Hi, and welcome to my blog. It occured to me that when you view the images in my galleries, that you would like have some idea as to the how, when and where. Therefore, through this blog, I will attempt to provide some background and detail about the photo trip that resulted in the images posted on my site.
Escape
I call it an escape. The “it” I refer to being a short, three day road trip to Taos, New Mexico, a few hours north of Albuquerque. After months of home isolation, with only a few forays out for groceries and other necessities, going on an overnighter really did feel like an escape. Jane and I had been itching to get out of the house for a few days and exploring New Mexico to the north of Santa Fe had been on our minds for some time. We settled on Taos, a small village in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Neighbors had told us about a quaint B&B that they had enjoyed and we decided to make the Old Taos Guesthouse our home away from home for three nights. Of course there were Covid-19 restrictions such as face masks, social distancing, and eating our gourmet breakfasts from take-out boxes in our room.
We packed our overnight bags, hustled up some picnic snacks for along the way, and headed out. I had put together a route and itinerary that included several potential photography stops during our three days of exploration. From Albuquerque we traveled north and east on I-25 to the Pecos National Historic Park; then further along I-25 to the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge; from there to Fort Union National Monument; and then on to the Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge. I had wanted to check out these wildlife refuges to see if photography at these would be as rewarding as at Bosque del Apache where Jane and I had been several time before. I concluded that Bosque was a much better location for photography and much easier logistically.
From Maxwell, a very small community with no visitor amenities, we continued back west over the Cimarron Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains through the twisty and curvy Cimarron Canyon to Eagle Nest Lake and U.S. Highway 64. We followed Highway 64 through more mountainous terrain and canyons to the Old Taos Guesthouse. As our neighbors had described, the Old Taos Guesthouse was a quaint, picturesque converted hacienda in a very rural setting with eleven guest rooms. Our room was spacious with the décor and charm of historic Taos. We enjoyed our three nights there very much and savored breakfasts each morning.
The grounds of the guesthouse were filled with a variety of trees and plants. Among the plants were sunflowers with an abundance of interesting looking insects foraging among the yellow flowers. I decided to practice taking close-up pictures of these bugs with my macro lens. I don't get many opportunities to shoot with the macro lens, so this was a great time to use it. I had no idea what bugs I was photographing and had to Google search to identify them. These two are an Ambush Bug and a Soft Winged Flower Beetle.
The next two days we made day-trips from the Old Taos Guesthouse to scenic locations around the Taos area. One day we ventured up to the Taos Ski Valley high on the north side of Wheeler Mountain, New Mexico’s highest at 13,159 feet, and also toured the mountainous Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway that circumnavigates around the Wheeler Peak wilderness areas. The Rio Grande River flows just east of Taos and we spent time photographing the deep gorge resulting from the Rio Grande Rift that the river follows. To the north we toured the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument and to the south the Orilla Verde National Recreation Area where we encountered some bighorn sheep on the road.
Now that we have had our taste of traveling again, we look forward to visiting our “place in Montana” this fall. Since we have cancelled our Europe travel plans we have decided to drive up to Glacier National Park to spend two weeks at our time-share cabin there in September. There will be a blog about that trip, for sure.
May 2020
There is not much to “blog” about when one is sheltered at home. So far this spring all travel plans have been aborted so there are no photo journeys to share. Instead, Jane and I have been keeping busy with home projects. I have been printing and framing some of my images to decorate the remaining bare walls in our new home while Jane has been working on long neglected sewing projects.
Warmer spring temperatures have led to the revival of the plants in our new garden. We thought many of our plants were pretty much goners, but no, new growth is all around our yard. As spring slowly manifests its self, our brand new back yard has metamorphosed from a drab and bleak setting to an inviting ambiance. Our current daily routine now includes checking rose bushes for aphids (very exciting). For me, a special treat has been to watch our small hedgehog cactus plants sprout buds and develop bright red claret cup flowers.
