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.
Autumn Road Trip
Autumn has arrived and we are heading for the end of the year. This is my last blog for 2024 and it is all about a road trip to our timeshare cabin in Montana, that I endearingly refer to as “our place in Montana”. It’s a long way to “our place in Montana” so we typically break the drive up with a number of stops along the way. This year was no exception.
We started out with a short drive to Chama, New Mexico, a bit north of Santa Fe. There we enjoyed a day-long adventure on the historic Cumbres & Toltec narrow gage railroad. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is America’s longest and highest narrow gage railroad and is designated a National Historic Landmark. We left Albuquerque early in the morning for the three hour drive to Chama to catch the ten o’clock train for the 64 mile journey to Antonito, Colorado. The 1880 era, coal burning, steam Engine 484 pulled our restored Denver & Rio Grande carriages along the tight turns over the mountains from New Mexico to Colorado. Jane had booked us in the Parlor Car where we marveled at the turns and twists of the narrow gage tracks and enjoyed mimosas while watching the scenery pass by. The historic train journey ended at Antonito where busses were waiting to transport us back to Chama.
After spending the night in Chama, we continued our road trip to Chimney Rock National Monument in Colorado, about an hour’s drive northeast of Chama. The name suggests that this national monument is all about the outstanding geologic rock formation. But that would be wrong. Actually, this national monument is a one thousand year old archaeological site consisting of ancient dwellings, kivas and a great-house pueblo. Archaeologists believe that the people who lived here a thousand years ago were part of the Chaco culture who inhabited Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Jane and I hiked the steep Great House Trail to view the ruins.
From Chimney Rock, we drove a short distance to Arboles, Colorado, situated near the north end of Navajo Reservoir. Arboles is a small, unincorporated community, with an estimated population of around 300 people. Two of those people are my nephew Mike Riebeek and his wife Aneda. I had not seen Mike for many years and had never been to his home in Arboles. We had a great, although short, visit with Mike and Aneda sharing stories and talking family stuff.
After bidding Mike and Aneda adieu, we headed further north on U.S. Highway 550 to Montrose, Colorado. The goal there was to spend a few days photographing at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The canyon was not easy to photograph. When the sun was low on the horizon, one side or the other of the extremely deep and narrow canyon would be in shade. When the sun moved higher into the sky, the bottom of the canyon would have sunlight, but both sides of the steep canyon walls would be shady. We hiked to most of the view points on both the South Rim and North Rim roads. The most spectacular views were from Exclamation Point on the north side of the canyon. From Exclamation Point we had several clear views up the canyon. We thoroughly enjoyed the three mile, round-trip, hike to Exclamation Point. The trail was relatively flat and traversed through pinyon- juniper woodland and the cool morning air was invigorating.
When arriving at Montrose, Jane noticed the Ute Indian Museum along the highway and we decided to make time for a visit there. As the name suggests, the exhibits at the museum were all about the indigenous Ute tribes of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. Ute history, during the “westward expansion” of the 1800’s, parallels New Mexico’s Navajo and Apache history with their confinement to reservations. In addition to providing insight into this sad history, the museum also provides contemporary programs highlighting Ute tribal activities.
From Montrose, Colorado, we continued are journey to “our place in Montana” with overnight stops in Casper, Wyoming and Great Falls, Montana. In Casper, of all places, we discovered the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center located in a very avant-garde facility near our hotel. This impressive interpretive center highlights the “westward expansion” from the pioneer’s perspective. Exhibits documented westward migration along the Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Trail and the Pony Express. So, Jane and I were exposed to the history of the west from two opposing viewpoints.
Since our stay at the timeshare cabin is two weeks long, it is not unusual for us to take a short overnighter to some nearby attraction. This year we opted to visit the Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in the Milk River valley near Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. The park contains petroglyphs created by nomadic Blackfoot tribes of the Great Plains. The area is sacred to current Blackfoot tribal members and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our guide for the petroglyph tour was a Blackfoot and he had wonderful stories to tell about the rock art and his personal experiences.
On the way to and from the Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, we sidetracked to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. Waterton National Park shares its southern, international, border with Glacier National Park’s northern, international, border. Together these two parks make up the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park: World Heritage Site. We detoured to Waterton National Park in order to have lunch at the historic Prince of Wales Hotel. Built in 1927, the Prince of Wales hotel is reminiscent of the great railroad hotels built in America’s western national parks.
We enjoyed our brief foray into Canada. The drive along Chief Mountain Highway, in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains, is always a stunning ride especially when the hills are adorned with fall colors. Eventually, though, the time came to head back south to New Mexico. It’s a long way from Albuquerque to our cabin, about 3,500 miles round trip, including visits to Writing-on-Stone and the Prince of Wales hotel. Jane had downloaded an Audible book on her phone and we listened to Anthony Horowitz’s novel Moonflower Murders (a PBS Masterpiece series). At each stop along the way we would try to figure out who the culprit was, but we never did.
We stopped in Logan, Utah, to visit with my sister, Neli, and my nephew, Bryan, and his wife, Margaret. Neli is now a young 97 years old and still doing very well, thank you. She needs a “walker” to get around but is pretty sharp and delighted in sharing stories with us. Bryan had arranged for the five of us to have lunch at Cody’s Gastro Garage, an actual auto repair garage turned into a trendy café, in Garden City along the west shore of Bear Lake. It was a special treat for me to spend some fun time with my sister.
The next day, Jane and I headed home to Albuquerque. We arrived back in time for the 52nd annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Normally, we don’t get back to Albuquerque from our cabin in time for the Balloon Fiesta. So, this year we were able to go out early a couple of mornings to watch the balloons launch into the air. The weather in Albuquerque was particularly favorable for the event this year and there were balloons in the air most every day during the nine-day Fiesta. We were fascinated by the special-shape balloons with their unusual, often whimsical, designs.
Autumn has arrived and a new year will soon be upon us. We have started some early thinking and planning for trips in 2025. So, stay in touch to see what we will be up to next year.
An African Safari
It had been ten years since Jane and I first ventured to Africa. In 2014, we traveled to Kenya and Tanzania with several friends for some awesome wildlife experiences. This summer, 2024, we journeyed with Stu Porter on his Wild 4 African Photographic Safaris to Botswana. Jane and I were two of six intrepid photographers to experience this adventure. And an adventure it was. Ten nights in a mobile tent camp within some of Botswana’s most notable national parks and game reserves.
