, and he voted to go see what we could find.
Colossal Cave Mountain Park
Colossal Cave is a dry cave system under the Rincon Mountains in the Tucson-adjacent community of Vail. Before being developed into a tourist attraction by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s, the cave had served a variety of functions, including a shelter for the Hohokam people, train robber hideout, and guano mine.
What to know if you decide to visit:
The park around the cave is open for hiking, camping, and taking in the views. (Free entrance. You just pay fees if you’re going on a cave tour or camping.)
Cave tours have restarted on a limited basis – currently only the Classic Cave Tour is available.
You can choose your tour time and book tickets online. (Adult $18 / child $9 / military or first responder $14) You can only enter the cave on a tour.
Face coverings and social distancing (six feet apart) are required during tours.
Under the roof of this cool rock structure built by the CCC is the cave entrance, Terrace Cafe, and gift shop.
Because the CCC were so instrumental in developing Colossal Cave Mountain Park, there’s a statue in honor of the CCC workers at the entrance to the terrace.
There are also nice hiking trails outside the cave – I’m sure they’ll be even nicer when it’s not summery hot.
Coatimundis
We were looking around the terrace when I overheard one of the staff tell the group waiting for their tour time that they often see coatimundis going in and out of the cave.
That stopped me in my tracks.
A coatimundi (or “coati”) is a long-nosed member of the raccoon family that mostly lives in Central America, but has also found its way into higher elevations of the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico (Mt. Lemmon, for example).
Phillip and I have been on the lookout for one ever since we went to Chiricahua for the first time and didn’t see any there.
We had no idea there’d be a chance to see one that day. Apparently, though, they’re a common sight, going in and out of the cave and hunting around the park for trash (which, of course, is on-brand for the raccoon family).
Moments later, we saw a young coati atop the hill above the cave entrance! He started sniffing along the edge, and then scampered down its sheer face and into the cave.
Phillip barely had time to snap photos, and I had my hands full with Quijote.
But we saw it.
It was like nature gave Phillip a colossal birthday surprise!
I found myself researching hotels recently, even though I don’t currently have plans to travel farther than the grocery store.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise, I’m certainly not advocating that everyone hit the road. But I know you might need a place to stay due to quarantining, an evacuation, family emergency, essential travel, change in living situation, etc.
So what are hotel brands in the U.S. are doing in the wake of the coronavirus?
Photo via Marriott: an employee using an electrostatic sprayer.
So Fresh and So Clean
Major hotel companies have ramped up their cleaning procedures and are doing an interesting dance in order to let the public know about it. It’s like they want to say “our hotels have always been spotless, but now they’re spotless-er!”
And they probably are, in fact, more spotlesser than ever. Things people are most likely to touch, like door handles and elevator buttons, are getting wiped down and disinfected frequently. Unsanitizable stuff is being taken out of rooms. (Where are they putting all those extra throw pillows and notepads? Are they just tossing them? Are they all in storage somewhere? Listed on eBay?)
Many hotels are either using or looking into using electrostatic spraying / fogging, a technique for disinfecting surfaces by spraying them with positively-charged chemicals. (Yeah, I don’t totally understand it, either, but it’s supposed to be very thorough and good for hard-to-reach spaces.)
A lot of amenities are temporarily suspended for safety reasons. Buffets are out. Workout rooms and pools are on thin ice. Daily housekeeping is becoming more of a DIY situation.
This spring, when everything was suddenly being shut down and postponed, most hotels waived cancellation fees. At this point, however, a lot of those more lenient policies are expiring. So don’t forget to read the fine print when you book!
Keep in mind:
Reservation policies I’ve summarized below apply to direct, individual bookings. (All dates are 2020.)
For bookings through a third party (Expedia, Hotels.com, etc.), you’ve got to deal with their rules. And group bookings are a whole different mess altogether.
Most rewards program levels and points expiration dates have been extended.
You can also opt to convert your unused rewards points into a monetary donation to a charity the hotel has partnered with.
As much as hotels may be attempting to follow guidelines from the WHO, CDC, and local authorities, those recommendations can change quickly. Also, the general policy for a hotel chain can still vary from one location to the next. Call ahead if you have questions.
Reservations + Cancellations: They had been waiving all cancellation fees until June 30, and then went quiet on the subject. Double check your booking details.
