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.

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.



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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.

Hoover Dam @ Night and some Lake Mead drought

Day or night, I've never regretted a stop at the Hoover Dam. This place is a modern marvel of engineering and a grand human vision.

The star-burst pattern around the lights is an effect typical of many lenses at very high f-stop #'s (very small apertures).

Check out how much the water level has dropped in Lake Mead between the top picture taken in 2001 and the bottom one taken in 2009!

St. Louis Gateway Arch up close and abstract

This is what the arch looks like when you press your toes, your knees, your belly and your chin right up against it and take a picture...just in case you were wondering.

Great Blue Heron in the Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge

Great blue heron hunting at sunset

National World War I Museum in Kansas City

Man, I loved this place.

No doubt in the decades immediately following the Civil War, there must have been much more "we must never forget" sort of sentiment.  And it fades.

World War I...probably the same.

World War II...probably already happening.  Although a certain Tom Hanks movie, among others, will help with that.  But 100 years from now, it won't be near the popular topic it is now.

What will happen with monuments like this?  Will the war be so far removed that we will no longer fund such museums?  I don't know.  Only time will tell.

Regardless, I highly recommend a visit to this one if you ever have a chance to drop by.  The view from the tower is particularly fantastic at night.

Front entrance over the Poppy Fields.

Presentation over 'the trenches.'

Front entrance

Grassy field at sunset just north of the museum.

View looking south.

View of downtown Kansas City looking north.

Ummmm...Sir Longshanks of Edmond.  Low sun = long shadows.

 

A little Frost in an Arizona snow

The poetry is below. I included it here partly because it describes exactly how I often feel in my travels but mostly because I want to impress my bride who has a degree in English. :)

While it was 80 degrees in OKC, these were the scenes 3 weeks ago near Payson, AZ, in the Sitgreaves National Forest. The last picture is the state highway just outside the forest and leading up to Holbrook, AZ.

The area is quite remote and the forest service roads back into the woods, more so  In fact, try as I might, I couldn't hear....anything. It was dead silent and it was magnificent! When was the last time you heard absolutely nothing - not a clock ticking, a refrigerator running, or a car passing by?

I'm no poetry analyst, but some have surmised that the subject in the poem is taking in his great scene, fully tempted to stay longer.  Painfully aware of all the obligations that awaits him at his destination, he knows the moment must be brief because obligations await and many hours stand between him and his next rest.



Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eve

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


Robert Frost

Cuyahoga National Park and the Cuyahoga River

Not the most well-known national park but full of it's own beauty nonetheless.  Given it's proximity to Cleveland and Akron, it's quite a retreat from the industrial mecca surrounding.

Getting geometric in Cuyahoga National Park

Cuyahoga National Park is the much lesser known amongst its peers. Situated in NE Ohio, there are some small ski slopes and a number of sites exhibiting what life was like for the early pioneers of the area. I wouldn't travel to that part of the world just for this park but if you are already in Cleveland or thereabouts, you'd be crazy (in my humble opinion) not to go see it.  There is also a very large waterfall near there. My pictures of the falls were all mega-crap so you don't get to see them. ;-)

Wichita Mountains Refuge - south entrance

This image (and admittedly odd crop) is of the south entrance into the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge.  It was taken a little before 0700hrs on an already brutally hot 2012 summer day!  The mist and soft light were a real treat for the time of day.

Pigeon Forge River in Tennessee

75% Desaturated

This spot in the river is just off I40 north of Smoky Mountain National Park.  There was quite a climb down a steep ravine to get to water's level but it was worth it.

Helicopter ride over Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

These pics are from a short helicopter trip Noah and I took over Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the new Tillman Memorial Bridge.  The last photo in this series is a 6-image composite panorama looking from the top of the dam south over the Colorado River and toward the new bridge.

The pilot never thanked me for single-handedly keeping the thing in the air with my death grip on the seat back in front of me. Rude!