For Jane and me, the venture really started in December of 2022 when we first decided to embark on this safari with Stu Porter and deposits were made. After that, it was eighteen months of anticipation for the adventure to begin. Reading the trip information, we knew this was going to be a most memorable journey. Our excitement grew as departure time approached, but so did apprehensions about airline schedules and potential delay problems for the long, multi-stop flight from Albuquerque to Johannesburg, South Africa. So, Jane schedule our flights to arrive a day before the start of our tour. We spent our first night in Africa at the City Lodge Hotel at the Johannesburg airport.
On July 27th we met Stu and our fellow travelers, Lin and T.J. Lenahan, and Jean and Keith Aclin, for the Airlink flight from Johannesburg to Maun, Botswana. In Maun, we quickly gathered our bags and transferred to a Mackair charter flight to Moremi, in the Okavango Delta. Waiting for us at the Moremi landing strip were our guides Nkosi Sibanda and Frank Mashebe with the modified Toyota Land Cruiser safari vehicles that would transport us for the next ten days. It was all very exciting as we encountered jackals, giraffes, lions and leopards along the drive from the airstrip to our first camp site.
Staying in a mobile, tented camp was a brand new experience for us and we didn’t know exactly what to expect. An obvious conclusion was that everything, including food, drinking water, kitchen paraphernalia, cots, bedding, and tents had to be brought along as we moved from one remote camp to another. Our outfitter, Thru-the-lens Photographic Safaris, was well experienced in remote, mobile camping and, logistically, all the camp relocations and setups occurred seamlessly. The camp itself was also managed efficiently from the 5:30 AM wakeup call, through breakfast, noon lunch, three o’clock high tea and the evening dinner. Kudos to the camp staff who were always helpful and friendly, but most importantly, kept the camp safe from marauding wildlife through the night.
Our accommodation was an aluminum-framed, marquee style ridge tent large enough to stand up in and contain two cots with space for two bedside tables. There was a covered “porch” area in front with a couple of large folding chairs, four screened window openings, and an attached en suite bathroom. Bathroom facilities included a folding console table that accommodated two small galvanized tubs that were filled with hot water every morning at 5:30 for washing up. There was also a thermos with drinking water for brushing teeth and a bucket shower that was filled with hot water during the lunch break. The toilet was a “porta potty” placed over an open pit.
The daily routine started at 5:30 in the morning when camp staff would bring hot water for washing up. After washing up and dressing warmly (morning temperatures ranged in the mid-40’s), we gathered around the campfire for coffee, tea and breakfast. Then, as twilight started to lighten the sky, we boarded the land cruisers for the morning game run to see what wildlife could be found to photograph. Each vehicle was set up with three rows of seats so each of the six photographers would have a full row for shooting and storing camera gear. Stu instituted a rotation system so that each day we would start in a different row.
During the game run, around mid-morning, there would be a coffee break with cookies, and the proverbial “pit stop”. Typically, we arrived back at camp around noon where staff would be waiting to greet us and prepare lunch. Lunch was buffet style with choices of salads and main course. After lunch, during the harsh light of mid-day, was “free” time for charging camera and laptop batteries, showering and napping. At three, we would gather again at the dining tent for high tea and cake. The afternoon game drive started after high tea, when temperatures ranged in the high-80’s, and lasted until dusk when it became too dark for photography.
After returning to camp from the afternoon drive, it was time for relaxing around the campfire, sharing stories of the day’s experience, and enjoying a cocktail or glass of wine. Dinner followed after Holly, the very talented camp chef, announced the evening’s menu followed by her hearty, high-pitched, tongue trill, ululation. Dinner started with appetizer, or salad, followed by the main course, usually a meat or fish dish, and finished with a tasty dessert.
The game runs were amazing. Frank and Nkosi would maneuver the land cruisers skillfully through a maze of sandy tracks searching for signs of wildlife. They were exceptionally good at reading the signs and tracks of the animals we pursued. Scouring the dry grass and scrubby terrain, they had an uncanny knack for spotting something interesting to photograph. Every run was unique and I anxiously anticipated our encounters with Botswana’s wildlife. At times I felt the experience would have been similar to those of the early big game hunters, only we were shooting with cameras, not guns.
There were many, memorable wildlife encounters. One in particular stands out that I refer to as a “National Geographic” moment. I was in Frank’s land cruiser when he spotted a pack of about twelve wild dogs on a hunt. He immediately left the sandy track we were on and started pursuing the dogs on a parallel course across the open velt, avoiding large shrubs and deep ruts, at a hectic pace. Keeping up with the speeding dogs allowed us to witness the wild dogs take down and devour an impala. That adrenaline inducing chase was truly a “National Geographic” moment.
Water holes were especially productive for photography. However, during the dry season, especially now with global warming, water holes are typically dry. Consequently, Botswana’s wildlife reserves have drilled water wells to seasonally fill a few strategic water holes. We observed a variety of large mammals, including elephants, giraffes, impala, wildebeest, wild dogs, as well as flocks of birds, drinking at the water holes.
After ten nights in our mobile camp tents, we departed the dry Okavango Delta for the Chobe River at Kasane, Botswana. Sadly, we left Frank, Nkosi and our, now familiar, land cruisers at the Savute “International Airport” for our charter flight to Kasane and the Pangolin Hotel. It was way beyond joy to be at the Pangolin Hotel with a real shower and a comfortable bed for two.
At Kasane, our safari mode changed from land cruisers to small boats with outboard motors and special gimbal supports for our cameras. We cruised the Chobe River during mornings and afternoons to photograph wildlife. Along the wide waterway, it was not so much searching for wildlife but rather being at the right place at the right time. The river naturally attracts thirsty animals and the reeds along the river’s edge attract many birds. Our new guide, the boat captain, was adroit at finding small birds, including bee-eaters and several unique kingfishers. Our cameras were kept pretty busy on the Chobe.
