Photo Blog with Waterfalls, Hiking, Outdoors, and other Adventures
Two more sites to visit for Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument and both are a bit more remote. The next closest is a 30-minute drive south from Mountainair on rural State Road 55 (aka NM-55) to reach the Gran Quivira Unit. Again, the visitor center is closed today but that’s expected since it’s Monday in … Read more
Starting my return home now after enjoying a week with my family. I decided to head north and visit a few sites I didn’t have time for on the outbound trip. First stop was at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in Abó, New Mexico. This national monument consists of three separate locations with remnants of … Read more
I don’t have a ton of photos from my time visiting family in Las Cruces. Mostly we sat around, talked and caught-up on life, and basically just ate a ton of delicious food. One particular night we were headed to get Thai food and ran into some heavy localized rain which is of course it … Read more
I don’t have many photos from my time visiting family in Las Cruces as I was focused on enjoying our time together and not photography. Didn’t come away empty-handed though: My concerns about allergies to their cats led me to test out alternate lodging options, and my dispersed camp in the BLM land off Baylor … Read more
Heading west from Grants, New Mexico on I-40 and absolutely loving the scenery as the sun fades on the day. Huge red sandstone cliffs are to the north of the interstate and I didn’t know at the time but this is the southern terminus of the Colorado Plateau. Most of this area is also Navajo … Read more
After leaving Jemez Falls I continued south on NM-4 through the Jemez and Zia Pueblos just enjoying the scenery (though now that I’m back home I realized I missed so many things). Decided to head into Albuquerque and check out Petroglyph National Monument which has been on my list for quite some time and I’ve … Read more
Camp was quiet and nearly cleared out on this mid-October Monday morning, and my feet are losing their soreness so it’s time to try another short hike. As far as short hikes go this one has a great payoff at Jemez Falls, the highest waterfall in the Jemez Mountains. The trailhead is very easy to … Read more
Camp for tonight is at the Jemez Falls campground in the Jemez National Recreation Area. This is part of the Santa Fe National Forest in the Jemez Mountains, and borders on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Being a Sunday night, camp is only about half full (if that). According to the posted signs there might … Read more
Leaving Bandelier National Monument it was again decision time. I wasn’t quite ready to give up my exploration of this part of New Mexico so I drove further west on NM-4 through the mountain pass near Los Alamos with some idea of camping in the Santa Fe National Forest. Along the way I came across … Read more
The Rio Grande Gorge and bridge were more impressive than I imagined. I was almost completely unprepared for this leg of the journey, so next destination was the Rio Grande Gorge Visitor Center to get more information. The first large sign on the outer wall of the visitor center details how the Rio Grande starts … Read more