With a garden that could now be enjoyed we would love to spend time on our patio. Unfortunately, we ordered new patio furniture just as stay-at-home and social distancing rules went into effect. Although ordered in early March, we don’t expect delivery until late May or early June. Oh well!! On the brighter side, Jane and I were able to day-trip to some local national monuments before sheltering at home became the norm. At Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument we hiked the two-mile round trip Canyon Trail through a slot canyon and then scrambled up rock falls to reach the top of a plateau for some spectacular views.
Another short day-trip brought us to Bandelier National Monument west of Santa Fe. Thinking that I could get a better perspective for some pictures, we ended up hiking one of the monuments steeper trails. It was a good workout and also provided for some interesting shots. Bandelier National Monument is a fascinating ancestral Pueblo village. Here the ancient ones built their pueblo style community adjacent to cliffs of tuff, a relatively soft volcanic rock, in which the ancestral Pueblo people hollowed out caves for additional living quarters and storage areas.
Images from these day-trips are located in the National Parks and Monuments gallery under Tent Rocks and Bandelier. Hope you enjoy them. Now, of course, we are patiently waiting for travel restrictions to be lifted so we resume our journeys near and far.
First Trip
In mid-January, Jane and I ran away from the wet, cold winter weather in Albuquerque to escape to the warm, humid climate of Hawaii. Through some unanticipated circumstances it appeared that I had several weeks of time-share trades available that I did not know about. Fortunately for us, the time share trading company alerted us and we were able to book two weeks in Hawaii and a third week in San Diego on our way home. So, 2020 started off with a relaxing two week get away to the Aloha State and a week visiting friends and hanging out at old haunts in San Diego.
Our first week was spent at The Cliffs Resort in Princeville at the north shore of Kauai. We had a second floor, corner unit with lots of windows for great views. We slept with windows open to enjoy the warm island trade winds and were entertained by the early morning crowing of chickens that seemed to dominate the island. Quickly we acclimated to the relaxed tempo of the Garden Island and felt the cares and woes of Albuquerque fade away. With top down we toured Kauai in our rented red Mustang convertible visiting the Kilauea Lighthouse and Hanalei Bay.
The concierge at the resort assisted us in finding other entertaining ways to spend our days. Arrangements were made to sail to the Na Pali coast on a large catamaran that also offered snorkeling, although we declined that option. We also joined a small tour group that explored some of the island’s ancient, but severely deteriorated archaeological sites. The record breaking rainfall in 2018 damaged much of the public access to Ke’e Beach and Limahuli Botanical Garden and we had to avail ourselves with a public shuttle service to those remote areas.
A week later we found ourselves on the Big Island with another rented Mustang convertible, this time white. The Big Island is big, almost twice as large as all the other Hawaiian Islands combined. Because of this great size, we spent a lot of time in the white convertible touring the island. From our base at the Wyndham Mauna Loa Village, on the Kona side of the island, we pretty much circumnavigated the Big Island. We crisscrossed among the three great volcanoes that created the island and visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Tops of the volcanoes are well over 13,000 feet in elevation and it got a bit chilly driving at high altitudes with the top down.
After two weeks of sun worshiping, sightseeing, and many “happy hours” in Hawaii we made our way to San Diego. Although much warmer than Albuquerque, San Diego was not as warm as Hawaii and we did not rent a convertible. It had been just over a year since we moved from San Diego to Albuquerque and we enjoyed visiting with friends and going back to some of our old stomping grounds. It seems that progress does not slow down. Even after just a year we could see additions to the downtown skyline, not to mention cars on the freeways. Oh, and by the way, I celebrated my birthday with dinner at Benihana's. It was my 81st, for those of you who were curious.
All in all this first vacation of 2020 turned out to be a great trip. We had enough time to decompress, forget about the unfinished work on the new house, and enjoy just being tourists. I will have to confess that pictures were taken and some of our time was focused on photography including an outing to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. I did not create a gallery of images from this trip on the web site but most of the significant pictures are included as part of the blog.
