Back from my wandering, once more

Last rays, Seligman

I am back again from another trip to New Mexico. I have lost count how many years I have been taking the annual sojourn, over twenty, all I know is that the trips seem to be getting shorter every year and this year was the quickest yet. Used to spend a couple months there but the shows got cut and the clients got old and maybe a little broke and things honestly got a little tired.

And then there's something about my diminished emotional capacity to engage this year, my ability to deal. I skipped Albuquerque and the Indian show so the ethnographic was sink or swim for me and thankfully I didn't die. Didn't exactly kill but will live to play another day. Course, maybe I'm not smart enough to do anything else.

First day out I headed straight into the Willow Fire near Needles, which was absolutely huge and really very scary.

Planes dumping water flew right over my car. I marshaled on and drove past the enormous blaze. I finally stopped at one of my favorite little towns, Seligman, for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat at Westside Lilo's. Great food and nice waitresses.

But first I stopped on the trestle  to do some long exposure work, took about a half hour for the train to show up and by then I was pretty set with my gear and exposure and grabbed some nice images.

Drove by this pretty hawk on my way to dinner. Probably a Coopers, I'm pretty sure.

Lilo's has the best angus burger and eggs around and I had my usual great meal there.

Continued on down the road and found a place to stay for the night with Leslie's help in Winslow.

Next morning I did what I always seem to do, found a new road into the indian reservations, up through Leupp this time, hit the three Hopi mesas and took a long drive through Keams Canyon. The Navajo and Hopi reservations help keep me reasonably sane. The road was pretty rough and washboarded and I reluctantly stopped. Always want to see what's around the next turn...

I stopped off at the old Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado for a pit and then on to Window Rock and Gallup. Here is a picture of Hubbell, looking pretty much like it always has. Great paintings on the wall in there, a wonderful place.

I drove up to Santa Fe, dropping my gear at my buddy Steve's place. Nice lightning storm that night, unsuccessfully tried to shoot the Perseid meteor shower but there was too much cloud cover.

The next day we headed up to Frijoles Canyon in Bandolier, site of many ancient cliff dwellings.

to be continued...