We bade Stu an emotional goodbye as he prepared for his next safari and we prepared for our trip extension to Victoria Falls. All six of us hardy travelers loaded our luggage into a van for the transfer to Victoria Falls. Crossing the border from Botswana into Zimbabwe came with its own bit of confusion and humor. Eventually, though, all paper work was completed, visas paid for, and passports stamped. Our destination was the Ilala Lodge near the entrance to Victoria Falls National Park. Once at the hotel, Lin and T.J., as well as Jean and Keith, had their own plans so each couple started their Victoria Falls visit independently.
David Livingstone, the British missionary and explorer, named the falls after Queen Victoria in 1855 and in 1989 the Victoria Falls was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During the wet season, nearly 300,000 gallons per second of water thunder over a mile long precipice falling 350 feet into the narrow Zambezi River gorge. During the dry season, when we were at the falls, the volume of water cascading over the precipice is only about a third, but still an impressive volume of water.
It was a short taxi ride from the Ilala Lodge to the Victoria Falls National Park entrance. In the park is a paved trail along the edge of the gorge opposite the water fall with a number of viewpoints. In mid-afternoon, the sun is positioned so that a vivid rainbow appears in the spray of mist created by the falling water. Jane and I made sure not to miss that spectacle. We also signed up for a helicopter flight over the falls for an impressive aerial view.
On August 10th, after fifteen adventurous days in Africa, we departed the Ilala Lodge around ten in the morning for our 30 minute taxi ride to Victoria Fall Airport. From there, it was a long journey home. We arrived back in Albuquerque mid-afternoon on August 11th, having spent more than 24 hours in airport terminals and airplanes. Looking back, it is hard to imagine an adventure more memorable than this African safari. The comradery among all our fellow travelers, Stu, Frank, Nkosi, and camp crew, as well as the wildlife encounters, made this a unique, one-of-a-kind, exciting adventure.
Early Summer Road Trip
After Bruce and I completed our badlands of the San Juan Basin exploration, and Jane returned from her action packed visit with Gigi in New York City, we spent some quiet time at home enjoying our garden for a few weeks before heading out again. Jane and I have been getting a lot of pleasure from our garden with its many colorful roses. For me, of particular enjoyment are the cacti. I have created three small areas in our yard where I planted several hedgehog cactus plants. They were in full bloom with spectacular red flowers. The garden provided blotches of vivid color for us to enjoy after the dull gray of winter.
My good friend Neil Solomon told me about a pair of peregrine falcons that were nesting and raising chicks along the cliffs of the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in La Jolla, California. Unabashedly, I invited myself and Bruce to come and photograph these raptors with him. So, in early May, Jane and I ventured to San Diego for a short visit to photograph the falcons. Neil generously guided Bruce and me to the best photo locations. Needless to say, these nesting peregrines and their chicks attracted many other photographers and we were not alone on the beach waiting for the birds to appear.
Jane had arranged for us to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Old Town. We did not realize it at the time, but it turned out that we ended up in the middle of the Old Town Cinco de Mayo celebration. It was a noisy, crowded party and we happily joined the throng of revelers while enjoying a margarita along the way.
A recent issue of Arizona Highways Magazine featured an article and photographs of Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona. I found the geology and scenery of this “sky island” fascinating and was immediately drawn to the rhyolite rock pinnacles and spires to try my own photography there. So, we were back from San Diego a short three weeks before hitting the road again.
This time it was road trip. Chiricahua National Monument is only about a six hour drive from home. Since it was my idea to make the trip, I made the necessary accommodations. For the first four nights of this week long trip we stayed at the Dreamcatcher Inn at Chiricahua, an extremely nice B&B, somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Phillip and Ramon (Ray) were our very gracious hosts. In fact, once Ray found out about my photography interest, he provided directions to a great horned owl nest with three chicks about to fledge.
Although a “sky island”, with peaks reaching nearly 10,000 feet in elevation, the Chiricahua Mountains are situated on the edge of the Sonoran Desert and in early June day time temperatures were starting to sizzle. We mostly kept our photo hikes to late afternoons/early evenings when the sun was low on the horizon and temperatures moderated a bit. To pass the time of day, we made some short excursions visiting the old copper mining town of Bisbee (where a hazardous open pit mine is a tourist attraction) and Tombstone (where there is a shootout at the O.K. Corral at one, two and three in the afternoon). We also made a trip to the Kartchner Caverns State Park near Benson (no photography allowed inside the cave).
From the Dreamcatcher we moved to Cave Creek Ranch for three nights in Portal, Arizona. Portal is a birding hotspot and Neil Solomon had told me about it. We were not in Portal at prime birding time but since it was only a couple of hours from the Dreamcatcher, and on the way home, we decided to make it part of our summer journey. As part of the trip planning, I had arranged for a guide to help in locating birds to photograph. That worked out well. James Petersen was our guide and he found us 55 different bird species, fourteen of which were new ones for us, including a spotted owl, red-faced warbler and elegant trogon. Not all the birds James found were in positions where photography was possible, but I did my best.
Be sure to check the Latest Images gallery for photos from this trip.
First Trip Of 2024
Finally!!! It has been a long time between photo trips and so, at last, here is my first blog of 2024.
A few months back, after previously having decided not to photograph the 2024 total solar eclipse, I had a change of heart and made arrangements to travel to San Angelo, Texas, for this extraordinary event. In 2017, Jane and I had traveled from San Diego to Idaho to witness the total eclipse. Having experienced the spectacle in 2017, I had decided we did not need to do it again. But as April 8 drew closer, the challenge of photographing another eclipse got the better of me. Jane was not as keen as I was to go again, so we decided that I would ask my photo buddy, Bruce Hollingsworth, to join me for a photo trip and that Jane would make arrangements to visit her friend Gigi Alpers in New York City. And that is what we did.
Bruce drove from San Diego to Albuquerque and from there we started a week long, two thousand mile, photography road trip. The venture started, of course, with a drive to San Angelo, Texas, for the eclipse. As part of the trip planning, I had chosen several alternative viewing locations from San Angelo in case weather became an issue. And weather did indeed, become an issue. According to weather reports our original shooting location in Llano, Texas, was going to be socked in with over 90% cloud cover. We opted for an alternative location, Evant, Texas, where the cloud cover was projected to be only around 45%. It turned out to be a good decision. Bruce and I had a good view of the eclipse where as in Llano, we learned, the overcast sky blocked the eclipse. Unfortunately, shortly after “totality” clouds moved in over Evant and we also lost sight of the ongoing eclipse.