Festival of the Cranes
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is known worldwide for the winter migration of greater sandhill cranes and snow geese. Thousands of these photogenic birds spend the winter months at the refuge where there is plenty of food and protection from predators. Jane and I have traveled from San Diego to Bosque del Apache several times to enjoy and photograph the spectacle of these birds on the refuge. Now, residing in Albuquerque and the refuge being only about a ninety minute drive from our front door, we decided to join the Friends of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. So this November we participated in the 32nd annual Festival of the Cranes that is sponsored and managed by the Friends.
The Festival is a five day celebration with more than a 130 events, including tours, seminars, hikes, workshops and entertainment choices. We picked 18 events and spent the next five days thoroughly absorbed with activities on and around the refuge. Our memories of Bosque from prior visits included fiery sunrises and sunsets with tens of thousands of birds. During the Festival, however, we were a bit disappointed with the weather and the number of birds. We had overcast skies that prevented a night photography workshop I had signed up for. Then we had a hard, cold rain to cope with. And one morning we were greeted with a dense fog that prevented any meaningful photography.
All was not gloom and doom, however. We had a great time and enjoyed ourselves tremendously at the Festival. Highlights included: lectures on birding and bird photography; a night time owling expedition; several photography workshops; watching a falconer fly his raptors; and some night sky photography workshops. The great thing about having this world renowned resource so close to home is that we can visit again and again whenever we want.
Images from the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache are located in the Wildlife Refuges gallery.
October's Whirlwind Trip
After enjoying a very scenic trip to Colorado’s San Juan Mountains in September, Jane and I spent only a couple of weeks at home before venturing out again. This time, however, we took separate journeys. Jane entertained her New York City girlfriend, Gigi, for about a week, including a short trip to Santa Fe, while I entertained my photo buddy, Bruce. Bruce arrived in Albuquerque after Jane and Gigi had departed for Santa Fe and he and I left on our whirlwind photo tour before they returned.
I had developed a multi-stop itinerary for our photo trip that included some of northwestern New Mexico’s photogenic locations. Our first objective was Valles Caldera National Preserve in the pine covered Jemez Mountains. We arrived shortly after the Preserve’s 8:00 AM opening with the intent of photographing the colony of Gunnison's prairie dogs that reside there. Checking in with the ranger we discovered that temperatures at the higher elevations of the Jemez Mountains had been unseasonably cold and that the little critters had started their hibernation early. As a consolation, we did manage to photograph some distant coyotes and I managed to step into a camouflaged prairie dog burrow and ended up on my face in the prairie grass.
After swallowing my pride for having stumbled so badly, we ventured forth to the Chaco Culture Historical Park where we photographed the ancient ruins of Pueblo Bonito and its iconic series of doorways. From there we traveled to the Ah-shi-sle-pah Wilderness Study Area. This is a remote area of New Mexico badlands that invokes a fairyland feel with its numerous eroded hoodoos and mudstone spires. We arrived at Ah-shi-sle-pah by late afternoon and photographed there till near sunset.
Farmington, New Mexico, became our home base for various day trips over next few days. However, the late October weather that had turned bitter cold was not kind to us. The itinerary called for a very early departure the following morning to photograph the eroded volcanic remnant of Shiprock at sunrise. When we peered out the window at 4:00 AM it was snowing and that cancelled our plan for a sunrise photo shoot. It did, however, allow us snuggle back into bed for some more shuteye. Eventually the day warmed up a bit and the sun broke through the clouds and we ventured out to photograph the Chaco outlier ruins at Aztec National Monument with its restored kiva.
Then, after lunch at the appropriately named Aztec Restaurant, we decided to locate some Navajo rock art that dated from the 16th and 17th centuries. I had found out about the petroglyph during my on-line research for this trip. We were a bit concerned about driving the dirt roads after the snowfall. However, by afternoon when we turned off the pavement the snow had all but disappeared and the dirt track was just moist enough to keep the dust down. The Navajo petroglyph panels were particularly well executed and distinct. As with most rock art Bruce and I have photographed, there was evidence of damaging graffiti scratched into the sandstone around the Navajo art work.