Checking In: Check-in and check-out streamlined to minimize contact (theoretically) using the Best Western Mobile Concierge platform – which I have not been able to find and have no clue how you access.
Common Areas:
Disinfecting the lobby and touch points throughout the hotel regularly.
Providing hand sanitizer or wipes.
Cleaning fitness centers, swimming pools, meeting rooms, and other public amenities with disinfecting chemicals, as well as electrostatic fogging, ozone generators, or ultraviolet devices, when available.
Guest Rooms:
Enhanced cleaning protocols with chemicals aimed at killing COVID-19.
If possible, guest rooms will not be entered for 24 to 72 hours after check-out. (I just keep thinking about the potential guest grossness that could be left to sit there for three days. Did they consult anyone from housekeeping on this?)
On that note, let’s move on to breakfast options….
Most hotels are currently offering a “Grab & Go” breakfast with pre-packaged food and beverage options, like a whole piece of fruit, bottle of water, granola bar, and a pastry.
Some hotels may serve or pre-plate breakfast in lieu of a buffet. This may include a breakfast sandwich or burrito, hot and cold cereals, yogurt, pastries, and fruit.
Employee Policies:
Must use Personal Protective Equipment and follow frequent, stringent hand-washing protocols.
Workstations cleaned and disinfected after every shift.
If unwell, employees are “empowered to stay home.”
Option to Donate Your Reward Points? Yes, to a variety of charitable organizations via their Rewards Redemption Mall.
Photo via Choice Hotels. WoodSpring Suites, Everett, Washington
For new reservations with arrival dates through September 30, there is no charge for cancellations up to 24 hours in advance. (Does not apply to bookings with a pre-paid rate. Also several other exclusions. Definitely read the fine print when you book.)
Common Areas:
Cleaning high-traffic areas such as the front desk, fitness centers, and pool area with hospital-grade disinfectant.
Furniture arranged to encourage social distancing.
Guest Rooms: Housekeeping “on demand.” You can request delivery of additional toiletries, towels, linens, or coffee without having a housekeeper enter the room.
Dining: Offering pre-packaged breakfast items instead of buffets at many hotels.
Photo via ChoiceHotels. Handmade masks for healthcare heroes!
Employee Policies:
Creating the new position of “Commitment to Clean Captain” (which I can only picture as a comic book character. Like a grime-fighting superhero!)
Every Choice-branded hotel will designate a Commitment to Clean Captain, who will be in charge of implementing new cleaning protocols at the property.
COVID-19 Outreach: Special room rates for front line workers, including nurses, doctors, FEMA employees and American Red Cross volunteers.
Quality Inn in Sylva, NC donated toilet paper and other essentials to senior centers and is currently providing shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
Comfort Suites in Carlisle, PA sponsored a blood drive.
Cambria Hotel in Bloomington, MN helped to send essential supplies to the Minnesota Nurses Association.
WoodSpring Suites in Allentown, PA donated a dozen handmade superhero masks to healthcare workers who were staying at the hotel.
Reservations + Cancellations: Cancellation penalties were waived for reservations through July 6, but no update since then.
Checking In:
Using single-use keycards for the rest of the year.
Plexiglass hygiene guards installed at some front desk terminals.
Night windows have become all-the-time windows. If a hotel has an exterior front desk window, guests should check in there rather than going inside the lobby.
Common Areas:
More frequent cleaning and heavy disinfection of high-touch surfaces.
Adding hand sanitizer stations.
Closing pools.
Limiting the number of people in lobbies and lowering the maximum occupancy for most hotels.
Removing complimentary coffee from lobbies and microwaves from the vending area. (Caffeine addicts take note! Motel 6 also doesn’t include coffee pots in rooms, so plan on getting your fix outside of the property.)
Engaging a third-party supplier to provide deep cleaning and sanitization services, as needed.
Masks required.
Guest Rooms:
Using EPA-approved, antiviral disinfectants to sanitize the most commonly touched areas of guest rooms.
Hotel staff will not enter any occupied room.
Limiting housekeeping to pre-scheduled trash removal, amenity replenishment, and providing fresh towels and sheets outside of each room.
Quijote explores Motel 6.
Employee Policies:
Employees required to wear provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – unless the hotel is unable to get their (ungloved) hands on said PPE. (In which case, I guess everyone is off the hook-?)
Hand sanitizer stations in the team center.
Furloughed Team Members receive a lump sum payment and can remain on the company’s healthcare plan.
