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When
I saw the car's heat rise, I slowed down the engine and
turned off the A/C. It seemed to work very well. I thank
God because I saw more than a few cars with flipped open
steaming hoods. I figured if I acted like I was in a
hurry in the Mojave, the desert would slow me down
anyway.
Read more...
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Major Sites Visited:
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Joshua Tree Nat'l
Preserve, Cima, CA
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Circus Circus, Las
Vegas, NV
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Virgin River Gorge, AZ
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Zion NP, St. George, UT
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Mesa Verde NP, Cortez, CO
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High Road to Taos, NM
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Great Sand Dunes NP, CO
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Garden of the Gods, Colo. Spgs.,
CO
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Oklahoma Joe's BBQ, Kansas City,
KS
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St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis, MO
click on sites to learn more
about them
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Our first glimpses of Joshua trees just west of Barstow.
Sunset in the Mojave Desert.
After a tough day of car repairs in Bakersfield, we stopped in Barstow.
The middle of Mojave National Preserve.
Joshua Tree National Preserve, where the temp topped out at 117̊.
On the outskirts of the ghost town of Cima, CA.
This is NOT New York.
This is NOT Paris.
This is NOT Venice.
The deserts of northwest Arizona.
Andrew and Dad hike in the Arizona heat along the Virgin River.
The Virgin River Gorge, where we spotted some fowl in the dried riverbed.
Joshua trees at Arizona's Virgin River campground.
Beautiful and mighty Zion National Park.
Zion was a place of super desert beauty, an oasis of the Virgin River.
The winding scenic road through Zion's southern reaches.
"Welcome to the desert!" says this Utah lizard.
The rocks seemed like they were poured onto the landscape.
Zion is picture perfect.
Tunnel in Zion NP.
Andrew at the Great Coral Sand Dunes near Kanab, UT.
The Coral sands were extemely hot to the touch.
Driving down the stairs of Escalante in southern Utah.
The edge of Escalante's lower shelves show rings of sediment.
Lake Powell at the Utah-Arizona border in Glen Canyon NRA.
Looking down the Colorado River just north of Page, AZ.
Mesa Verde Canyon east of Cortez, CO, at Mesa Verde NP.
The Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde.
The mysterious ruins are built under clefts in the canyon walls.
Andrew looking through a thousand year old window.
We saw a bear in these Colorado woods.
A big desert lizard in the sands of Mesa Verde.
Teaching pre-history to the boy.
A kiva, entrance to the spirit world.
In southwest Colorado, it pays to watch your step.
The Ampitheater formation in western New Mexico.
Lizards in the New Mexico scrub on a fence post.
Beautiful New Mexican scenery.
Every layer tells a different story, but I don't speak geology very well.
A desert bloom.
The miraculous Sanctuary of Chimayo is a point for Mexican pilgrims.
The Native American Last Supper in Chimayo.
The desert along the High Road to Taos.
A New Mexican cemetery, just as quarky as any you'd find in Nola.
Iglesia de las Trampas in New Mexico.
A crow in the artist colony of Truchas, NM.
Andrew at the toy store in downtown Taos Plaza.
Iglesia de San Francisco de Asis.
Santas guarding the church door.
San Luis, Colorado, main drag.
'Let the children come to me." A mural on the side of a rectory in San Luis, CO.
The Great Sand Dunes of the San Luis Valley in Colorado.
This probably isn't going too far.
Building a sand castle out of high desert sand.
A ghost town in northern San Luis Valley, a favorite place of mine.
The high Collegiate Peaks at the crest of the Rockies.
A scene from the road near Florissant, CO.
A redwood fossil at Florissant Fossil Beds NM in Colorado.
A rabbit escaping the summer heat high in the Rockies.
Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO.
While we were visiting a huge forest fire burned only a few miles away.
There's nothing like sunset in Colorado Springs.
Attempting a climb?
If you look close, you'll see a mountain climber.
Garden of the Gods with contrails, thanks to the air base here.
What do people have against Kansas?
A Kansas wind farm.
Sunset in the Flint Hills of Kansas.
Turtle Park in St. Louis, MO's Dogtown neighborhood.
The little elephants in St. Louis Zoo.
After seeing these guys in the wild, the new exhibit didn't really work.
Downtown Saint Louis.
Across the Mississippi and back in Illinois.
Aliens at the Collinsville, IL, Culver's.