For the next day I had arranged for a guided tour of natural arches around the area with Larry Beck, the current vice president and former president of The Natural Arch and Bridge Society. Larry is far and away the local expert on arches and their locations. He guided us to many of his favorite arches in the Aztec area and we finished our journey with him at sunset photographing Arch Rock. Bruce and I agreed that without Larry guiding us we would never have found many of the beautiful arches we photographed.
My alarm was set for an early start the next day. Our target was the De-Na-Zin wilderness section of the Bisti badlands. This was another remote and desolate area an hour’s drive south of Farmington. The objective was to take advantage of early morning light on the eroded formations. From my research we selected two areas of badlands to photograph, the “egg nursery” and “hoodoo city” for which we had GPS coordinates. Needless to say, when traversing heavily eroded arroyos and steep sided washes, following a GPS direction can lead to much backtracking. We explored the De-Na-Zin wilderness for nearly five hours and, according to GPS, hiked around the weird and bizarre formations for about six miles. We started this trek bundled with multiple layers and a temperature of 20 º F and we returned to the 4Runner five hours later, just as bundled, when the temperature had reached all of 30 º F.
Our next objective was the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park where we had arranged for several Navajo guided tours into the private areas of the park. On the way to Monument Valley, however, we stopped first at Canyon de Chelley National Monument. We arranged for a Navajo guide to take us into the canyon. Because Navajo people still live in the canyon, access can only be obtained with a local guide. One of the popular photo locations is Spider Rock, an enormous eight hundred foot tall sandstone spire, at the very head of the canyon and that was where we headed. In addition to being an iconic geologic feature Spider Rock is also a cultural attribute. Mythical Spider Woman lives on spider rock and she has a long history in Navajo folklore and oral traditions. Our guide told us of stories his grandfather used to tell that Spider Woman would catch him in her web if he misbehaved.
At Monument Valley Bruce and I faced a dilemma. We wanted a dynamic cloudy sky to accent the landscape during the day and clear skies at night for star photography. Of course we could not have both. Mother Nature decided. We had clear skies both day and night. Our Navajo guided tours included two nights of star photography as well as a sunrise and sunset tour. Since there was no drama in the sky, we opted to skip the sunrise tour. Photography can be a fickle hobby. During the first night of star photography there was a crescent moon that illuminated the foreground but obscured the Milky Way. The second night we departed a bit later so there would be no moon light and the Milky Way was observable but the foreground was much too dark. Oh well!
To sum up, this seven day, eight stop whirlwind tour started at Valles Caldera and ended up at Monument Valley via Chaco Canyon, the Ah-shi-sle-pah wilderness, Aztec ruins, Navajo rock art, natural arches, the De-Na-Zin wilderness, and Canyon de Chelly.
October 2019
It is the first week in October, 2019. Mornings in Albuquerque have turned brisk. I enjoyed an early morning cup of coffee watching the sun come up over the Sandia Mountains in our nearly completed backyard. We have now been living in our new home for two months and are loving it. It has been a bit frustrating waiting for a lot of the finishing touches to be completed. But now we are pretty much done. Hurrah!!
We have not let completing the house keep us from having some fun, however. Last week Jane and I enjoyed a marvelous trip to the colorful San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. We stayed in the small community of Ridgway and day-tripped from there to explore the fall foliage that had reached its peak in color while we were there. As a reminder, our move to Albuquerque was partially motivated to avoid southern California traffic when we traveled by car. Well, to reach this breathtakingly beautiful area took all of six hours on uncongested roads.
We started this little get-a-way by enjoying a morning ride on the historic Durango to Silverton narrow gauge railroad. This was an excursion we had often talked about making and now, merely four hours from Albuquerque, it was a cinch. This National Historic Landmark was originally constructed in 1881-1882 to support the lucrative gold and silver mining interests in the San Juan Mountains. We opted to ride in the last car of the train that offered individual reserved seating areas from which we could admire the passing scenery.
