Photo: Fountain Hills from a Distance

If you look closely in the center of this photo, you can see that the fountain that gives Fountain Hills its name was erupting.  It erupts for 15 minutes every hour, reaching a "normal" height of 300 feet (91 m), although it has he capacity at full throttle to reach 560 feet (171 m) high.

When the fountain was first installed in 1970, it was the world's tallest fountain.  It is now fourth.  It makes about as much sense to install the world tallest fountain in the Arizona desert as it does to reconstruct the London Bridge in Arizona, and both were the projects of Robert McCulloch of the chainsaw company that bears his name, who was a developer of both Fountain Hills and Lake Havasu, Arizona.

My stop son, Stuart, took this photo while on a hike in the McDowell Mountains, which border Scottsdale on the northeast.  Fountain Hills is a suburb right over the other side of the mountains.

This week we are showing photos of Raboul, Papua New Guinea on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  It is the former capitol, but has been destroyed by volcanic eruptions.

Photo: Fountain Hills Fountain

Here is a photo of the famous Fountain Hills fountain of water.

As you can see from the photo, the water shoots high in the air, higher than the tall palm tees.

This fountain goes high in the air and is the World's fourth tallest fountain. It goes up 560 feet (170 meters). It is about the height of the Washington Monument.

Enjoy our travel photos of my river raft trip down the Grand Canyon at Viva la Voyage!

Photo: Fountain Hills from a distance

There is something remarkable in the center of this photo. The giant fountain that gives Fountain Hills its name is visible from about 10 miles away.

The fountain was installed in an artificial lake in 1970 by Robert McCulloch, one year before he bought the London Bridge and moved it, piece to Lake Havasu, Arizona. The fountain operates every hour on the hour.

When it was installed, it was the highest fountain in the world, although it is now the 4th highest. It can reach of 560 ft (170 m), about the same height as the Washington Monument. It usually shoots water 300 ft (91 m) high, as usually they fire up just two of the fountain's three 600-horsepower engines. The fountain shoots 7,000 gallons (26,000 liters) of water per hour.

Fountain Hills is a suburb, just over a ridge from Scottsdale. This view is from the road to Four Peaks looking back.

This week we are showing photos of the architecture and theater district of Chicago on ourViva la Voyage travel photo site.