I went to Saguaro as a day trip, and I am going to be honest with you about it. It was really pretty. I took a beautiful hike through the cacti and I drove the eight-mile loop on the east side. And that is about what I have. Nothing in particular stuck out. I was on a bit [...]
I did not plan to write about this place. I came here to sleep near White Sands. It turned out to be its own thing entirely, and one of the better nights — and worse nights — I have had in a tent. Where it is, and the view Aguirre Spring sits on the east side of the [...]
I visited White Sands on a very gray day. Which meant the sky and the ground were all just about the same color, and it was even more disorienting than I had expected. Everybody photographs this place blazing white under a hard blue sky. That is the picture you have seen. I did not get that picture. I [...]
I freaking loved Petroglyph. Start at the visitor center, and I mean it Petroglyph is in Albuquerque - a monument co-managed by the National Park Service and the City of Albuquerque. The visitor center is separate from all the places you actually go to see the petroglyphs. There are no petroglyphs at the visitor center at all. That sounds [...]
Petrified Forest is a perfect stop along Route 66! The shape of the day Petrified Forest is predominantly a driving tour. Twenty-eight miles of road through the park, with stops all the way along where you get out and look at what is there. Be realistic about those 28 miles...it takes quite a while, especially when you want to [...]
My experience I stopped at Organ Pipe Cactus after a weather detour sent me from Zion down toward southern California. This was early in my trip. I was so new to the routine and still trying to work out what worked for me. Gosh, I still had the tiny tent that required me to squirm around on my [...]
I walked out to the South Rim, saw the Grand Canyon for the first time in my life, and thought: yeah, that's what it looks like in the pictures. My own reaction surprised me. I had expected to be levelled by it. I have thought about it a lot since, and I do not think the problem was [...]
