ramblings of a Seattle travel, food and photography hound
Time was running out to visit White Sands National Monument. The New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo and nearby pistachio farms took up most of our day. In a few hours, it would soon be dark. When my wife and I were there in 2011, White Sands was a national monument. Only in... Continue Reading →
The American Southwest has its share of hardy plants that evolved to survive punishingly dry and hot conditions. The ocotillo is as spiny as any cactus, although it isn't one itself. They sort of look like tall dead sticks splaying out from the ground, but they produce beautiful red blossoms after a rain. Look closely... Continue Reading →
People are fascinated with dinosaurs. I'm one of them. Like for most people, it all started out when I was a kid. I learned all I could about T-Rex, triceratops, stegosaurus, brontosaurus, diplodocus. When Life magazine published its groundbreaking illustrations that appeared in an early 1950s issue, they grabbed my attention from the start. With... Continue Reading →
The idleberry pie ranks as one of America's great pies. It's served deliciously warm at Idle Isle Cafe in Brigham City, Utah, a dessert for which I'd deliberately hold back on the main course to make room for it. A la mode, with scoops of their excellent vanilla ice cream, it serves henceforth as a reason to make... Continue Reading →
What do dinosaurs, pizza and Israel have it common? Trick question. The city of Vernal is close to Dinosaur National Monument, located in the little visited corner of northeastern Utah, the state with the most bang for the National Park Service buck. The monument has 1,500 dinosaur bone fossils on display in situ, making it a... Continue Reading →
It's been over 30 years since we'd been to the Grand Canyon, much too long to stay away from perhaps Earth's greatest geologic wonder. We made a last-minute decision to come here, only three days before, after we altered our itinerary to go back home in order to avoid dust storms in central Arizona. Granted,... Continue Reading →
Fifty thousand years ago, a meteor slammed into what is now Arizona. The size of the meteor is estimated to have been 50m across and released energy equal to a 10-megaton bomb. Today, the crater is about 550 feet deep and 2.5 miles in circumference. We visited the impact site, called Meteor Crater, scientifically known... Continue Reading →
Along Highway 28 south of Las Cruces stretch miles and miles of pecan trees. The groves alongside the road seem to provide a beautiful arched gateway to the Stahmann Farms store. The farm, nestled among cotton fields, now numbers 4,000 acres and 96,000 trees. There are no guided tours here but the country store shows... Continue Reading →
Our final night of camping on this road trip was spent at City of Rocks State Park, north of Deming in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert, a unique, surreally beautiful area where every campsite is nestled among huge boulders. City of Rocks features a wide field of boulders created 35 million years ago when... Continue Reading →
Neither of us has ever been to Carlsbad Caverns. We set aside three whole days to explore it since its remoteness in the southeast corner of New Mexico makes it unlikely we'd ever have an opportunity to return. This remoteness is the reason that, although its wonders are many, far fewer visitors show up than... Continue Reading →
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