Another recent wildlife event we have witnessed was the emergence of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats from one of the lava tub caves in El Malpais National Monument. This national monument is a mere hour and a half from our front door. During summer months, at dusk, these bats leave the cave in swarms of thousands to forage for insects in the surrounding hills. During the winter these bats migrate south into Mexico.
During the summer months we have also participated on a number of outings with the Enchanted Lens Camera Club. These jaunts have been helpful in learning our way around the Albuquerque area and getting to know other photographers. Perhaps the most photographically interesting location was the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness Study Area in the high desert of northwestern New Mexico. This is an area of badlands that is riddled with fascinating hoodoos.
We have some more adventures planned to end the year, including: a hot air balloon flight during the famous Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and participation in the Bosque del Apache Festival Of The Cranes.
To view images from the fall colors in Colorado open the Autumn Colors in the San Juan Mountains gallery, for images of the badlands open the Ah-She-Sle-Pah Wilderness gallery, and for a couple of bat images open the El Malpais National Monument sub-gallery in the National Parks and Monuments main gallery.
A Very Active April
As construction of our new home continued during April, Jane and I took the opportunity to do some exploring. Early in the month, we drove to Hereford, Arizona (near Sierra Vista) for some bird photography at Battista’s Bed, Breakfast and Birds. We met Neil Solomon, an avid bird photographer from San Diego, at the B&B. Tony Battista, the proprietor, experienced birder and photographer, has built a small water feature on the grounds of the B&B that attracts lots of local and migrating birds. We spent many hours in the photo-blind next to the small pond photographing visiting birds. Tony also guided us to some other birding hot spots in the area where we were able to photograph Harris’ hawk, elegant trogon and scaled quail.
After returning to Albuquerque from this short jaunt, we prepared for a more extensive trip to southeastern Oregon to photograph greater sage grouse. Photographing this iconic threatened bird of the western prairies had been on my to-do-list for a long time. Planning the trip was more difficult than I had first imagined. Greater sage grouse males congregate on leks and perform courtship displays to attract females and it is critical to select an active lek for photography. I got a lead from Ken Archer, the photo guide that Jane and I had met on our trip to Nome, Alaska. Ken put me touch with Andrew Shields, a biologist in charge of studying active leks on the Roaring Springs Ranch in Oregon. This operating cattle ranch is huge, about one million acres of sage covered hilly terrain, and contains several remote greater sage grouse leks.
Like so many areas in the west, the Roaring Springs Ranch had received a lot of snow this past winter and early spring. So, the lek Andrew had originally planned to take us, when we first made our arrangements, was still covered with two to four feet of snow when we arrived in April. Fortunately, there was another active lek that Andrew had been monitoring as part of his research. Getting to this lek, however, was problematic. We had to be shuttled on all-terrain-vehicles (ATV’s) on a very boggy track. In order not to disturb the birds, we had to hike the last quarter mile or so over soggy and rocky sage brush covered ground. All this was happening in total darkness around four o’clock in the morning. It was a total adventure!
The lek was very active with around twenty male birds performing their mating rituals and half a dozen females looking them over. We also performed our ritual that consisted of rising at three-fifteen in the mornings, driving twenty minutes to meet Andrew, driving another forty-five minutes to where the ATV’s were parked, then fifteen minutes on the ATV and then a twenty minute hike to the blind. The goal was to reach the blind around 5 AM, well before sun rise. Each morning, the birds were already strutting and vocalizing on the lek when we arrived. However, we had to wait anxiously for sufficient morning light to develop before we could commence with our photography.
The Enchanted Lens Camera Club is a large club of photo-enthusiasts. I joined the club shortly after arriving in Albuquerque. During this very active month of April, Jane and I participated on a couple of the club’s field trips as part of our effort to explore New Mexico. One field trip was a long weekend to the northwest of the state to photograph Chaco Canyon National Historic Park, the Bisti Badlands and Shiprock on the Navajo reservation. These were all locations that had been on our minds to visit and it was great to be with others who knew the way.
