Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Nature: Asserting its dominance since the dawn of time


Every once in a while, I'm struck by the notion that this land is not ours. Of course, that's obvious when something like Japan, Indonesia, Haiti, or New Orleans happens. But it never strikes me until I'm standing before nature myself, even though the impacts that I see with my own eyes pale in comparison to the aforementioned catastrophes.

It hit me when I was standing in Pompeii looking toward Mt. Vesuvius. People who stood in that exact spot before fell to the whim of that cantankerous beast. That I could stand there then is only because the volcano allowed me to.

And last night, as I walked down to the newly expanded Mississippi River, I was in awe of how she just takes what she wants and anybody with good sense gets out of her way when she does so. This isn't even a particularly bad flood; everything that is flooded now floods every year. That's the nature of the river, and if we want to live here, we have to do so around it.

And it's so very tempting to kayak down the bike path. Too bad I don't own a kayak.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Land of Enchantment all over the place

I had such a good time last year (the Lake is a Lie incident excluded ;^) that I decided to do another epic driving vacation this year. We have an awesomely beautiful country (unless you're not from the US, in which case I'm sure your country is perfectly lovely as well). This year I decided to venture to the southwest, where I've never set foot before.

March 5-8 were spent in Albuquerque, which is the only place to which I've ever traveled and thought "I could totally live here." The photo below is from Old Town, which is basically where you go to give Albuquerque all of your money.


On March 6, I ventured up to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, where I hiked through the very aptly named Slot Canyon. These were some pretty spectacular rock formations.


On March 7th, a friend and I went to Petroglyphs National Monument which is a 1-mile hike along rocks decorated with ancient petroglyphs and more modern graffiti art. Our hatred of vandals intensified throughout the walk. Specifically, some guy named Tom.


Later that day, we went to the aquarium in Albuquerque, which was perfectly lovely but had nothing on the parking lot of said aquarium. For the parking lot contained a road runner! And he ran right at me! He didn't catch me, though, for he is neither as large as he appears on TV nor a coyote.


I woke up in the slightly wee hours of March 8 to drive to Arizona where there was, shockingly enough, snow. Maybe an inch. Enough to leave semis and cars strewn about the ditches in its wake. In any case, I made my way to Petrified Forest National Park, which includes a goodly portion of the Painted Desert and is very scenic. This park was largely a driving park; there are only a few short hiking trails and a lot of the petrified wood has been stolen/vandalized. The top photo is of the Painted Desert with a bit of snow, and the bottom photo shows a petrified log sitting atop the rocks.



On March 9th, I was able to make a photo tour at Tonto National Monument, which features two sets of ye olde cliff dwellings. The upper cliff dwellings (where we hiked to) are only available by guided tour. Thanks again, vandals. Once again, the views were spectacular and made it entirely worth the long slog to the top. It was especially refreshing to be on a tour where I could take as much time as I wanted to set up and take photos.



I stayed in Tucson that night, which was very close to my next stop on March 10: Saguaro National Park, which is very fun to say. Here I took a guided tour about desert life in the saguaro forest. It was really interesting and I saw this really befuddled saguaro below:



I drove to Las Cruces for the night and saw this in my rearview mirror, so had to stop to take a photo of it.


March 11th was all about the White Sand. I went to the missile range first and then on to White Sands National Monument, where I plopped down on a nice, cool dune and stared out at the other dunes for close to an hour. Very soothing and beautiful and all that. I was able to be on the dunes for sunset that night, which I highly recommend!



I spent the night in El Paso, which was the first time I've ever been in Texas. I wasn't there for too long, though. I had to get up to drive in the morning before the sun even rose. It was a beautiful sunrise, though!