Based on my experience returning from the eclipse in Idaho, I fully anticipated heavy traffic and long delays driving back from Evant to San Angelo. But, fortunately, those stressful driving conditions did not materialize. Instead we enjoyed a leisurely drive on rural “farm to market” roads with occasional opportunities to photograph roadside wildflowers along the way.
Our next objective on this photo journey was Carlsbad Cavern National Park in New Mexico. The drive from San Angelo to Carlsbad routed us through the oil patch of the Permian Basin. The barren, oil well studded landscape was a dramatic change from the pastoral ranches and orchards of the Texas hill country. For hours we dodged 18-wheeler semi-trucks loaded with heavy equipment to service the myriad oil wells scattered throughout the prairie.
As is the case now at most national parks, timed tickets are required to enter the Carlsbad Caverns. I had acquired our timed tickets a month before starting the trip. That turned out to have been a good strategy since there were no tickets available for the days we were at caverns. Bruce and I spent two days photographing the speleothems in the cave. I was certainly challenged to find compelling compositions. Inside the cave, the main cavern, the “Big Room”, is huge and I found it difficult to convey the size and complexity of the cave photographically. But I tried.
From Carlsbad we traveled to the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Site, a private preserve some fifty miles north of Santa Fe. Bruce and I had visited Mesa Prieta in 2022, so I had arranged for private tours in new areas where we had not photographed before. As before, our enthusiastic and energetic guide was Cathy Benthagen. She overwhelmed us with stories and anecdotes about the spiritual aspects of the many petroglyphs we encountered. Trails on the private reserve are fairly steep and not well established. Bruce, being from sea level, was struggling a bit at 7,500 feet.
After morning and afternoon petroglyph tours with Cathy, we continued on our photography road trip, driving past the communities of Abiquiu, Coyote, Regina and Cuba, to our next destination for a three night stay in Bloomfield. The Best Western Hotel in Bloomfield served as our home base for two exhaustive days of photographing the San Juan Basin Badlands. Although Bruce and I had photographed portions of these badlands before, I had learned about other sites with intriguing erosional features that I wanted to photograph. These unique formations came with fascinating monikers like Alien Throne, The Sentinel, King of Wings, The Castle, and The Guardians. With names like that, who wouldn’t want to photograph these eroded hoodoos.
There turned out to be a small problem. The San Juan Basin Badlands is a vast, treeless plain cut by broad east-west trending valleys. Ownership is mostly divided between federal lands, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and Navajo Nation lands. The road system throughout the badlands is a spider web of rough graded tracks and two-track dirt toads with little or no signage. I was very concerned that we would not be able to find our way to the trailheads, nor find the trails, in this desolate area without a knowledgeable guide. Fortunately, I was able to find just such an experienced, knowledgeable guide.
Kialo Winters, Owner/CEO/Tour Guide of Navajo Tours USA, was our guide for the photo adventure in the badlands. As we bounced along the rough rutted dirt tracks to the various trailheads, Bruce and I would frequently confide that we would never have found our way without Kialo. In order to be in place for photography by sunrise, we met up with Kialo each morning at 5:30 AM at a Sinclair service station, about thirty miles south of Bloomfield. That also meant getting up by 4:30 AM in order to be on the road by five for the thirty minute drive to the Sinclair station. By late morning, around 10:30 or so, we would head back from the photo locations driving laboriously on those deeply rutted, washboard roads to the Sinclair station and from there back to Bloomfield for lunch and a short nap. Then, we would meet Kialo again at the Sinclair station around 3:30 PM for the afternoon excursions and sunset photography. By the time we left the field and drove back to Bloomfield we would arrive there around 9:30 PM just before Blake’s Lots-A-Burger fast food establishment closed. That was our routine for two days. After that, it was happily back to Albuquerque for a satisfying, tasty meal and long, sound sleep.
Latest Images
Since returning from our trip to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks in early October, Jane and I are enjoying being home and catching up on delayed routine chores, like doctor and dentist appointments. The holidays are upon us and Jane had decorated our home accordingly. We’ve also been enjoying visiting with friends and sharing good cheer. Plans have been made for an overnighter to Santa Fe to enjoy a classical guitar symphony and stroll along the Canyon Road galleries on Christmas Eve.
In the meantime, I’ve not let my camera lie dormant in its case. On October 14th, I photographed the annular solar eclipse from the backyard. That was followed by a couple of short trips to the Bernardo and Bosque del Apache wildlife refuges. Then came an evening excursion to the popular “River Of Lights” exhibit at the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens. And finally, in early December I journeyed to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory on the Plains of San Agustin for a night sky photography workshop with the Very Large Array antennae in the foreground.
Images from these late-year trips can be viewed in the “Latest Images” gallery.
P.S.
I made another trip to Bosque del Apache right of after new year's and have added images from this excursion to the Latest Images" gallery.
Last Trip Of The Year
So far 2023 has been an awesome travel year for us. It started with a trip to Costa Rica in February for my birthday. That was followed in April with a trip to Paris for Jane’s birthday. June found us in Newfoundland and Ontario Canada. Then, in August, we were off to Iguazu Falls and the Pantanal in Brazil. Wow!
We finished our travel year in a more relaxed mode with a September trip to our timeshare cabin in the woods of the Flathead National Forest near the west entrance to Glacier National Park. We have been going to the cabin at Glacier Wilderness Resort for nearly twenty years, not every year, but often enough to call it “our place in Montana”. We own the last two weeks of September and had specifically chosen that time so we could enjoy the seasonal foliage color change. With a full two weeks it is possible to just kick back and relax. Late September is also when the weather becomes more unsettled and this year we had more clouds and rain than in the past.
Jane and I don’t do long ten hour drives anymore. So we broke up the 1,275 mile one-way trip to Glacier Wilderness Resort with a couple of overnight stops. Our first stop was along Interstate 15 in Utah Valley just north of Provo. It was a very advantageous stop. Traffic on I-15 along the Provo – Salt Lake City corridor was horrendous. Our second en-route overnight was at the Ninepipes Lodge in Charlo, Montana, only a couple of hours from the cabin. We spent the next morning searching for wildlife at the National Bison Range located on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The Bison Range is now managed by the Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the bison on the range are descendants of a pure-blooded herd of bison from the 18oo’s. In the past, we have photographed many bison, pronghorn and elk on the Range, but this year, no such luck.
We thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks in and around Glacier National Park. Fall colors were spectacular, especially on the east side of the Park, along the foothills of the Lewis Range. This year we ventured as far as Chief Mountain, but mainly we spent our time exploring familiar haunts like the Avalanche Lake trail, Hidden Lake trail, and sights along the Going-To-The-Sun Road. We searched for wildlife at Logan Pass and Many Glaciers but this year, for some unknown reason, there was not much wildlife to photograph. We did manage to stumble upon a big, burly black bear foraging for berries and roots near the Many Glaciers Hotel parking lot. This wooly bear, most certainly, was ready for its hibernation. And, after several fruitless visits and many boring hours of waiting, a cow moose finally did emerge from the tall willows at Fishcap Lake, trailed by a bull. While idling away my time waiting for moose, I did manage to get some shots of common mergansers fishing in the lake.
We extended this last trip of the year with a four night stay at the Snow Lodge in Yellowstone National Park. Photographically, the objective was to obtain some panoramic landscape images of the hydrothermal features of the Park, primarily the vividly colored hot pools scattered throughout the geyser basins. As they say, “the best laid plans often go awry”. I did not consider that the cold ambient air temperature would create so much steam, coming from the hot springs, that the photogenic pool surface would be mostly obscured. C’est la vie!
A couple of mornings, we started our day trip around Yellowstone with breakfast at the Running Bear Pancake House in the bustling town of West Yellowstone. The Running Bear menu included box lunches that we availed ourselves of for a “dinner” in the room topped with a bottle of wine. Our day-trip destinations included Lower Yellowstone River Falls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Tower Falls, Gibbon Falls, Firehole Falls, Mammoth Hot Springs (where we encountered bull elk gathering their harems), and Lamar Valley where we searched for but found little wildlife within camera range.
After our journey into Yellowstone National Park, we headed south for home, traveling through Teton National Park and Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s picturesque Star Valley and Utah’s colorful Logan Canyon. In Logan, Jane and I had dinner with my nephew Bryan, his spouse Margaret and my 96 year old sister Neli. My sister now resides in an assisted living facility, but she absolutely doesn’t require any assistance. She’s a 96 year old livewire! Reminiscing and sharing family stories with my sister was a most wonderful way to close out our 2023 travel year.
Brazilian Adventure
Discounting an early hiccup with United Airlines that forfeited the first day of our Brazilian adventure, Jane and I wholeheartedly enjoyed exploring the outback of Brazil’s Pantanal. The Pantanal is the world’s largest seasonal floodplain. At just over 71,000 square miles, the Pantanal is about the same size as the state of Washington. The Pantanal is located in Bolivia and Paraguay with the bulk, nearly 82% in Brazil. During the wet season, 75% of the Pantanal is inundated with floodwater from tributary rivers. During the dry season, fish and aquatic organisms are trapped in remnant pools throughout the Pantanal bringing in a myriad of migratory birds. Mammals tend to stay near the main river channels where they become prey for jaguars and it was jaguars we had come to photograph.
We had selected Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris, a well-recognized organization specializing in wildlife photography excursions, for our Pantanal trip. Jane and I had good memories from our previously photo safari with Van Os to Madagascar and were confident we would have another memorable experience. Before joining the Van Os group in Cuiabá, however, we arrived in Brazil a few days early in order to make a side trip to Iguazú Falls on the Brazil-Argentine border. This system of waterfalls, straddling both countries, is reportedly the largest in the world. The falls were indeed phenomenal and defy description.
We flew into Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, from Albuquerque via Chicago and San Paulo. We had arranged for a local guide to meet us at the airport and help facilitate with logistics including crossing the border in order to experience Iguazú Falls from the Argentine side. Weather was not on are side as we experienced heavy overcast and rain during our tour of the falls. The disappointing weather did not lessen the thunderous impact of 470,000 gallons of water per second falling hundreds of feet over successive layers of basalt in a horseshoe array of multiple waterfalls. Iguazú Falls is without doubt one of the world’s greatest natural wonders.
We stayed at the Belmond Hotel das Cataratas located within Iguazú National Park and within walking distance of the falls on the Brazil side. We were as impressed with the service and amenities of the hotel as we were with the roaring waterfalls. Of course, staying at the Belmond was not inexpensive. We reluctantly left the luxury of the Belmond Hotel das Cataratas to meet up with our fellow photographers of the Van Os group in Cuiabá.
Our group consisted of nine people, seven photographer clients and two guides, Mark Thomas from Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris and Paulo Boute, of Boute Expeditions, our local Brazilian guide. I would be remiss in not including our bus drive, Elton, in our travel group. Elton did an outstanding job maneuvering the bus to enhance photo opportunities. After our “meet and greet” dinner at the Gran Odara Hotel, we met Elton at the bus early the next morning for the long anticipated journey south into the Pantanal.
We reached our first accommodation, Pousada Rio Claro, after about five hours on the graded Transpantaneira highway. We stopped along the way as Mark or Paulo sighted something of photographic interest, mostly various species of birds. By the time we reached Rio Claro our group had jelled into a congenial band of likeminded naturalists. The highlight of our stay at this Pousada (Inn) was photographing a variety of birds from boats on the Rio Claro. Mark and Paulo had perfected a way to call in the birds, including Amazon Kingfishers, Cocoi Herons, and Black Collared Hawks, using fish as bait.
From Pousada Rio Claro, Elton drove us deeper south into the Pantanal to the end of the Transpantaneira highway, at Porto Jofre, where we stayed six nights at the comfortable Hotel Porto Jofre. The highlight here was photographing jaguars. We ventured out on the Rio Cuiabá twice a day for five days looking for and photographing jaguars. It was no walk in the park, however. Up and out before the sun in the morning and chasing sunset on the way back to the lodge in the evening. But what an invigorating experience it was, observing these wild creatures in their natural environment hunting and stalking prey. Although jaguars were the focus, there was opportunity to photograph many other subjects along the river’s edge.