Partnering with several companies who have immediate job openings to assist team members in securing interim employment.
COVID-19 Outreach:
20% discount for first responders, medical professionals, and active duty military working on the front lines of the pandemic. (Must book online and provide identification at check-in.)
Partnering with local governments in several communities to provide shelter for first responders, medical professionals, other essential workers, and those who may need to quarantine.
Option to Donate Your Reward Points? Their loyalty program (My6) seems to be discount-based rather than point-based, so I don’t think there’s anything for you to donate!
Dining: Enhancing cleaning and making other changes to buffets, in-room dining, and meeting spaces, in accordance with current food safety recommendations.
Employee Policies: Additional training, protocols, and Personal Protective Equipment.
COVID-19 Outreach:
Donated hotel room nights across the U.S. to frontline medical professionals who needed a place to sleep, recharge or isolate from their families (as part of 1 Million Rooms).
Hilton Effect Foundation has pledged financial assistance to organizations to help those impacted by COVID-19.
Atwell Suites, avid, Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, EVEN, Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, InterContinental, Kimpton, Regent, Six Senses, Staybridge Suites, voco
Reservations + Cancellations:
New Book Now, Pay Later rate allows cancellations up to 24 hours before your stay, does not require a deposit, and is at least 5% less than Best Flexible Rate (which typically allows free cancellation until 6pm the day of arrival).
It’s valid for bookings made at least 3 days in advance from March 25 through September 1 with stays ending by December 30.
IHG Rewards Club members save more on Book Now, Pay Later and Best Flexible rates.
Checking In:
Reduced contact at check-in and paperless check-out.
IHG Way of Clean already includes deep cleaning with hospital-grade disinfectants.
Visible verification of sanitized items (e.g. glassware, remote control).
Reducing or changing furnishings.
Implementing new laundry protocols.
Cleaning with electrostatic technology.
Hotel Indigo, Anaheim
Dining:
Updating approach to buffets, banquets, room-service, and catering, based on official guidelines.
Some hotels have temporarily reduced restaurant and bar service.
Contact the individual hotel for specific details on dining options.
COVID-19 Outreach:
Partner to #FirstRespondersFirst, providing free accommodation across the U.S. for frontline COVID-19 workers and access to a dedicated VIP reservation service to match local needs with nearby hotels.
Working with hotels and charity partners to ease pressure on foodbanks through funding, donating excess food, and assisting with deliveries.
Option to Donate Your Reward Points? Yes, to Red Cross / Red Crescent COVID-19 relief fund.
AC Hotels, Aloft Hotels, Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard, Delta Hotels, Edition Hotels, Fairfield, Four Points by Sheraton, Gaylord Hotels, JW Marriott Hotels, Le Méridien, The Luxury Collection, Moxy Hotels, Protea Hotels, Renaissance Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, Sheraton Hotels and Resort, SpringHill Suites, W Hotels, Westin Hotels
Reservations + Cancellations:
New reservations for dates between July 6 and September 30 can be canceled at no charge up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival date.
Reservation refunds may take up to 90 days from the date of cancellation to be processed.
Checking In:
Adding partitions at check-in.
You can use the mobile app to check in, access your room (instead of a physical key!), and order room service (in over 3,200 hotels).
Common Areas:
Using electrostatic sprayers and other technology to sanitize surfaces throughout the hotel.
Cleaning surfaces more frequently and using hospital-grade disinfectants.
Installing hand sanitizing stations at hotel entrances, front desks, elevator banks, and meeting spaces.
Some lobby furniture removed or rearranged to allow more space for distancing.
Guest Rooms:
Thoroughly cleaning all surfaces with hospital-grade disinfectants.
Placing disinfecting wipes in each room.
JW Marriott, Los Angeles
Dining:
Food and beverage operations are required to conduct self-inspections for compliance to food safety standards. Results are validated by independent audits.
Designing new approaches to buffets and in-room dining.
Employee Policies:
Voluntary transition program for employees choosing to leave the company to pursue other opportunities.
The TakeCare Relief Fund (TCRF) makes need-based financial grants available to associates who are facing financial hardship.
Forming the Marriott Global Cleanliness Council with in-house and outside experts in food and water safety, hygiene and infection prevention, and hotel operations. The council will work to develop a new cleanliness standards, norms and behaviors for Marriott properties.