The reason for my early rising was that I had a 10:00 tour at Slaughter Canyon, which is a part of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. There was a 45-minute hike to the canyon entrance, so I had to leave plenty of time for that. the hike was pretty brutal. It was a 500-ft elevation gain over half a mile. The cave was not the greatest one I've been in. The floor was very slippery and there was a lot of evidence of guano mining, which is not a good thing. The features all had black goo on them from motorized equipment being used there, despite regulations not allowing it. Still, the columns below were pretty impressive (I included people for scale).

After Slaughter Canyon, I went back into Texas to see Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I only did a couple hours of hiking here. It's definitely more geared toward all-day and multi-day hiking. It looks like a beautiful place to be if you have more time.


After Guadalupe, I went back into New Mexico to the main cave at Carlsbad, which at that time was only accessible by elevator (the natural entrance closes after a certain hour to ensure that there's time to exit before the park closes). I descended 750 ft into the Big Room, which was pretty impressive, but it was a lot more touristy than the other caves I've been to. There was a paved path all the way around and the cave was lit. There were certainly some interesting formations, but I may have been caved out by this time. :^)

I stayed in Roswell that night (no UFO sightings), and then headed back up to Albuquerque for my last day. On the last night, Lael and I took the tram to the top of Sandia Peak to catch the sunset. The sunset was okay, but the view was still fabulous. This is Albuquerque from the top of the tram:

This vacation was completely exhausting, but I would do it all again!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Slowly whittling away at my lists.

It's a fun list to whittle. :^)

Here's my updated list of National Parks, with the completed ones in Bold. Crater Lake gets to be crossed off despite being nothing more than a sign posted on a mountain.

Acadia National Park Maine 1919
National Park of American Samoa American Samoa 1988
Arches National Park Utah 1971
Badlands National Park South Dakota 1978
Big Bend National Park Texas 1944
Biscayne National Park Florida 1980
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Colorado 1999
Bryce Canyon National Park Utah 1928
Canyonlands National Park Utah 1964
Capitol Reef National Park Utah 1971
Carlsbad Caverns National Park New Mexico 1930
Channel Islands National Park California 1980
Congaree National Park South Carolina 2003
Crater Lake National Park Oregon 1902
Cuyahoga Valley National Park Ohio 2000
Death Valley National Park California, Nevada 1994
Denali National Park and Preserve Alaska 1917
Dry Tortugas National Park Florida 1992
Everglades National Park Florida 1947
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve Alaska 1980
Glacier National Park (part of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park) Montana 1910
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Alaska 1980
Grand Canyon National Park Arizona 1919
Grand Teton National Park Wyoming 1929
Great Basin National Park Nevada 1986
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Colorado 2004
Great Smoky Mountains National Park North Carolina, Tennessee 1934
Guadalupe Mountains National Park Texas 1966
Haleakala National Park Hawaii 1916
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Hawaii 1916
Hot Springs National Park Arkansas 1921
Isle Royale National Park Michigan 1940
Joshua Tree National Park California 1994
Katmai National Park and Preserve Alaska 1980
Kenai Fjords National Park Alaska 1980
Kings Canyon National Park California 1940
Kobuk Valley National Park Alaska 1980
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Alaska 1980
Lassen Volcanic National Park California 1916
Mammoth Cave National Park Kentucky 1941
Mesa Verde National Park Colorado 1906
Mount Rainier National Park Washington 1899
North Cascades National Park Washington 1968
Olympic National Park Washington 1938
Petrified Forest National Park Arizona 1962
Redwood National and State Parks California 1968
Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado 1915
Saguaro National Park Arizona 1994
Sequoia National Park California 1890
Shenandoah National Park Virginia 1935
Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Dakota 1978
Virgin Islands National Park U.S. Virgin Islands 1956
Voyageurs National Park Minnesota 1975
Wind Cave National Park South Dakota 1903
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve Alaska 1980
Yellowstone National Park Idaho, Montana, Wyoming 1872
Yosemite National Park California 1890
Zion National Park Utah 1919

I was able to shade in 3 more of the states, leaving only 15 left to visit.