If that were not enough, Albuquerque was host to the Gathering-Of-Nations Pow Wow at the end of April. This is the largest pow wow in North America with nearly 800 tribes participating and it was an event Jane and I could not miss. What an experience! Lots of competitive drum music, singing in native languages, and dancing in elaborate feathered costumes. Also, it was very much a family affair for the tribal participants with a tiny tot’s category of competition.
At the end of the month, Bruce Hollingsworth and I attended a night scape photography conference in Moab, Utah. We had both been looking forward to this conference because some of our photographic attention had started to focus on landscapes under starry skies and the milky way. The conference was a sell out, so obviously we were not the only ones interested in milky way photography. During the conference, however, it became very obvious that the two of us were novices at night sky photography. We absorbed a lot of useful technical information and processes needed to pursue this part of our hobby. But when it came time to practice our night sky photography, late at night in the national parks surrounding Moab, my skill lever was severely lacking. I'll have to adhere to the adage, practice, practice, practice! We were able to obtain some reasonable day-time images at Dead Horse Point state park under cloudy skies.
I’d say that was enough activity for April. May, however, will also be a busy month, but this time most of our activities will be planning, selecting and coordinating custom touches for our new home. Selections for window coverings, closet and office designs all need to be finalized in May so that the work can commence immediately after we take possession of the house.
You will find images from the Oregon greater sage grouse trip as a sub-folder under the Birds gallery. Images from the Gathering-Of-Nations Pow Wow has its own gallery and images from the Arizona bird photography trip are in the Birds Of Arizona sub-folder under the Birds gallery.
News Update
It has been several months since my last blog entry. The delay is not because nothing has happened since our return from Madagascar. On the contrary, too much has happened. So here is the latest news update.
January 6, 2019
This morning we hitched a pre-loaded U-Haul trailer to the 4Runner and, with Jane in the Green Machine (our apple green Toyota Camry), the two of us started out for a grand, new adventure by moving lock, stock and barrel to a new domicile in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our departure for Albuquerque had been preceded by a chain of events that culminated in this exodus.
Although Jane and I had on previous occasions mulled over the idea of leaving San Diego, it was not until we visited the Del Webb 55+ retirement community at Mirehaven, in Albuquerque, that a conclusive decision was made. We made an exploratory trip to the Del Webb development in November. We totally liked what we saw and entered into a purchase agreement that was contingent on selling our Mesa Madera house.
Making this extraordinary decision to purchase a home in a retirement community solidified our resolve to seek new adventures and signing the purchase agreement initiated an intense chain of events. We had to (1) wire an earnest money deposit, (2) interview and select a realtor, (3) interview and select an interstate moving company, (4) return to Albuquerque to select design options for our new home, and (5) arrange to rent a furnished house to live in during construction of our new home. Oh, and by the way, we still managed to spend a relaxing, long Thanksgiving weekend in Idylwild.
We selected Jennifer Blake, with Sotheby International, to be our real estate agent. That turned out to be a wise choice. Jenn guided us professionally through the stressful process of selling our house without a glitch. She knew the Scripps Ranch real estate market and what selling strategy would garner the best sales result. She recommended that we list the house shortly after the yearend holidays when there would be fewer competitive houses on the market and that the house be “staged” to attract the most buyers.
Those decision set off another chain of events. Staging the house required that we would have to move all our belonging out in order for the staging to occur. In order to be ready to list the house in early January all decision making had to go into high gear. Allied Van Lines, our selected moving company, was notified and packing and moving was scheduled for January 3rd and 4th. In the meantime, Sean Blake, Jenn’s husband and “operations manager” arranged for and supervised needed small repairs and painting. Jane and I took care of last minute details, cancelling cable service and packing what we needed for the rental house in Albuquerque into the Green Machine and U-Haul trailer. That brings the chain of events to January 6th when we departed Mesa Madera Drive for our new, exciting life in Albuquerque.
