After a week of freezing temperatures I have spent my time wading through our holiday shots from Christmas in Las Vegas. I'm pleased to say they are all sorted now and published on their own page, you can access it directly by clicking here. there are about 200 images with text paragraphs between them to identify where we are at any given time.
It covers Las Vegas, the 7 Magic Mountains, the Mojave Desert, Hoover Dam, Valley of Fire, Death Valley, Route 66, Oatman Arizona, the New Years Eve fireworks and more. As usual there's not much reading just introductions and images. You can use the link above or find it on the Canada or USA pages in the tabs above.
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It used to be that what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas, but not any longer. We spent Christmas and New Year in the city and its surrounds making short video clips as we went along. It's our first foray into video so there is significant room for improvement but Sarah insists we post it because she loves it. There are clips from Las Vegas, Death Valley, the Hoover Dam, Mojave Desert, Valley of Fire State Park, Casinos, Hotels and much more, I'll get to the photos over the next few days and post them up at some point. In the meantime, have a cuppa and watch our wanderings on video. No Prizes for guessing where we are this week, Vegas Baby Vegas! To escape the Canadian winter for a couple of weeks Sarah and I have gone south to Vegas. It has been a great first week with lots of sightseeing, shopping (of course) casino nights, a Cirque du Soleil show and visits to some great desert locations.
The main shot below was taken from our hotel room window on the first night, soon after this we walked the strip as far as the Venetian and made a few shots along the way. The next morning we made our first desert trip to the Mojave where we dropped the top on the rental car and enjoyed the relative warmth of the day. We had another day on the strip and a rainy night which made for some nice reflective images of the Las Vegas neon on the strip. We spent a little more time in town to let the rain blow through and took in a Cirque Du Soleil show. The next day we made the short hop to the Hoover Dam and then on to the Valley of Fire State Park where we ran out of daylight whilst walking among the stunning coloured rocks. Today we drove out to Death Valley National Park so Sarah could experience the beauty of that wonderful location. Though it was busy we did walk out onto Badwater Basin and explored the 45 miles along the Badwater Road before dropping in at the Area 51 Alien Centre on the way back to Las Vegas. A fantastic first week with one wet evening which made for some lovely images. This week is the huge New Years Eve party on the strip culminating with fireworks from the rooftops of the hotels alongside. We hope to get more desert trips in but I'm not sure if there will be time to post again before we get home. So far the casinos have been good to us with some big wins keeping us away from any loses, I'm not sure we are winning but we're not losing and that's all that matters. The gallery below has captions to identify locations, the main shot is the view from our hotel room. I spent some time today writing up our prairie trip, it's incredible how much you can fit in a few days and still feel like you have had the most restful holiday. We ended our trip with visits to the centre block of Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, the Great Sand Hills and Drumheller.
It was another great birthday break that leaves us ready for the next with an eye on September and Sarahs birthday. You can see the full write up by clicking here or by looking on our Canada page where all our trips can be found. There are plenty of images and text in the full write up including far more from the Great Sand Hills shown below. Currently on the road in Saskatchewan after touring from home for a few days. We've visited Lundbreck Falls, Beauvais Lake, Waterton Lakes National Park, Writing on Stone Provincial Park and Grasslands National Park so far.
We missed the storms around Waterton but considered ourselves lucky to be in a restaurant having dinner when the worst of it hit. We had overnight storms in Saskatchewan but we were tucked up in bed so dodged them too. At grasslands we had spectacular sunshine and a lovely cooling breeze making for perfect conditions. I'm so glad about that too as I had talked up the park and wanted Sarah to enjoy it, the weather was the icing on the cake as the Prairie Dogs all had pups and we saw a Prairie Badger too. At Writing on Stone Provincial Park Sarah went to use the toilet and let out a squeak when a Bullsnake wriggled across in front of her at the entrance. A ranger came along and collected the snake and took him to the safe grassland area and released him within a few minutes. It's been a great trip so far, I thought I'd post a few images tonight to share the journey. The main shot is of the shoreline and mountains at Waterton Lakes. The smoke from Alberta wildfires drove me out of the province last week into the wide open spaces of Saskatchewan, our neighboring province. I had my eye on Grasslands National Park so drove over there for a couple of days and explored. I stayed in the park until 1 am to make a milky way image and messed around with some light painting of a foreground tree.
As you can see in the main shot it worked out quite well considering the smoke/haze. It was a great help to be in an official 'dark sky' site and I'm sure during late autumn or early winter with clear skies this would be a great place to return to. The park itself is wonderful and more than I was expecting, I've made a full write up with more images and text about the place which you can find by clicking here. As usual there will be a permanent link on the Canada page. The small gallery below has no captions but the galleries in the full write up are all captioned. Just a short post to say I have written up the entire Arizona road trip into one page with all the shots from the 8000 km/ 6 state trip. We had a great time and we're already thinking about the next one...something coastal perhaps.
You can go direct to the page by clicking here, and you will find a permanent link on our Canada page. Still on the first road trip of 2019 and following on from my long day crossing the deserts of California, I opted for an easier day on Friday. I stayed at the hotel for a good breakfast and did a little shopping in the local outlet place within walking distance of the hotel.
