2011 - Golden Ears Park, Arizona and New Mexico

My Flickr site for more pictures - 

Golden Ears Park Hikes
Location of entrance to Golden Ears Park

To have places to enjoy and savor so close by, and friends to go with is a very enjoyable thing.

Arizona and New Mexico - - A Photographic Road Trip

- UTube Video of the Trip

Ken Willis, Chuck McCafferty, and I had such a good time last year in Utah and Arizona, we decided to go again, but this time we decided to fly to Phoenix, rent a car, and visit some sites in eastern Arizona and New Mexico. Just south of Tucson, we visited the San Xavier Mission (picture 2) the Titan Missile Museum, the PIMA Space and Aviation Museum, and the Saguaro National Park

We then drove into New Mexico and went into the White Sands National Monument. It is next to Holloman airforce base, and is also close to the White Sands Missile Test Range, so hearing sonic booms is just another interesting feature to this amazing landscape of gypsum dunes. We had a very good time in the late afternoon light doing photography , learning a little about the local yucca plants, and meeting a couple from the eastern states.

Ken and Chuck meet a kindred spirit at the White Sands

We spent the night in Alamogordo and the next day we drove to southern New Mexico to see the Carlsbad Caves.  The walk down from the surface to the depths of the cave was very much worthwhile. That afternoon we drove to Roswell to get a motel and see the alien museum. The only thing that Roswell has going for it is the museum. Housed in an old theatre, the museum contains an assortment of newspaper articles, an ongoing movie based on the "Roswell Incident", and various other displays that sometimes do little more than make one even more skeptical. Then again, you never know. 

Ken points out proof of alien life, ..... or something

Since we had all seen the movie "Contact" and both enjoyed Carl Sagan's books and Jodie Foster's acting, we had to go and visit the "Very Large Array".

One of the many dishes used in the array, in for repairs.

From there, we drove to Albuquerque to find a motel. We didn't get there until after dark. We got our motel sorted out and found a good Mexican restaurant. The next morning, we wandered down the street from our motel to the old part of Albuquerque and found it an interesting place. 

Old Town Albuquerque

From there we drove highway 14 - the "Turquoise Trail" to Sante Fe. The town of Madrid, yes Madrid, made for an interesting stop. It seemed to offer a mixture of old mining town artifacts, very old buildings worn down by time, an artistic community, and aging people who have found that the 60s and 70s have finally caught up with them.
We knew this was going to be a long day so after a short stop, we drove on through Sante Fe to Taos. After checking into a tourist information office, we drove west to the Earthship community west of town. It is interesting to see a group of dedicated people trying to live "off the grid". 
We made our way back to Taos, checked out the San Francisco de Asis Mission Church there, and decided we should drive on to Farmington in north western New Mexico if we were going to keep to our schedule. Needless to say it was a long drive into the night made entertaining by a driving snow storm on the high plateau highways east of Farmington.

The bridge crossing the Rio Grande west of Taos

From Farmington, we wanted to visit the Bisti Badlands and Shiprock. The weather was bright, but chilly as the elevation was still around 4000 ft.We had a very enjoyable day, bundled in our jackets, photographing the strange shapes.

Chuck enjoys the Bisti Badlands

Shiprock is the inside of a volcano.
The ridge to the left is the result of lava pushed up through a narrow crack in the earth.
Quite the sight!

We then pushed on to "Four Corners" where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona meet. The actual sight is surrounded on four sides by souvenir vendors. But tacky they are not. Being on native land, the souvenirs are sold by native Americans and the crafts they were selling we often beautiful and of very high quality. Well worth the visit. I got another reminder of how good Chuck and Ken are at getting to know other people when I was talking to a couple of women at a stall. When I explained that I was with two other guys, they immediately responded " You mean Chuck and Ken?", like they were long time friends. You have to know Chuck to really appreciate what I am getting at. :-) The next sight on our list was Canyon de Chelly National Monument just east of Chinle. We wanted to see "Spider Rock" in the eastern part of the area, then hike down into the canyon and see the "White House" made famous by Ansel Adams. Being lower now, it was an enjoyable warm walk down a well maintained trail.

Canyon de Chelly

The next day, we drove south and spent some time at the Petrified Forest National Park, then drove west and made a stop at Meteor Crater between Winslow and Flagstaff.

Chuck trying to get it all in at Meteor Crater

Chapel of the Holy Cross - Sedona

Before flying out of Phoenix, our last stop was Sedona. Rich green pine forests contrasting against red cliff faces, the Tlaquepaque area of expensive shops with some very interesting art work, and new age "energy vortexes"on the tourist maps helped to make Sedona an interesting place. One that I would be willing to go back to. Even that middle aged "caretaker" packing a real six shooter at the airportviewpoint in the evening wouldn't deter me.

And Les, thanks for that Singh Ray filter. :-)