Today's post covers a few of my "driving days", spanning the AZ/Nevada border almost to the AZ/New Mexico border. One of my favorite aspects of driving in Arizona was that sometimes I'd top a hill and see what seemed to be the whole of North America laying and waiting for me to explore it.
So...it turns out that once you've held petrified wood in your hand as a kid and marveled that it's a rock that looks like wood, the novelty wears off. The Petrified Forest consists of essentially what you see above.
Hiking into the Painted Desert
Come on, the water's fine!
Lady, you don't need a telescope. the crater is literally right there. This is at the Winslow Crater, where I was tragically denied the opportunity to hike around the rim. Tours stop at three.
The Pat Shipman Memorial Bridge, over the Colorado River
The Hoover Dam, spanning the Colorado River
And Lake Mead, formed by frustrated Colorado River water.
spectacular photos! it all looks like basaltic country more or less: central and eastern oregon resembles it in some respects: the painted hills picture could have been taken near Mitchell; the colors and variegated strata are similar...
ReplyDeleteI had no idea Oregon had that kind of terrain! I always imagine it as mountains, forests, and flanneled bicyclists drinking Starbucks. The latter is based mostly on Portland, though...
ReplyDeletethe east side of oregon on other side of the cascade mtns. is desert; the west side has the fertile willamette valley and coast range that runs along beside the pacific ocean. we live in the coast range near the columbia river.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful, your photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed them! Will post GC stuff this week. I have been (and still am) out of town dogsitting, and don't have PC access. I could do it from my phone, but am not sure how the formatting would look. I'd prefer to do that sort of thing with a big screen!
DeleteBy the time I arrived and paid $10 for parking and $10 to get into the museum I was rather grumpy and had zero interest in paying $30 more for a tour. I just wanted to leave! The crowds and security were not my idea of a vacation -- there's a reason I go to the desert and not New York!
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