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Arizona Road Trip


I am currently on vacation in Arizona. It's really interesting here. For one, there are cool plants here that aren't where I live - like palm trees, and cacti taller than houses. For another, the weather is really nice; sunny  most of the time, and not too cold.


To get to the place we're staying, my family drove for two days, from Colorado through New Mexico to Arizona. Here are some of the photos I took along the way (just click to view):


Colorado




View looking up the side of a mountain

Mesa Verde
In these next pictures of Colorado, notice the "roots" of the mountain. They were likely carved by running rain-water.



The following picture is of a butte I saw. Pardon the poor quality; the car was shaking like an earthquake for much of the trip.


Arizona

This picture is of some mountains far in the distance. The mountains are likely in Utah, but I'm not sure whether everything else is in Arizona or New Mexico.


At first while we were in Arizona, we drove through a lot of flat, dry desert with occasional mesas in the distance.


In the following picture, you can see layers in the rock, that built up over time. Also notice the spiky rocks.


When I looked in the distance behind our van, I often saw a mirage in the road. It looks like water, but it's only an illusion. Now the danger is this: if you're used to the mirages, and get to a flooded area, you might just think it's another mirage; you might drive through the water going 75 mph, and if it's deep enough, you could get in a bad wreck.




Cacti. Lots of cacti. They might not look big, but they are. Some are taller than houses, even. This was north of Phoenix.

A gorge of the Little Colorado River. The Little Colorado River eventually joins with the Colorado River, which is the river that flows through the Grand Canyon. The photo was taken at dusk in a jerking car; otherwise, it would have a better quality.


For the next post in the Arizona Road Trip series, go to http://greatmst.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-grand-canyon.html
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Comments

  1. MaryAnne FinkelsteinFebruary 19, 2013 at 1:39 AM

    Wow, nice photos, Thomas! I suppose you can see the real thing so know if they don't look perfect, but to me the quality seems very good.

    Would it be possible to include some photos with people in them?

    -Mary Anne

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    Replies
    1. ThomasFebruary 19, 2013 at 3:30 PM

      Unfortunately, I didn't get very many chances to take photos of people until the driving part of the trip was over.

      After the driving was over, I took some photos of my siblings and myself standing next to giant saguaro cacti; I'll put some of those in one of my next posts.

      Delete
  2. MaryAnne FinkelsteinMarch 5, 2013 at 11:21 AM

    That makes sense! I look forward to your further posts.

    I grew some saguaro from seed once; they got to about an inch high and then I had to go away for a while and they died through lack of care. I read a very funny blog about doing genetic experiments with saguaro (funny because of how slowly they mature).

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