I collected these photos and commentary from my weblog, Coffee and Oranges. I decided to leave my digital camera at home, since I would have no way to download the photos of the trip. This was the first I had used my little Olympus since I got my digital camera, and I was pleased to note that using the digital camera has made me a lot more comfortable with cameras in general.
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2003-04-06 Here is Pikes Peak as viewed from my friend’s house on the morning that we left Colorado. An inch or so of snow had fallen the night before, but the roads were good. Heading south, the snow was gone before we reached Pueblo. We ate lunch, from the cooler, at a road side stop in New Mexico. The wind, fairly cold, was strong, so we ate in the car instead of at one of the picnic tables. |
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2003-04-06 On our way to Gallup, New Mexico, where we spend the night, we took a short break at the Rio Grande NatureCenter in Albuquerque. Although it was still early spring there, the walk in the woods was very pleasant, and I enjoyed seeing the xeriscaped gardens. |
2003-04-06 We drove from Albuquerque to Gallup on I40. I had expected the scenery to be very plain, but it was quite spectacular for most of the route. After checking into our Motel 6, we had dinner at a restaurant close by called the Ranch Kitchen . The guy who seated us put a small flag on our table indicating we were from Colorado. There were many different flags around the room.
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2003-04-07 The next morning, we drove to the Petrified Forest National Park , and were first at the gate to get in the park. Here is a photo of the badlands known as the Painted Desert. |
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2003-04-07 We saw this petrified log near the museum at the park. One exhibit in the museum had samples of letters and small pieces of petrified rocks that people stole from the park and then returned when their conscience bothered them. |
2003-04-07 After we left the Petrified Forest National Park we drove west across Arizona, eating lunch in Williams. The weather was cool until we entered the Mojave Desert in the afternoon, and we pulled out summer weight clothing and changed in a rest area women’s room. We stopped for the night in Barstow, California.
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2003-04-08 We saw this cactus planted in a garden in front of a bank in Barstow, California, on the way back to the motel after breakfast. |
2003-04-08 Leaving Barstow, we made the easy drive to Los Angeles and spent the day with family members.
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2003-04-09 The next morning, while walking around a Tarzana neighborhood, I took this photo of bougainvillea. |
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2003-04-09 We walked around Descanso Gardens , and ate lunch there on the wisteria covered patio. This is a stone lantern from the Japanese garden. |
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2003-04-09 At the Descanso Gardens, I went crazy taking photos of the flowers. I’ve never been a big fan of tulips, but the varieties at the Gardens made me change my mind. |
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2003-04-09 More tulips from Descanso Gardens. |
2003-04-10 The next day, we had originally planned to go to San Diego, but decided to make the shorter trip to Solvang instead. My friend had not seen this section of California before, and thought it was one place in the state that she might actually like to live. Lots of horse country.
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2003-04-11 We had a few unscheduled hours on Friday morning, so we decided to check out the trails in GriffithPark. |
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2003-04-12 Our last morning in Los Angeles, I met my sister and niece in a Starbucks for breakfast. |
2003-04-12 Saturday was our longest drive of the trip, through the Mojave Desert and by Las Vegas, Nevada, where we broke for a late lunch and a little rubber stamp shopping at Stamp Oasis . We had a fast food supper in Richfield, and then drove a long time until we broke for the night in Green River, Utah.
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2003-04-13 Over breakfast (at a busy truck stop / local diner) I checked our maps and found we were close to Arches National Park. Since we knew we were no more than seven or eight hours from home, we decided to go there for a few hours. I took this shot while we walked on the Park Avenue trail. The rest of the day was relaxed compared to the previous day, with a late lunch at the Olive Garden in Grand Junction, Colorado. I felt as though we were home when we hit the intersection of I-70 with 470 near Denver, about an hour from where we live in Colorado Springs. Of course, the first thing we did when we got to my friend’s house, after letting her dogs out, was check our horses. |