2018 City of Rocks SP, NM

Earlier this  month I had the chance to stop for a few nights at City of Rocks SP north of Deming, NM. Several friends have stayed there and their reports have always been good ones so I wanted to experience the place. What a nice state park, sites are good sized, generally not close together and best of all they are close to or set in among the rocks.

I took a few images during the day then got out the evening of the full moon to capture the

Moonlight on the rocks

moonlight on the rocks. I don’t often get such interesting foreground lit by the moon so it was fun.

 

The last night I was there there was enough time before the moon rose to capture the glory of the stars in a really dark sky. I used a light to paint the rocks just a bit.  The zodiacal light was visible, too, and since it is a rare thing it was really nice to capture it with the rocks.

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2018 Arizona mixed

AZ sunset

This trip to Arizona has been great fun. It’s always nice to see a spectacular sunset

Rattlesnakes, these are used for snake proofing dogs. My Blue Heeler, Concho, is now snake proofed .

and my friends house in Buckeye seems to be a prime place for them. One Saturday we went to a nearby ranch were a man was doing snake avoidance training for dogs.

On evening at that same friend’s place we watched some team ropers practice. Taking photos under the lights was a challenge but fun, too.

Team roping evening practice

My Casita at the rally at Quartzite, Dome Rock in the distance

 

From Buckeye I went to the fiberglass RV rally at Quartzite where friends from all around the country gathered. Then I went south to spend a few days in the Yuma area. Lots of cultivation there with some huge cabbages ready for picking.

A friend with her yearling Arabian colt at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show.

Back in Buckeye we went to the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show one morning to see a friend show her colt.

My friend found out about a Mexican Cabalgata that was scheduled for Saturday morning so we went. What an interesting event to attend. When we got there the landowner came over to welcome us. As the Caballeros arrived with their horses

A caballero on his horse

it became apparent this is quite an event for them. I was watching it all with my camera in hand and a couple of the caballeros came over and spoke with me. I learned that the horses that really caught my eyes do have Andalusian blood (not surprising when you see them). As the morning progressed the band tuned up and started playing and more and more horses & riders arrived. Cabalgata loosely means horse procession from what I understand. Unlike the Arabian show where so much seems artificial, horses, preparation, presentation, etc. these horses and riders were natural. The horses were beautifully clean but

Caballero and his steed heading into the desert.

not otherwise enhanced (if they were it was impossible to see). Their actions were natural to them, not exaggerated. All in all it was a delight to see them and watch them in action and to see the caballeros on them. The camaraderie was apparent and the lack of competition refreshing.

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2018 AZ Balloon Classic

Every wonder how a hot air balloon gets from its bag to up in the air? Last Saturday I had a chance to see the process. While the balloons never flew they were all inflated and most impressive in the dark. The Classic was held close to where I’m camped at a friend’s so we went over to spend the evening and see what we could learn. I expected that spectators would be held back by fences, kept away from the balloons but not so. We were able to get up close and watch as the baskets/gondolas were moved into place, the deflated balloons unfurled and spread out then inflated. It was an interesting process and really takes quite a crew to get it all done. Needless to say putting them away is another process that involves a good crew.

As the evening progressed and it got darker the balloons really did glow. There were close to 20 balloons at this event. It was such fun to see and photograph them and now I have a new appreciation of the work that goes into managing a hot air balloon. I imagine the camaraderie the balloonists have is similar to what we Casita folks or photographers have. A common bond we all enjoy.

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2018, Whitewater Draw

This January trip west was delayed in southern LA by an ice storm. Sitting it out until I 12 and I 10 were opened in a mall parking lot behind a Cracker Barrel was interesting. After setting up a solar panel I made the best of the record breaking cold as I watched the area fill with 18 wheelers. Nearly 32 hours later we all got back on the road and the trip west to AZ was uneventful.

Once in AZ I stopped at Whitewater Draw to spend some time observing the Sandhill Cranes that winter there. The cranes number in the thousands and have a very different schedule than those I watched in Bosque del Apache over two years ago. IT was cold in AZ, too, but worth it to see the birds. 

I got to see a Vermillion Flycatcher, watch some handsome ducks and a Killdeer, too. 

2017 Joshua Tree NP

Last February I passed through Joshua Tree NP (couldn’t stop because the campgrounds were full) and decided I’d have to visit it again. Last month I was able to do that and really enjoyed it. I found a great site with a huge rock on the back side of it in the small Belle campground.Turned out that rock is popular with climbers so I got to watch a few folks scaling it. 

Though the days were cloudless there was enough of a breeze so it was never uncomfortably hot. The town of 29 Palms (with some shopping) and the visitor center were not too far away. Late in the day I went out and got a few images then I went out at night and got more.

The moon was waxing so between that and the ambient light from large cities west of the park the Milky Way wasn’t very visible but I  made do. The moonlight on some of the rocks with the north end of the Milky Way made for some interesting images. 

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2017 Arizona Rambling

From the Grand Canyon I headed south to Sedona where I had a reservation at Cave Spring CG. That is about 7-9 miles north of downtown Sedona in the lovely Oak Creek Canyon. Sedona itself is a bit of a hassle, full of tourists (like me) and a single 2 lane road through it. The rock formations around the town are wonderful but not easy to get to. I did take one road up to a trailhead and got a few images, the rest were taken through the windshield with my trusty Canon P&S.

I grew up in a location much like Sedona and decided after a day or two I needed to get out. I headed west and found a small campground at the top of Mingus Mountain with the unlikely name of Potato Patch CG. At that elevation the aspens were turning, it was quiet and only about 1/3 full so I stayed a few days just relaxing with the dogs. No cell signal at the campground but if I drove further up the mountain on a gravel road I could get a signal and had an awesome view of the sunset, too.

One day when I was walking the dogs we came across what I think was a Tarantula (my first) on the pavement. It was only about 1.5″ across but I kept the dogs away from it and hustled to get my camera before it disappeared into the grass.

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2017 Grand Canyon

From Utah I traveled the Grand Canyon. I got to the Desert View campground(a new one for me) before noon on a Wednesday and was able to get a very nice site. This campground is small, 50 sites, all paved with a nice bathroom and plenty of water spigots. It’s also quiet and sort of out of the way compared to the much larger campgrounds in the park. I’ve spent time at the Grand Canyon before, so I didn’t take a lot of images here. Tried to get some night images, though. When I first got here the moon was full and lit up the canyon.

One of the great things about this campground is that it is away from the central/busy part of the park. I can stand outside my trailer after dark and see the Milky Way from one end to the other in the sky above me, a fantastic sight.

As time went on the moon came up later and I was able to get a few images with the Milky Way over the canyon. Needless to say the canyon doesn’t make much of a foreground, being a big black hole so one night I took my high power spotlight with me and tried lighting up the nearby canyon walls at a couple of overlooks.

I did take a few daytime images, but except for one day the skies where totally cloudless which makes for pretty harsh light.

 

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