After our exhausting stay at Hotel Porto Jofre, we headed back north on the Estrada Transpantaneira with a halfway stop at Pouso Alegre (Happy Land in Portuguese) for two nights. It was a welcome relief to have breakfast at 7:00 AM instead of 5:00 AM. At Pouse Alegre photography occurred at waterholes within about a mile of the lodge. Paulo used his phone app to call in various birds but the large, colorful Toco Toucan alluded being photographed.
According to an old proverb, “all good things must come to an end” and so did our adventure in Brazil’s Pantanal. From Pouso Alegre, Elton continued to drive us north, back to Cuiabá for a farewell lunch at the Churrascaria Aeroporto Grill. Lunch at the churrascaria (steak house) was a unique experience. Smartly dressed waiters would bring various cuts of meats, lamb, beef, pork and chicken, to the table on long skewers. We could select a rare or well done portion of the meat and the waiter would carve it from the skewer and serve it right on to our plate.
After lunch, goodbyes and hugs were shared as some of us departed for the airport and others back to the hotel for a later flight. Jane and I retraced our route from Cuiabá to Albuquerque via Chicago. It was a long day and night before we were comfortably back home.
You can see pictures from our Pantanal trip in the Brazil gallery on the home page of my website. Please be patient when opening the gallery. The files are a bit large and it may take a few minutes to load them for viewing.
Canadian Summer
Locals affectionately call the large island off the east coast of Canada the “rock”. John Cabot was the first known European explorer to land on this island of Newfoundland in 1497. For nearly a hundred years after that, fishermen from Portugal, Spain, France, Holland and England launched seasonal fishing explorations around the cod rich waters of Newfoundland. Eventually, it was the British who claimed the island in 1583 and established permanent colonial settlements. It wasn’t until 1949, however, that Newfoundland joined the Canadian Confederation.
With that short introduction about Newfoundland, you might well ask “so what were Jane and Rinus doing in Newfoundland?” Good question. I had learned of photographers going to Newfoundland to photograph seabirds and so, a few years back, put the idea of going there on my to-do list. After some covid-19 related delays, the trip finally came together this year. The plan was to spend a couple of weeks photographing in Newfoundland and finish our Canadian trip in Ontario for some loon photography.
We flew from Albuquerque, via Dallas-Fort Worth and Toronto, to St. John’s. With a population of about 112,000, it is the largest city, by far, in Newfoundland. We had a few days to explore this most easterly city in North America. We stayed in the downtown area near the working harbor. Fishing and maritime activities are a mainstay of St. John’s economy and the wharfs were crowded with ships of all sizes, including the Polar Prince, mother ship to the ill-fated Titan submersible.
Our hotel was close to the shops, restaurants and pubs on Water and Duckworth Streets. We sampled a variety of restaurants and found the funky Bagel Café with its small booths our favorite for breakfast. Jane and I are not night owls, so we missed out on some of the live entertainment offered at the pubs. We enjoyed our stay in St. John’s but found the downtown area a bit old and weathered, which is understandable in the harsh environment of Newfoundland. Up the hill from Duckworth Street, however, are residential neighborhoods of row houses painted in an array of bright colors, nicknamed Jellybean Row, that give St. John’s a festive look.
A few miles south of St. John’s, the offshore islands of Witless Bay Ecological Preserve offered our first opportunity to photograph seabirds. The preserve is host to large Atlantic Puffin and Common Mure colonies. I had made arrangements with O’Brien’s Whale and Bird Tour to access the preserve. The island is off limits to all but researchers, so we had to photograph the birds from O’Brien’s boat that wallowed in the swales of the Atlantic Ocean. Not the best of conditions, but seeing hundreds of birds in their natural environment was truly amazing.
Our next stop was St. Bride and the Cape St. Mary Ecological Reserve, located at the southwest corner of the Avalon Peninsula, to photograph the Northern Gannet. Gannets roost on a near-shore sea stack, called “bird rock”, about fifty yards from the mainland. Tens of thousands of Northern Gannets have chosen the rocky ledges of this towering formation to mate and raise their chicks. Like puffins, the gannets spend most of their lives out on the ocean, only coming ashore in late spring to reestablish relationships, build nests, and raise their young. During our visit to the colony in early June, courtship, mating, and nest building were in high gear. A few birds were incubating eggs and I only observed one chick that appeared to be only a day or so old.
After our three nights stay at the small village of St. Bride, with a resident population of around three hundred, we drove north for a four nights stay in Bonavista, a much larger community with a population of three thousand. It was in the area of Bonavista that the explorer John Cabot landed in 1497. My primary objective for going to Bonvista was to photograph large puffin colonies at Elliston and Cape Bonavista. Both of these colonies were located on large, rounded, near-shore sea stacks that had a covering of soil in which the puffins could dig their nesting burrows. At each location the puffin viewing area was only a short walk from the parking lot.
Puffins appeared to have just started returning from their time at sea and looking for nesting sites. There were groups of puffins scattered around the top of the sea stack and flocks flying overhead as if looking for their missing mates. There were only a few obviously paired couples checking out nesting sites. Squabbles occasionally occurred as mated couples appeared to compete for a nesting burrow. At mid-June, we were too early to observe parents with fish laden beaks returning from the Atlantic to feed their brood. As a bonus, however, on a rocky outcrop at the Elliston location, high on the cliff, I noticed several pair of Black Guillemots going through their mating rituals.
Every spring, as Nordic temperatures rise, the glaciers of western Greenland calve icebergs. These large, ten thousand year old chunks of ice are carried on ocean currents some 1,800 nautical miles to Newfoundland’s coast. Jane and I boarded the trawler “Lady Marguerite” in Bonavista to go iceberg hunting. We encountered icebergs shortly after leaving the harbor and the captain maneuvered the vessel for some close views.
The next stop on our itinerary was a two night stay in the quaint fishing village of Twillingate. Here we did not have to take a boat to find icebergs. The bergs were floating around Twillingate Harbor right in front of our hotel. The drive to Twillingate took us through the town of Gander. Modest in size, with a population around twelve thousand, Gander is location of an international airport with a long runway that served as a refueling stop for flights between Europe and North America before the advent of long range jets. When the U.S. closed its airspace on September 11, 2001, Gander’s airport was one of only a few capable of handling redirected aircraft. This small community then provided refuge for nearly seven thousand stranded passengers. This outstanding show of kindness and hospitality is now the basis of a Tony award winning Broadway musical, “Come From Away”.