AC Hotel, Tucson, Arizona
COVID-19 Outreach:
Partnering with Rooms for Responders to provide hotel stays for healthcare professionals leading the fight against COVID-19 in the U.S.
Community Caregiver Program provides significantly discounted rates for first responders and healthcare professionals who want to book rooms near the hospitals where they’re working.
Some properties have been donating meals and supplies, like cleaning products, masks, gloves, anti-microbial wipes, sanitizers, and shower caps to medical and other frontline workers.
Option to Donate Your Reward Points?
Yes, to relief organizations that are active in COVID-19, including the American Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, UNICEF and World Central Kitchen.
Marriott has also said they’re working on an option for donating points to organizations focused on advancing racial equality and social justice that they will then match.
Essential workers get 15% off Best Available Rate for stays booked by September 30.
Everyday Heroes Complimentary GOLD membership upgrade for Wyndham Rewards Members who are providing essential services in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic between April 14 and September 30. (If you’re not a member, you can sign up for free.)
Option to Donate Your Reward Points? Yes, to preferred charities, many of whom are working to help those affected by COVID-19.
I took any photos requiring travel before the pandemic. The hotel interiors probably look a bit different now!
Because this virus keeps spreading across the world, carried by breath. You could inhale sickness and never know where it came from. You could exhale death and never know where it landed.
Fires burning near the top of the Santa Catalina mountains on 6/10/20.
Because wildfire keeps spreading across the mountains in Tucson. Even far from the danger, we feel its burn in our eyes and throats as we breathe in the smoke.
Because violence keeps spreading across the U.S.
When you saw that an officer would block an unarmed man’s windpipe with the weight of his knee, did you feel your own throat tighten? When you saw how quickly police would turn on the people they’re supposed to protect, did you realize you were holding your breath?
When you remembered that air can still pass into your lungs, did you wonder what it means that you’re still breathing? And what we should do now?
Some raged against the injustice by smashing windows and starting fires. Some by showing up in the morning to pick up the pieces and sweep up the glass. Some by activism and art.
Over boarded-up windows, they painted the Ben’s Bells symbol – that bright green flower shape with the words “be kind” in the center. If you’ve been to Tucson in recent years, you’ve seen it. But you might not know the project’s story, that it began as a way for founder Jeannette Maré to work through the grief of losing her son, Ben. She threw her energy into spreading kindness and making ceramic windchimes.
Art is helping us navigate this perplexing time too.
There are new murals popping up around Tucson. One that feels particularly of the moment is by Camila Ibarra on the north wall of Hotel Congress. Her portrait of a face-mask-wearing Black woman with the words “Black Lives Matter” in her natural hair has this intensity, this electricity in every brushstroke.
Muralist Joe Pagac has been connecting Black artists with downtown Tucson walls. Several murals have already gone up at MSA Annex. I was walking Quijote around there the other day and got to meet one of the artists, To-Ree’-Nee’ Wolf, who was in the process of painting an extension to her mural.
Artist To-Ree-Nee Wolf working on one of her murals.
A week after George Floyd’s death, there was a vigil in his honor outside The Dunbar Pavilion, an African American art and cultural center. There was a stage set up, where Tucsonans took turns at the mic, sharing stories of loved ones they’ve lost to police violence, about fearing for their children, about the need for grassroots change.
Because being Black in America – simply existing – puts you in more danger.
As nature photographer Gina Danza wrote, “Peace doesn’t come without worry, fear for Black womxn. There is never a moment where we can be fully at peace.”
We can’t let that continue to be the case.
Photo by The Dunbar Pavilion of candles lit in remembrance of George Floyd.
The Enough is Enough vigil wrapped up with a moment of silence – actually 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence – to remember George Floyd. As we lit candles or turned on cell phone lights to hold up, the speaker said, “When your arm starts getting tired, remember that at least you’re not on the ground with someone’s knee on your neck.”
Before leaving, people placed flowers and candles and handmade signs on a table in front of the stage, turning it into a kind of a shrine.
Smoke rising from the Bighorn Fire in the Santa Catalina mountains on 6/17/20.
Of course, the fight is far from over.
There’s been some rain, but the fire in the Catalinas isn’t out yet. There was a short reprieve, but the virus is spreading quickly. There has been some progress, but the violence hasn’t stopped.
We need to look out for each other, make sure everyone can keep breathing.
We need to be kind.
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