I’m back home, and glad to be here. The trip was good, but not great (too much driving!) I did take a few photos in El Paso, so click the link if you care to see them.

These are the two parakeets at my grandparents’ house. They are beautiful, but very shy.

Anyone know what kind they are?

Cactus in bloom

Purple cactus (there’s a lot of this in Sedona)

Desert plants

The Charcoaler is sort of an El Paso landmark. Every time I’m there, I must get a burger with extra sauce and onion rings.

That’s all for my trip photos — hope you enjoyed a few of them!

Today we drove all the way from Gallup to Santa Fe… and what a long drive
that was. We didn’t actually stop in Santa Fe, either — we kept going to Los
Alamos. There we visited the Bradbury Science Museum, which tells the story
of the town and the horrible weapons created there. Once that was done we took
a loop around town and headed back to Santa Fe. The town itself is cute, but
a little underwhelming. It reminds me of Carmel, just with desert instead of
ocean.

Pics from today after the link.

Los Alamos

The view from the road to Los Alamos

This is Fat Man, which was used in the Trinity test and for bombing Nagasaki
in WWII. It’s an implosion type plutonium weapon. As its name implies, it’s
big.

This is a crummy picture of Little
Boy, which was dropped on Hiroshima.
I have to admit that it was a little eerie looking at these things, even if
they were replicas.

Santa Fe

This architectural style is typical of Santa Fe

As is this

St. Francis Cathedral dates back to 1886

Inside

I really like this shot

I believe this is Loretto Chapel

San Miguel Mission is the oldest operating church in the country

It’s off to El Paso next… not sure if I’ll be taking any pictures there.

Today we drove from Sedona all the way to Gallup, New Mexico via Interstate 40, and a bit of Route 66. We stopped at Walnut Canyon
National Monument as well as Petrified Forest National Park. Click the link
to see plenty of photos!

Walnut Canyon

Looking across Walnut Canyon at one of the cliff dwellings

The Sinagua Indians built their houses under natural rock overhangs

A small door, but apparently these Indians were only about 5′5" tall

The walls of their homes were made of mud and limestone

On the dry side of the canyon (lower right) you had desert plants. On the wet
side there were things like pine trees.

Petrified Forest / Painted Desert

Here we are now at Petrified Forest Nat’l Park. Those are pieces of petrified
wood.

Here’s a big "tree". They’re actually not trees at all anymore. Millions of years
ago they were covered by sediment, where they slowly rotted. Silica took the
place of organic material, and over time it became quartz. The different colors
come from the impurities in the silica.

A closer look. Unfortunately the area has been pillaged continuously since
it was discovered over a hundred years ago, so a lot of the good rocks are
gone. They even inspect some cars on the way out making sure that you didn’t
take anything home with you.

We saw a few of these guys (collared lizard, I think). Look how long his tail
is relative to the rest of his body.

Different rock, different lizard

Petrified wood with the Painted Desert in the background

225 million years ago this must’ve been some tree

The badlands of the Painted Desert

The Agate Bridge is a petrified log that crosses this little chasm. As you can
probably tell, it’s now supported by concrete.

The Tepees

Petroglyphs from a long time ago. I actually took this one from quite a distance
– thank you 12X zoom lens!

More petroglyphs

And one more for good measure

Painted Desert

Pretty amazing scenery!

Up next: Santa Fe!

As promised, here’s the first set of photos from my Southwest trip. It’s all
Sedona and vicinity in this update — so hit the link to enjoy the incredible
beauty of Northern Arizona.

Photos are presented in chronological order. They were taken with the Panasonic
Lumix DMC-FZ8.

Sedona is famous for its red rocks

This bridge crosses Oak Creek

Oak Creek Canyon with Sedona in the distance

While not as numerous, there are still red rocks in Oak Creek Canyon

A meadow in what seemed to be an old orchard

Flowers on the fruit (?) trees in the old orchard

We think these are cottonwood trees

Unusual plant growth on Oak Creek

Okay, now we’re at Red Rock State Park on the other side of Sedona. These little
guys were chowing down near the visitors center.

I took a whole bunch of hummingbird pics, and this one’s my favorite

Red rocks

No Photoshop effects here! Quite a contrast in colors, eh?

Desert flora

Back in town now, with yet more red rocks

Quite a backyard…

Nice overview of the area

This chapel is built into the rocks…

Talk about a religious experience! And it is just me, or does this thing look
like a giant Nintendo
Wii?

Sedona near sunset

And here is the sunset… not all that great by Southwest standards.

Very cool glass art in an upscale shopping center. Yeah, I know it doesn’t fit
it, but I like it!

Up next: I-40 across Arizona!