Graeme and I are now both back from our recent travels in the Southwest USA states of Nevada, Arizona and California. We encountered rain in Las Vegas, a snow storm on Mount Charleston, a sand storm in Death Valley, overcast skies in Phoenix and plenty of blue skies and balmy weather. As time permits we will be uploading more images from these travels on a retroactive basis by date. At the moment, my efforts are more focused on tracing the whereabouts of one of my parcels entrusted to UPS in Arizona but not quite trackable despite having paid extra $$$ for a tracking number. This current UPS incident makes the final image in today’s blog entry rather ironic but I’m hopeful that the missing item can be found and then I will be able to turn more of my attention back to the photo uploading process.
Graeme on his way through the underground tunnel in Detroit – the airport architects should be commended on the way in which they designed this tunnel and its lighting to add enjoyment to what could be a long boring, claustrophobic walk from terminal to terminal.
As mentioned above, during our week in the desert, we encountered a wide variety of somewhat unusual weather but for our first day’s outing, we traveled the short distance to the west of Las Vegas to explore the Red Rock Canyon and enjoyed near-perfect weather conditions for exploring this wonderful desert location. Of course, I wasn’t the only person with a camera and this gentleman joined me in photographing a few flowers and reptiles before heading off with his family in a different direction.
While everyone else was busy photographing the beautiful red rocks and natural landscapes, I found a few other interesting spots a bit more hidden from general public view. Mimicking the gum wall of Verona, was this Red Rock Canyon gum wall. Not exactly what I was expecting to find as I wandered along the trails between towering rock faces.
During weekdays there are many places in Red Rock Canyon to find solitude and a peaceful retreat from the flashing lights and noise of Las Vegas Boulevard, but even on this weekend, this lady in blue was able to find a few moments of peace and quiet atop a rock near one of the canyon’s busiest rock-climbing locations.
Graeme and I decided to follow one of the washes and hike through the mesquite and cacti and seek higher vantage points in the surrounding hills. The trail that we followed was rated as ‘moderate’ but as we continued along and the going began to get a bit steeper, we were happy that we hadn’t chosen anything more difficult especially considering the weight of the camera equipment that we were carrying.
As the temperature climbed higher and higher on that trail in the Rd Rock Canyon (about +80F) little did I know that I would find myself, two days later, in blizzard conditions on Mount Charleston joking with a UPS driver about “neither rain, nor sleet, now wind nor snow …” while we were encountering all of those conditions all at the same time and temperatures of only +25F here on the side of this roadway.
Stay tuned: More images and posts will be added as time permits but first I have to check with UPS again to see if they have been able to trace the whereabouts of my parcel!
The parcel’s location has now been determined, a new tracking number has been assigned, and I am once again working on retroactively uploading some of the images from our travels in Nevada and Arizona.
First leg – Flying above the clouds again and Ottawa to Las Vegas
Day 1 – Red Rock Canyon 1 and Red Rock Canyon 2
Day 1 – Red Rock Canyon – Calico Hills
Day 1 – Red Rock Canyon – Calico ‘Tanks’ Trail