All through our tour of Newfoundland we were adversely impacted by smoke blown in from wildfires in other parts of Canada. It was particularly bad in the Twillingate area. With its numerous small islands, bays, coves and charming villages, the scenery around Twillingate would have been striking if not for the grey, hazy layer of smoke. We did venture out to explore, however. The countryside around Twillingate and the rest of Newfoundland is primarily subarctic tundra and boreal forest. Trees are mostly small conifers with black spruce dominating some areas. Conifer lined roads with small ponds and lakes are prevalent throughout Newfoundland. Treelined lakes would have made interesting, scenic landscape images if it had not been for the smoke.
From Twillingate, we traveled back to St. John’s and on to Toronto for the last phase of our trip. We rented a car at the Toronto airport and drove north to Huntsville in the Muskoka region of Ontario. Back in 2020 I had made arrangements for a loon photography workshop with Michael Bertelsen. Back then the Canadian border was closed due to covid-19, so this year I was finally able to make this three day workshop. Including Jane and me, there were a total of four participants that embarked with Michael to search for loons on his specially outfitted boat.
Conditions were less than ideal, however, as the Muskoka region was also impacted by smoke from the Canadian wildfires. The group was intrepid, however, and was out at five AM each morning. We searched for loons on the Muskoka River, the Ox Tongue River and Lake Muskoka. My hope was to photograph loons with chicks riding on their backs. As with many of my wildlife photography aspirations, Mother Nature always calls the shots and success is totally dependent on Her. According to Michael, there was a low probability of finding loons with chicks during this workshop.
However, while we were photographing a nesting loon on the Muskoka River, Michael received a call from one of his fishing buddies that a loon with newborn chicks had been spotted on Lake Muskoka. Early the next morning, that is where we headed. Sure enough, Michael spotted the loon and chick and that morning my aspiration of photographing loon chicks on a parent’s back was realized.
After nearly three weeks of travel, we left Huntsville and headed home to Albuquerque. Rain slowed our drive back to Toronto but we got to the airport in plenty of time for our afternoon flight back to DFW. From there, it was a late night arrival at Sunport, a taxi ride back to Lake Isabella Way, and good night’s sleep in our own bed. Despite the annoyance of smoke from wildfires, our excursion through remote Newfoundland and finding loons in Ontario made for a very unique adventure.
Spring Break
I have generally maintained that birthdays ending in five or zero are the significant ones. Other birthdays are just minor events. So as Jane was approaching a zero-ending birthday, I knew that something special had to be done. An April birthday trip to Paris was the answer. So, late last year, planning started for a spring trip to Paris. As planning progressed, the journey expanded to include three European capitals, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris.
Amsterdam
Our American Airlines flight from Albuquerque, via Philadelphia, arrived at Schiphol airport around 8:30 in the morning on April 11th. After proceeding through passport control, it was a short train ride from Schiphol to the Amsterdam Centraal train station, followed with an even shorter taxi ride to our hotel. Arriving in the morning as we did, meant we could not check in at the hotel. So, we parked our bags there and headed out to explore our first European capital.
It took only a few blocks of walking to realize that Amsterdam was a city of, and for, bicycles. Cyclists appeared to have right-of-way over cars and pedestrians alike. A large degree of caution was exercised as we explored the city. Amsterdam is also a city of canals (grachts). Our hotel, aptly named Canal House, is a converted old, 17th century, canal house along the Keizersgracht. After leaving the hotel, we navigated our way on this first day of discovery by counting and noting the names of the grachts we crossed. It was at the Museum Of The Canals that we learned that canals were built to accommodate Amsterdam’s growth in the middle ages. Construction of canals was integral with water management, creation of buildable land, and transportation. Amsterdam’s canals are now a UNESCO World Heritage.
Before going back to the Canal House to check in for our four nights stay, we walked the busy streets of central Amsterdam familiarizing ourselves with its many landmarks, museums and restaurants. We visited the Willet-Holthuysen House, a grand mansion on the Herengracht, turned into a museum featuring period décor and an extensive collection of nineteenth century art; lunched at the Blue Restaurant with its bird’s eye view of the city; and strolled by the Bloemenmarkt (flower market).
Amsterdam is home to a host of museums and during our three full days in the city we enjoyed many of them. In addition to the Willet-Holthuysen House and Museum Of The Canals, we joined the crowds at the Hermitage Museum, Van Gogh Museum, House of Bols (gin) Museum, Rijksmuseum, and the very popular and congested Vermeer Exhibit. Favorite restaurants included the Pancake Bakery, Seafood Bar, and d'Vijff Vlieghen (Five Flies) where we celebrated Jane’s zero-ending birthday.
A spring journey to Holland cannot be complete without a visit to the famous tulip fields of Keukenhof. These gardens are a magnet for tourists, so Jane had made arrangements for our tour several months in advance of leaving home. Contrary to the cloudy, chilly days we experienced in Amsterdam, our day at Keukenhof was warmer and sunny making the myriad flowers sparkle in the sun.
My nephew Wim lives with his girlfriend Marina in Middelburg, located in the south of the Netherlands. Jane and I embarked on the train journey to Middelburg after our stay in Amsterdam to spend a couple of days with Wim and Marina. We started that visit on a bit of a sad note. Wim showed us the cemetery garden where my older brother Dick’s ashes were scattered. Dick passed away, at age 97, shortly after Jane and I had visited with him last summer on our way to the Alps (see the Europe 2022 Blog of July 13, 2022).
After that emotional experience, we continued our visit with Wim and Marina on a much lighter note. One day we drove the short distance to Veere, one of our favorite rural villages, for a meal of mussels. We also made a day-trip to Ghent, in the Flemish portion of Belgium, with its medieval castle and cathedral. Wim and Marina were perfect hosts and we very much enjoyed visiting with them. But, we had two more European capitals to visit, so after a farewell dinner, Jane and I continued our journey by train to Bruxelles.
