More Photos!!

Here's our drive from Albuquerque, NM (which sucked for the one evening we spent there, though we did have a good breakfast and Papa John's for dinner) to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in TX. We drove through Roswell, NM, thinking it would be fun to get lunch there and take pictures of crappy alien stuff, but it ended up being totally lame and everything was closed, didn't have vegetarian food, and we ended up having Subway, instead.

Once we made it to the actual park, where it was very hot, we set up our tent the shadow of the Guadalupe Mountains, which are actually the Capitan Reef, and ancient (non-coral) fossilized reef over 250 million years old. The next day (which I think was Sunday) we hiked for a few hours down the McKittrick Canyon trail (link goes to a Map). For some reason, it cost us another ten bucks to do this, but it was worth it. See, the park is part of a high-desert plateau called the Colorado Plateau (?) which makes up much of the South West, including the Grand Canyon. In addition, the park is home to some permanent spring-fed rivers, which means that in the canyons and in the high back country, this "desert" is actually pretty lush, as you can see in the photos. In fact, the foliage as you get into the canyon switches from desert shrubs to Rockies-like terrain, full of pines and oaks and maples. It's weird to see a cactus growing under the shade of a Ponderossa Pine, right next to an old Maple Tree! I should also add that the weather on this trip has been pretty amazing. Mostly very clear skies, nice days, cool evenings, but occasionally super duper hot (we had to pack in the hike after just a few hours b/c we were drenched with sweat!) and it has rained so hard that you can't see out the windshield and the car is hydroplaning all over the place, complete with massive thunder/lightening storms. Also, there have been crazy strong winds, which to a Californian like me has been really strange, since summers in Cali are so gentle. Anyway, the trip out to Austin has been good, and now we begin our search for a new apartment. More photos and stories to come, however, as we continue this adventure called life!

Still More Photos!

Here's some of the Grand Canyon, where we spent a few days. Be sure to check the three posts below for more photos from the Great Santa Cruz-to-Austin Road Trip, August 2007!

Mike.

Here

Photos!!

Photos online of our road trip, covering the time between the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park and entering New Mexico... see also photos posted in the two posts below this one.

Enjoy!

here

Photos!!

Photos online of our road trip, covering the time between the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park and entering New Mexico... see also photos posted in the two posts below this one.

Enjoy!

here

Just as promised

... well, I couldn't post just that one photo (in the next post down) and let it be, could I?! So here's a few more from the Grand Canyon. About the pictures of California Condors at the bottom of this post... we were walking around the South Rim of the GC, and we happened to see a huge (I mean, 6-ft. wingspan huge) bird fly overhead. Noting the black/white patterning on the underside of his wings, I knew it was a Calif. Condor, one of the most endangered bird species on the planet. We ran to the edge where we could see him flying around, and over the course of an hour, noticed 6 or 7 different birds (distinguished by their numbers). We later found out that only 306 such birds exist anywhere, so seeing a half-dozen of them all at once, in the wild and scavenging for food was a real treat. I can't explain how thrilling it was to seem them in their natural environment and not in a cage at the San Diego Zoo. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

More to Come...

More of this to come when we get to Austin, but here's a teaser of the truly amazing Grand Canyon. I only wish we could have stayed longer, but Austin is calling and we need to find a place to live!

 

Akashi Yaki

Japanese fast food in Kyoto and a huge crab. Enjoy.

New Road Trip Map

I've had to slightly change our trip from the map shown in the previous post below since there are not camping spots at White Sands National Monument. Instead, we'll be camping at the Grand Canyon, driving through the AZ Petrified Forest, staying at a hotel in Albuquerque, driving through White Sands, camping at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and camping at Big Bend National Park in TX before arriving in Austin. Where we'll stay in Austin, I have no idea, yet. Maybe we'll find some youth hostel to crash at for a few days while we look for apartments.... Enjoy the map, and keep your browsers tuned in here for more details and pictures from the trip, which begins in about 10 days!