Continuing on a southwesterly trajectory through the “Valley of the Sun”, we enter Phoenix and proceed to the Desert Botanical Gardens. This is a museum which showcases desert plants from all over the world, including a large variety from the local Sonoran Desert.
I was quite surprised to see just how tall some of these cactus [...]
Greetings from Arizona! We had a splendid relaxing drive back from Washington, though we didn’t take many pictures along the return trip.
My traveling companion lives just outside of Phoenix, so he thought he would show me around town a bit, starting with the winter home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale.
It was designed [...]
After visiting the Grand Canyon, we headed towards Las Vegas, stopping at the impressively massive Hoover Dam.
It’s depressing to see how far the water levels have fallen here, a symptom of the ongoing drought in the Southwest.
Note the light colored banding on the rocks indicating where the waterline used to be.
There’s also a new highway [...]
After visiting Winslow, we decided to reverse direction and head west to Williams, Arizona. There we boarded a train to journey to one of the greatest natural wonders in the world – the Grand Canyon!
My traveling companion upgraded us to seats in the observation car for a better view along the way.
The locals were very [...]
The next stop along the journey brought us to the city of Winslow, Arizona. This town sits along the Historic Route 66, and was a major stop for rail passengers in the golden days of rail travel. We traveled here to visit the La Posada hotel, a recently restored Harvey House which served rail passengers [...]
I thought it a bit strange when my traveling companion wanted to visit a big hole in the ground. It turns out that this “hole” is the best preserved meteor impact crater in the world, and was used for Apollo astronaut training.
It’s amazing to see how large this crater is compared to the tour group [...]
The next stop on our road trip was the scenic Oak Creek Canyon. We actually drove through the canyon from Sedona to reach this overlook, and you can see the road in the canyon below.
Hmm. Looks like there are some active birds of prey in this area. I’d better keep an eye on them.
I continue [...]
Greetings! I was feeling a bit homesick, so I have returned to the states for the next leg of my journey. I decided to visit the beautiful state of Arizona, after seeing many photos and descriptions in my travel magazines.
Here I am in the picturesque city of Sedona, overlooking a formation known as Cathedral Rock.
I [...]
