Photography, Fun, and Adventure in the U.S.
We spent two days in Death Valley National Park, the fourth on our quest to see all 47 national parks in the 48 continental United States. (Alaska and Hawaii and the other 12 parks will come on later adventures.) Death Valley is unique in its size, geology, and age. The
Our advice is forget Vegas with all its traffic, smoke, and ugliness, and instead, head west of sin-city for two distinctly different, yet wonderful adventures in nature: Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Ash Meadows NWR is most certainly a hidden gem, tucked away
Our final stop in Arizona took us to Kingman, in the northwestern part of the state, another town along Historic Route 66. We were expecting a small town — since so many towns along the old highway are small or practically ghost towns — but Kingman is a city, a
What was going to be our last stop in Arizona ended up being our second to last, but what a fun and heart-warming adventure we had… especially after encountering the wild burros who lived just across the river from the state park where we camped. That river was the Colorado
Before researching this trip, we knew nothing about Arizona wines; did not even know people could and were growing grapes. But grapes seem to especially like the parts of Arizona’s high desert weather conditions, referred to as the Diurnal Effect — the huge swing in temperatures between day and night. They
We spent two weeks based at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in beautiful Cottonwood, AZ, and visited so many amazing things that this post may be the longest we ever create. By the way, Old Town Cottonwood and Dead Horse Ranch are worth visits for the wines and hiking, respectively.
Ah… the Badlands of northern Arizona! It’s truly difficult to describe the beauty of what you’ll find at the Petrified Forest National Park, but the best advice we have is make sure you take the scenic drive that goes from gate to gate; in our case, we entered the northern
Well, Stop 4 did not go exactly as planned with the three-day Federal government shutdown, but we did get to drive into a visit with a wonderful friend and took advantage of local conservationists to still get in our hikes and nature. We happily stayed in Paradise Valley, outside of
One of the most beautiful parks in the United States, and certainly in Arizona, is not even a park, but a national monument. The Chiricahua National Monument southeast of Willcox, at an elevation of 5,400 feet (rising to 7,310 on Sugarloaf Mountain) offers a collection of rock pinnacles (from the
Wow. Lots to say about our second stop, so please keep reading. The Sonoran Desert is simply amazing, covering all of southern Arizona (as well as parts of California, New Mexico, and Mexico) for a total of 100,000 square miles. It is the hottest of all North American deserts, yet