Man, I love a good ol' barn...

...especially when there's nothing but good memories and a little luck still holding them up.  It doesn't hurt the scene any when they're backdropped by the San Juan Mountains in SE Colorado. This one is in an epic battle with the elements and gravity but is fighting the good fight. I love to think about the day when the last board was nailed into place and the family first looked with such pride upon their brand new barn.

This picture was taken north of Westcliffe, CO, at sunrise one morning as I was headed from Denver to Phoenix (via backroads and state highways, obviously.)  👍

Great Sand Dunes National Park

I love this place any time of day but especially near sunset when only one side of the dunes have light. These are the highest dunes in all of North America housed within one of the youngest national parks in the national park system.

For a sense of scale, you can see some people (yeah, those dots) on top of the highest dune in this next picture.

Sangre De Cristo mountains in the background

Yep, they're steep! Noah and I hiked barefoot across a partially frozen stream to start this hike up.

Lightning over Arcadia Lake, Edmond OK

Boom.

Lunar landscape via New Mexico Volcanoes

This picture was taken along the road that leads to the iconic Capulin Volcano at the US Park Services National Monument of the same name.













Capulin Volcano is located roughly near Des Moines, NM, which is pretty much right next to nothing you've ever heard of.


The closest town in Oklahoma is actually only 75 miles away from the volcano.  But Kenton, OK, is also near the OK state line you've likely never crossed...the one that borders New Mexico.  When you leave Kenton headed west, it's not long before you run into dirt road (4x4 only in bad weather) and that then carries you further into New Mexico.

I've loved every visit to Capulin Volcano and once was able to make the one mile hike around the rim.  It's an obscure, but wonderful off-the-beaten-path sort of destination - my favorite kind.

If you are headed to Colorado Springs from Oklahoma, I highly recommend taking the volcano route (Amarillo | Dalhart | Clayton | Raton) since it costs you next to nothing in drive time but affords you lots in beautiful scenery.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And as a bit of travelogue...

The view as you head west out of Oklahoma from Kenton.

The paved trail on the volcano and expansive view afforded from the same.

View from the top.  You can see the parking lot at the bottom right of the first pic and over my right shoulder in the second pic.

Trippin'...at Canyon de Chelly

It's pronounced Canyon de 'Shay', it's in NE Arizone, and it's not a good place to not be sure-footed. Remote shutter releases are cool but that last step is a doozy.

Reflections at Great Plains State Park

Last summer Noah and I went on a surprisingly wonderful little weekend camping trip. It wasn't surprisingly wonderful because I didn't think we'd have a good time. But the remote location was even more enjoyable than I had hoped.  I must add, and the internet as well as Noah can confirm, the bacon cheeseburgers at the 3-table Tom Steed Reservoir Bait Shop are just amazing!  Oddly, my bride narrow-mindedly frowns upon eating in the same store where you can by earthworms and dead crawdads for bait.

Here are a few pics of world famous (not really) Tom Steed Reservoir in the early pre-dawn hours.

Sunset at Morro Bay, CA

Having made multiple trips to the area (Los Osos, CA) to visit a customer, I found a tiny little Travelodge that affords a view of the bay and Morro Rock from one of the few tiny little hotel rooms.  It's a tiny little town where it essentially never rains and practically never gets above 75 degrees.

In keeping with the theme of tiny, so goes their harbor.

Morro Rock, whose outline you can see in the background, is a volcanic plug that rises about 580ft out of the water. For my OKC friends, the Chase Tower is right at 500ft.

I love visiting there and standing on the surf break as the sun sets.

Sunrise Thunderstorm in Oklahoma City

Talk about good timing!  The sun and the storm danced in perfect concert to create this beautiful scene on the east side of Oklahoma City.  The windmill, the cows and the pond provide a sense of scale that otherwise would be lost and then detract from the scope of the storm clouds.  Had I only been able to get closer to the pond (I'm not so much into trespassing!), the reflection in the water would have added yet another wonderful element to the photograph.

You really have to take a macro approach to understand why the views can change so dramatically even in what most people consider a very flat part of the state.  Just 1/4 of a mile to the west of this spot is a ridge line that completely obscures the view of the horizon.  

This picture was taken from roughly where the "X" is in the map below near Hefner Rd and Midwest Blvd, right on the edge of the North Canadian River 'valley.'  This is where the earth gets REALLY flat, making a prime location for both occasional flooding and, if you've ever driven Midwest Boulevard here, sod farms.  This drop off in elevation to very flat land provides an incredible and unobstructed view of the eastern horizon.