Random Photos from Road Trips

[Rick Quinn]

This is actually a better example:



That last one had a few bugs in it....

Rick

Taken at Granada Park, near my house in Phoenix.

[Rick Quinn]

What is the insect in the middle of the frame? Size is right for a horsefly, but with red wings?

Mark

I honestly have no idea--maybe a horsefly hybrid? Here's another group of aviators in the same meadow:

[Mark Sedenquist]

High shutter speed to catch the bumble bee's wings.

That is quite the collection of winged marauders.

[Mark Sedenquist]

US 95 in Western Idaho -- June 2022

Canola getting ready for harvest (Megan Edwards, photo)

[Mark Sedenquist]

Another road, I wish I had taken.

check out the winding road in the center of the frame.

Western Idaho, June 2022.

[Rick Quinn]

My book of Southwestern road trips (Arizona and New Mexico: 25 Scenic Side Trips) ties together (nearly) every scenic destination in those two states that you can get to by road. The vast territory is broken down into "Side Trips" that lead you off the area Interstates, and through the best parts of the back country. At the end of the day, each side trip leads you back to your Interstate, providing, in essence, a series of scenic alternatives to travel on the "super slab".

The book starts off with a bang: Scenic Side Trip #1 leaves Interstate 10 in Van Horn, Texas, and in a single day's drive takes you to three National Parks, a UFO museum, the stomping grounds of Billy the Kid, a beautiful mountain forest, the world's largest pistachio, and much, much more before leading you, at last, back to Interstate 10 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Me and two of my old friends drove the route in my Jeep, sort of a "trial run." We started in Tucson, drove I-10 to El Paso, then headed for Guadalupe Mountain National Park (which is east of El Paso, and north of Van Horn).


Right here, alongside the Texas Mountain Trail, was my first photo opportunity.





It was a very auspicious beginning! (And a whole lot of fun!)

Rick

[Mark Sedenquist]

This is from the creative mind of Erich Schlegel shooting underwater on the Frio River in Texas:


Frio River, Blue Hole. October 2021 -- photo by Erich Schlegel

[Rick Quinn]

Guadalupe Peak, the centerpiece of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, rises to a height of more than 8,700 feet, making it the highest point in the state of Texas. If you travel just 30 miles north, you cross the state line into New Mexico, where you enter Carlsbad Caverns National Park. There you'll find the Lechugilla Cave, which reaches depths of more than 1600 feet, which is the second lowest point in the entire United States! Lechugilla and Carlsbad Caverns proper are only three miles apart, but they are entirely seperate systems, and, while Carlsbad has extensive below ground infrastructure for tourists, visitors are NOT allowed in Lechugilla. Both Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks are in the same mountain range, but the experience that they offer couldn't possibly be more different.

While doing that trial run of Scenic Side Trip #1, my friends and I arrived at Carlsbad Caverns quite late in the day, so we checked into a motel in town, then went back to the park to watch the nightly exodus of hundreds of thousands of bats as they left the cave to feed. The next morning, we were first in line to catch the elevator from the Visitor's Center that drops you 750 feet to the Big Room, the signature attraction of this extraordinary cave system.

If you've never experienced that sort of thing? I can highly (or lowly?) recommend it!

More about Rick's book:


Accessible path through the "Big Room" at Carlsbad Caverns







Rick

[Mark Sedenquist]

Holiday Cheer from Winslow, Arizona


Photo by Ron Clements

[Rick Quinn]

After you finish touring the first two National Parks (Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns), Scenic Side Trip #1 takes you north along the storied Pecos River (as in, "There's no law west of Dodge, and no God west of the Pecos.")


Brantley Lake, an impoundment of the Pecos River, north of Carlsbad.

76 miles later, you'll come to the intersection of two highways, US 285 (the road you've been driving on), and US 380/70 (the road you're about to be driving on). The intersection is right smack in the middle of Roswell, the town that enjoys world-wide fame for something that never actually happened: one of the earliest known examples of a conspiracy theory widely promoted by the media. What's known for sure is that SOMETHING crashed in the desert outside Roswell back in 1947, and whatever it was, the military took over the crash site, guarding it with tight security, while insisting that it was nothing but a "weather balloon." Some local folk insisted that the crash involved a flying saucer piloted by alien beings, and that's the version that spread like crazy. Years later, the Air Force finally released the real story, about a super secret high altitude balloon that was spying on the Russians--but there are plenty of folks who still believe in flying saucers. If you're ever driving this route, look to your left when you hit the intersection, and you'll see:



Inside the museum, they have all sorts of wacky stuff:



Being honest, I'm not sure I'd go out of my way for it, but if you're passing through Roswell, it's totally worth the stop!

Rick