Brussels
The train from Middelburg, via Rotterdam, arrived at the Brussels Central Station around 2 PM on April 18th. Although we had travelled to Europe at least a half dozen times, we had never been to Brussels. Jane had completed a lot of “armchair” exploring of Brussels before we left home and created a list of potential sites to visit during our three days in this capital city of Belgian. Our accommodations were at the Juliana Hotel, within walking distance of La Grand-Place de Bruxelles. This UNESCO Heritage Site is a collection of late 17th century building around a cobble-stone paved square. The buildings are an eclectic mix of municipal, ducal, and guild houses with a multitude of gilded architectural ornamentation.
For the following morning, Jane had arranged a private tour of the European Quarter of Brussels where the European Commission has its offices. Although we did not enter any of the commission buildings, we found the modern architecture stunning and in dramatic contrast to the historic buildings of the Grand Place. We visited the nearby Royal Museum that also included the Magritte Museum (Magritte is the artist famous for men in bowler hats) and the Library of the Dukes of Burgundy. Dating from the 1,300’s, the collection of manuscripts in this library were copied by hand and illustrated by artisans of the Middle Ages.
Several decades ago, when Jane and I were first dating, we spent several weekends in San Francisco where we frequented the Mozart Café for dinners. Now when we travel through Europe's major cities, we always look to see if there is a Café Mozart. We found one in Brussels. And, of course, we had to have their dinner special, all you can eat ribs, accompanied by their own red burgundy wine. During our walks around central Brussels we found other interesting pub-like restaurants where we imbibed local beer and food.
Needless to say, any trip to Brussels is not complete without a visit to the Manneken Pis landmark. This pint sized, 22 inch, bronze fountain statue of a little boy peeing into a basin draws hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists a day. A short walk from the Grand Place, Jane and I found ourselves among these tourists to see this obscure, small fountain wedged between buildings on the corner of Stoofstraat and Elkstraat.
Paris
It was an hour and half ride on the Thalys train from the Midi station in Brussels to the Gare du Nord station in Paris. From Gare du Nord, it was a twenty minute taxi ride to the Hotel Raphaël for our seven night stay in Paris. The Raphaël was a boutique hotel with traditional classic French décor. Located on Avenue Kléber, the hotel was a five minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe and fifteen minute walk from the Trocadéro with its amazing view of the Eiffel tower. The Kléber Metro station, right in front of the hotel, was our transportation link to Paris’ many attractions.
Upon arrival at Gare du Nord, we purchased Paris Museum and Metro passes at the Tourist Information store. The museum pass allowed us to skip the long queues at museum ticket counters and the metro pass meant we could bypasses the confusing ticket machines and just tap our pass to enter any metro station. Both passes were used extensively during our week in Paris. We spent a lot of time at the Louvre, of course, and visited the Monet’s l’Orangerie Museum, the Rodin Museum, the Jacquemart-Andre Museum, and made the ascent to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
In addition to our time in the city, we also made a couple of day trips. The first was to Monet’s garden in Giverny. We arrived before the large tour busses and thoroughly enjoyed the uncrowded garden with its variety of colorful flowers and famous lily ponds. We walked the short distance from the Giverny garden to Monet’s grave, located at the nearby Église Sainte-Radegonde de Giverny. Our second day trip was to Château de Fontainebleau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, both impressive, ornate French architectural landmarks with opulent gardens.
We walked a lot in Paris, exploring the Montmatre area around the Basilica of the Sacré-Coeur; strolled the length of Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe, past Place de la Concorde, all the way to the Louvre Museum; sauntered through the Latin Quarter past the Sorbonne Université and Panthéon; wandered around the Hôtel de Ville and the Palais Royal; and made the easy trek from the Raphael to the Eiffel Tower several times.
Alas, our spring break to three European capitals had come to its conclusion and on April 28th we boarded American Airlines flight 25 back to the USA, Jane having graciously come to terms with her zero-ending birthday.
Spring Photo Trip
As winter turned to spring in Albuquerque, my mind started thinking about photographing spring wildflowers. Although the winter had brought some snow and rain to New Mexico, precipitation in early spring had been sparse. Nevertheless, I talked myself into taking a short trip south to Las Cruces where the Organ Mountains have a reputation for a good wildflower show. I also talked Bruce, my photo buddy from San Diego, into meeting me there for a few days of photography. The objective was to find and photograph Mexican Gold Poppies with the Organ Mountains as a backdrop.
In preparation for this short excursion, I had contacted the Las Cruces Chapter of the New Mexico Native Plant Society to obtain current information about the wildflower bloom. One of their members, Gordon Berman, was nice enough to provide me with potential wildflower locations. But he warned that there had not been sufficient spring rain to generate a good bloom and that there was only a sprinkling of poppies scattered along the foothills of the Organ Mountains. His prediction proved correct and Bruce and I were only able find a few small clusters of poppies, but not the fields of flowers I had hoped for.
I suggested to Gordon Berman that it would be nice to meet him in person and we arranged to meet for lunch at La Posta, an old station along the Butterfield stage couch route, converted into a restaurant, in Mesilla, near Las Cruces. Gordon turned out to be quite the expert on native flowers many of which he grew in his yard. He sympathized with us about the lack of poppies and offered to take us to some uncommon cacti that were in bloom along the Dripping Springs Trail in the Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks National Monument. That is where we photographed the Chihuahuan Pineapple Cactus and the New Mexico Rainbow Cactus.
During our last photo trip in August, 2022, Bruce and I had some success in photographing the Milky Way. So, on a whim, I checked if it were possible to photography the Milky Way in early April. I did not expect it, but it turned out to be possible during the early morning hours. So, I made arrangements for an early entry permit at White Sands National Park hoping to photograph the Milky Way with the white gypsum dunes in the foreground. We relocated to Alamogordo in order to be closer to the Park. We were up at 4:00 AM, out the door at 4:30 AM and at the Park entrance at 5:00 AM for our early entry. We had scouted photo locations the previous day so we would know where to place our tripods in the dark.
When all was said and done, Bruce and I had a great time. It was a bit disappointing that the Mexican Gold Poppies were scarce, but we had some good practice shooting the night sky. From Alamogordo we both headed home after a brief stop at Bosque del Apache and lunch at the Owl Café in San Antonia.