January 18, 2019
All minor repairs, painting, cleaning, staging, and marketing photography at the Mesa Madera house were completed and the property was listed and ready for its open house reception. Multiple listings information had been submitted the previous Monday and by mid-week, several days before the scheduled open house we had received a bona fide offer. Our counter offer was accepted and by January 18th, the theoretical sales kickoff, we had already opened escrow. And, by January 18th Jane and I had also officially become New Mexicans with new driver’s licenses, car and voter registrations.
February 15, 2019
Today escrow closed and sales proceeds were wired into our bank account. Now there is no turning back. We now live in Albuquerque. We have been living in our furnished rental for over two months and have become familiar with our new neighborhood. Construction of our new home has been started. Underground utilities are in and concrete foundations poured. We make periodic trips to Mirehaven to check progress and are thrilled to see the slow emergence of our new house.
March 26, 2019
Construction of the house continues. Framing has been completed and it is starting to look like a house. Interior plumbing, electrical and HVAC have been installed the structure has been “wrapped” and windows installed. Today we conducted an official inspection with Chris, the Del Webb construction coordinator. The inspection was to ensure that pluming, gas lines, electrical outlets, cable outlets and other specifics were in conformance with our selected design options. This was a milestone inspection, for now insulation can be placed and dry wall installed. It now appears that construction may be a bit ahead of schedule. Chris was not willing to give an estimate, but Jane and I speculate that we may be able to move in around end of July or August, about a month earlier than we had previously thought.
There is much more yet to be accomplished and many details for us to take care of. Those details are sort of fun to work out, like selecting window coverings, ceiling fans, home office details, new furnishings, and in general just getting very excited about the prospect of moving into a brand new house.
That completes the news update for now. There will be more blogs as we explore our new home state and visit its natural and historic attractions.
Another Trip Of A Lifetime
Jane and I have often wondered exactly how many trips of a lifetime someone can have. We most definitely have had several and the most recent was our photo safari to Madagascar. For two weeks (sixteen days actually) we were totally immersed in a uniquely different, foreign culture and environment. Jane and I were two of the six travelers guided by Mike Byrne of Joseph Van Os, a worldwide expedition company from Vashon Island , Washington. From San Diego, we flew to Atlanta, then on to Paris to finally land in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital, where we started our adventure.
During our safari, we visited nine of Madagascar’s national parks and private reserves to photograph iconic lemurs and reptiles. In Madagascar, one of the world’s least developed countries, roads are poorly maintained and on many occasions we flew on charter flights between locations. Although shaped more circular, Madagascar is about the same size as Texas, and our tour concentrated on parks and preserves on the southern portion of the island.
Before heading off to our first preserve, we spent some time exploring around Antananarivo where about twenty percent of Madagascar’s twenty six and a half million people live. Antananarivo is a high density, congested city with narrow streets packed with street vendors. Mike guided us to a brick factory, an artisan metal shop and flower market. At the brick factory we watched male workers pack clay into metal molds by hand to form bricks that were then stacked and air dried. When these raw bricks were dry, young women and girls would carry them, stacked ten to fourteen at a time on their heads, to the kiln for hardening. Various metal curios for sale in tourist gift shops and to decorate business lobbies were being created by artisans at the metal shop. Small metal parts were cut and twisted by women, often assisted by their young children, to be welded and polished by men into artistic objects.
Our first charter flight was from Antananarivo to Morondava on the island’s west coast where the photo safari began. Not far from Morondava we photographed the iconic baobab trees and survived our first harrowing drive on Madagascar’s unpaved, unmaintained, potholed, deteriorated road to the Kirindy Reserve. The bumpy jolting ride to Kirindy was rewarded with our first encounter with lemurs, a chameleon, mongoose and Madagascar’s only predator the fossa. Excitement ran rampant through our small group as we jostled for positions to photograph these endangered and endemic species.
After traveling to several other preserves to photograph lemurs, we happened upon an open street market in Fort Dauphin along Madagascar’s south coast. We wandered the crowded streets marveling at the diversity of fruits and produce displayed in the stalls by the numerous merchants. Many villages are without electric power requiring that rural dwellers make almost daily trips to the market to obtain perishable foods, making the market a busy and congested place. For a photographer not inhibited to take people pictures, the market provided a potpourri of opportunities. I, on the other hand, am not so inclined and was challenged to get keeper people pictures.
