March/April 2021 - Yosemite NP, Saguaro NP, White Sands NP

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Yosemite NP

Moonrise over half Dome

Orange groves and nut trees line the roads heading towards Fresno.  Once through town we see development give way to open ranch land then rolling hills.  The snow topped Sierra Nevada mountains form the backdrop to the east.  Our route is one of the main roads entering Yosemite National Park.  We are here for a photography workshop lead by Gary Hart.  The next portion of my blog is an unsolicited story of our workshop experience.

Bosque del Apache, Dec 20, 2015

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‘Not many birds at the Bosque del Apache’ was the word from my friend Byron when he and his wife went down for their annual Thanksgiving trip.

It has been warm around the rest of the country so maybe the geese, ducks, cranes and other birds are taking their chances staying further up north.  I know I don’t care much for flying any more but that’s another subject.

El Malpais hike

November 29, 2013

Mt. Taylor in the background

This is how I spent my Black Friday.  No shopping, elbowing, running over other shoppers when the store doors open for me.  El Malpais National Conservation Area is about an hour west of Albuquerque and just east of Grants, NM within 20 miles of the exit from Interstate 40.

Fall-inter

October 17, 2013

Due to the federal government doing federal government things I got to have the day off from work.  I am not complaining about the day off, I’m complaining about the f government.  I’ve been working the whole time so I am better off than a lot of people.  That morning I kept going back and forth ‘To hike’ or ‘Not to hike’.  I was leaning ‘Not to hike’ but at the last minute decided to go....

Rio San Antonio (part 3 of 3) the golden hour

Sept 28, 2013

Usually we start out early in the morning, 700, making it to our destination around 830 and hike from there.  Since we scouted out a couple other locations and made a number of photographic stops on the way up so our hiking schedule moved to later in the day.  It actually made for better photography at the end of the day considering we were still on the road as the sun was starting to set…

Rio San Antonio (part 2 of 3) Flora

Sept 28, 2013

 

This time we took the time to stop and photograph the flora.  I always bring my macro lens with me but I am usually having such a good time photographing the big picture I forget to look at the details...

Rio San Antonio (part 1 of 3)

Sept 28, 2013

We went back to a river (stream) hike this time.  The Rio San Antonio (RSA) goes through the Valles Caldera and emerges into the Santa Fe National Forest at the west boundary of the Valles Caldera.  We drove up through the Santa Fe National Forest and found a spot where we could hike down to the river…

Hamilton Mesa

Sept. 14, 2013

Out of a list of several hikes we have on our to-do list we decided on the Hamilton Mesa in the southern part of the Pecos Wilderness.  This is a different type of hike from what Byron and I have been doing lately.  As you may remember he pretty much lives to fly-fish and we usually hike along a stream of some type where Byron fishes and I photograph.  We are both happy.  As you may surmise from the title we are not hiking at the bottom of a canyon, instead we are on the top of a mesa…

San Pedro Parks Wilderness

Sept 15, 2013

The second weekend in September I drove to the western end of the Jemez Mountains, just east of Cuba, NM.  I read several descriptions of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness area and decided I had to see it.  I was hoping to see the start of the fall colors…

 

 

 

 

 

Ojito Wilderness

Lately I have been looking around on the web and through books for other places to hike around in New Mexico. One of my coworkers mentioned the Bisti Badlands. I have seen images from the Bisti through other blogs and thought this may be a possibility. Upon further searching I found it is probably 3 hours from home, which is not bad, just not something I wanted to do this weekend.