As the day wore on I set out to South Mountain Park hoping to have a short hike and make some images before catching sunset. I did both and even hung around for a night shot of the city before heading to the airport to collect Sarah. We met exactly as planned and on time at Phoenix International airport then drove back to our hotel for the evening. On Saturday morning we drove north to Meteor Crater before turning west through Holbrook to the Petrified Forest. After wandering the park we continued on to the Painted Desert before returning to Holbrook for our much anticipated stay in the Wigwam Motel (a route 66 classic) The rooms are concrete wigwams and each one has an old classic car sitting outside. On Sunday morning we had breakfast in Holbrook before turning south toward Tucson through the Apache National Forest onto the Tonto National Forest where we stopped at a nice overlook for a huge canyon we had driven through. On arrival in Tucson we went to an outlet shopping mall beside the hotel and spent a couple of hours shopping and eating before checking in. Once refreshed we set out again to see the huge 'cowboy cacti' the Saguaro National Park and to catch sunset in Tucson Mountain Park. As the low level sunset was ending we got to talking with a local guy called Nathan and enjoyed meeting and exchanging stories with him before finally parting ways and heading back to the hotel in the dark. It has been a great 'full' weekend and we still have one more day before Sarah flies home, we will be heading back to Phoenix tomorrow and have yet to decide what we will do for the day as we are now officially ahead of schedule. With the high speed internet of the Hampton Inn there's a good sized gallery below with captions to cover locations, the main image is from South Mountain Park in Phoenix, a classic western sunset which I made before collecting Sarah from the airport. I left the sanctuary of the Atomic Inn on the Nevada - California border at 04:30 today and made my way into Death Valley to catch the sunrise. I had no idea about a specific location within the park as I didn't intend to be there so early, but as I was awake I decided to get going.
As I entered the park I was talking to Sarah on the phone as she made her way to work (Calgary is and hour ahead of California) I noticed the star filled sky and decided to stop and make a quick shot of the milky way over the mountains, it was weakened by the morning blue hour but worth a hit all the same. Next I decided that as I didn't know where the best place for sunrise was I should climb something in the dark and be at the top for sunrise. I found a likely looking ridge and with the added energy of sea level oxygen I scrambled my way up, in the dark, hauling two cameras, 4 lenses, a tripod and numerous spares in a hefty backpack. My head torch picked out the route and I made the top in good time with only one grazed leg to moan about. From the top I made a long exposure of another early bird making their way into the park. Whilst sunset was not spectacular it was enough to allow me to make a few shots from my lofty perch with the telephoto lens. I enjoyed the morning scramble but wouldn't want to do it every day. The main image today is one of the telephoto shots of Death Valley sunrise. The descent was much easier than the ascent and soon I was making the long walk out to Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the US) to shoot the salt flats there before continuing through the park stopping every few minutes to shoot something else. The cacti were flowering in places and looked beautiful against the stark rocky background. After 7 hours I exited the park only to be distracted by a massive 'off road' area of impressive looking dunes so made a detour to investigate. The wind whipped up the sand and stung my face but the area is definitely one for the memory bank, a sunrise or sunset would go well here. From there I crossed the Mojave Desert where more flowering cacti put in a welcome appearance. Soon I was through the Mojave and into the town of Twentynine Pines on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park where my hotel awaited. After a lovely shower and change of clothing I still had a little daylight left so I drove half and hour through Joshua Tree National Park to Keys View for an impromptu sunset shoot. At the site I met a Geordie bloke who was working in California for a week and had also come out to shoot the sunset. It was nice to share stories with a northern lad so far from home. We had an enjoyable natter and made some nice shots too, so it was worth going out again. I'm now writing this blog 19 hours after leaving the Atomic Inn, so if there are mistakes in here they are to be expected. No sunrise shooting for me tomorrow, I'm laying in and enjoying a late breakfast before returning to Joshua Tree for the morning. Tomorrow afternoon I head to Phoenix Arizona ready to meet Sarah on Friday, it will be nice to be out together in the deserts of Arizona, I'm really looking forward to it. I stayed for breakfast at the hotel before starting out this morning, but I was on the road by 07:00. I went directly west toward Nevada, and as I did the expected winter storm went east over my head. The timing worked out perfectly as I missed all of the rain and snow but did catch some really strong winds along the edge of the storm.
My first stop of the day was Bonneville Salt Flats, some of which was still iced over. You can't really drive past Bonneville without stopping. At this time of year you will often find water on the flats and it is equally often perfectly calm providing stunning reflections. I managed a few shots this morning before those storm winds came in and killed it. The main shot today is of the appropriately named 'Silver Island Mountains' on the north west side of Bonneville salt flats. I've seen the perfect mirror of Bonneville, flowering Joshua trees, HGV's flipped over by the wind and enormous larva flows today. Best of all I have traveled hundreds of miles on almost empty desert highways. Tomorrow I hope to see Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park and cut through the Mojave desert to Yucca Valley. From there I can visit Joshua Tree National Park on Thursday morning and be in Phoenix by Thursday night ready to collect Sarah from the airport on Friday. |
AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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