More national parks and reserves were visited after leaving Fort Dauphin, the last of which was Akanin’ny Nofy on the island’s east coast. Here we were treated with very close encounters with a variety of lemurs. Lemurs are a species of primate all of which are endemic to Madagascar. We photographed about eight or ten of the many species that roam Madagascar’s forests. By far the most difficult to photograph are the nocturnal lemurs, in particular the aye-aye. The aye-aye is a bazaar creature, reminiscent of a star wars character. The aye-aye has evolved to feed at night on larvae and grub found under tree bark. In order to photograph this unique lemur guides have to lure this naturally shy animal to spots were photography is possible. Guides do this by placing coconuts among low tree branches to temp the aye-aye and then shine flash lights on them so there is sufficient light for photography.
Akanin’ny Nofy nature preserve was our last stop before heading back home. The journey back to San Diego was an arduous thirty hour ordeal. Although pretty exhausted, we made it home without any major issues on route. Our photo safari to Madagascar was fantastic and definitely another trip of a lifetime for us.
Images from the Madagascar trip are located in the Madagascar gallery.
An Historic Road Trip
Sometimes you have to go with the flow. That’s what Jane and I did this summer. Normally we would arrange a road trip before or after the summer break. This year, because I wanted to photograph spring flowers at the high elevations of the Cascade Range, we traveled to Oregon and Washington during the high season. Naturally, we paid the price in both congested highways and lots of people traversing the same trails we were hiking. But what made this trip momentous and historic is that our faithful 4Runner turned 200,000 miles on the odometer and is still running strong. When we returned home I treated the vehicle to a much deserved day at a car wash spa for full exterior, interior and engine detailing.
200,000 MILES
The itinerary for this road trip included visits to some of the major volcanic peaks of the Cascades. We started at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon where Jane was able to reserve, nearly ten months in advance, the last available room in the park lodge. From there we traveled to Mount Hood where we stayed at the Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark. We continued our tour north to the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington. There are no accommodations in the Monument but Jane was able to secure a simple, but delightful little cabin at the Silver Cove RV Resort with all the comforts of home. From Mount St. Helens we continued north to Mount Rainier National Park. Unfortunately the Park lodge was being renovated and the only rooms available were with shared bathrooms. We opted, instead, to stay at the Nisqually Inn in Ashford about a twenty minute drive from the Park entrance.
As most of you know, all the western states have been plagued with wild fires this summer. Oregon and Washington were no exceptions. We encountered smoke most everywhere we traveled. At Crater Lake the smoke was so severe that the lake water was frequently not visible from the rim trail. Photographically, the smoke and haze was problematic only when composing distant landscapes of the volcanic mountain peaks. For close subjects, like the many waterfalls we hiked to, the air was sufficiently clear for nice images. I must admit, however, that I was disappointed with the adverse conditions and that I was not able to get nice clear images of Crater Lake or Mount Rainier.
To avoid the long, tedious drive south on Interstate 5 through Portland, Sacramento, the central valley and Los Angeles, I had planned a route that took us more easterly through Boise, Idaho, and then south on Highway 93 to Las Vegas and home on Interstate 15. Along this obscure route home, on U.S. Highway 93 through Nevada, in the little hamlet of Alamo, we discovered a most auspicious and pretentious B & B, the Cowboy’s Dream. Built by an extremely wealthy widow, this lodge and its décor are truly awesome. Our room, the Duke Room, named and decorated in honor of John Wayne, was larger than our own living room. We spent two delightful nights at the Cowboy’s Dream decompressing from our tour through the Cascades before heading home. It was still a long, hot and hectic drive through Vegas, Victorville and the L.A. basin to reach San Diego.
Images from this momentous road trip can be found in the National Parks Gallery under Crater Lake, Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. Mount Hood and many of the waterfall images are located in the Oregon Coast and Waterfalls gallery.
