Southwest Sojourn 2004
This year, we've taken a couple trips so far.
In mid-May, we Made a road trip down through Arizona, stopping overnight
at the Grand Canyon (first visit for me). From there, visited
various views along the rim, and stopped at the
Little Colorado River
Canyon, before we came down through Flagstaff, then drove through the
Petrified National Forest (no photos from here though). (We also
got the best mileage to date in our new '04
Toyota Prius, between the Grand
Canyon and Albuquerque, about 53mpg, without stopping to refuel.)
After that, it was a week in Albuquerque,
visiting with the in-laws and with friends from the area.
While in town, we visited
Sandia Crest, but
couldn't do much there for two reasons: (1) Gale force
clear-weather winds, making it difficult even to stand up and (2)
altitude sickness. Before
we'd walked a hundred yards at the nearly 11k altitude, my thighs were burning
and I felt nauseous as all hell. There's one photo from there,
then it seemed the better part of valor to head to a more reasonable
atmospheric pressure (that is to say, downhill).
Finally, our big trip was up the
Jemez valley,
so named for the Native American tribe which has a Pueblo up that way. We saw the
Soda Dam (as well as hot springs
nearby),
Battleship Rock, the
Valles Caldera (one of the largest
volcanoes known, happens to be visible from space), and finally
Bandelier National Monument.
Once again, all photos were taken with the Fuji
Finepix digital camera.
Click on the thumbnails to see the photos; most are 300-500kb in size
for the download. As with the other photos, if you're looking at
these and see any you like, and would be interested in seeing the
full-resolution versions, email me. I also have many more that
weren't quite as good as these ones.
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Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Trail at sunset (all photos in series are from the South Rim) |
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Grand Canyon - Outcropping at sunset |
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Grand Canyon - Rock face at sunset |
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Grand Canyon - Another outcropping, south rim, at sunset |
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Grand Canyon - Rock formations, sunrise |
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Grand Canyon - Colorado River, as seen from the south rim |
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Grand Canyon - another view of the Colorado River, far below |
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Little Colorado River - black and white photo from tributary to the main canyon |
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Little Colorado River - Different view of same tributary canyon |
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City of Albuquerque, as seen from Sandia Crest. In the middle part of the picture, winds are kicking up dust storms near the airport & Kirtland AFB |
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New Mexico, Jemez Valley - The Soda Dam, a natural formation created by hot-springs |
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NM, Jemez Valley - Inside the Soda Dam's cave. The formation in the middle is contains water. |
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NM, Jemez Valley - Yep, that's me at the Soda Dam, inside that cave. |
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NM, Jemez Valley - Battleship Rock, view from one side. |
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NM, Jemez Valley - Battleship Rock, view from another angle. |
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New Mexico, Bandelier National Monument - Restored Pueblo remnants, plus the gorgeous eroded mesa walls |
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New Mexico, Bandelier - More eroded rock formations |
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New Mexico, Bandelier - The valley floor village remnants, as restored by the Park Service |
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New Mexico, Bandelier - Another interesting mesa cliff, deeply eroded |
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New Mexico, Bandelier - Another view of an eroded rock outcropping, plus one part of the village |
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