The AARoads Blog

We resume this batch of pictures with a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

Very close to the park entrance, we get this view.

An elk calf! Young elk are surprisingly hard to spot, because their mothers tend to keep them very well hidden away. Certainly the first time I’ve ever seen one!

A pair of bighorn sheep. That might be literally correct, as it is a ram and a ewe. This photo is from up the Loveland Pass road – US-6, going to 11990 feet.

Loveland Pass. Infrared camera. Fisheye lens.

A ground squirrel. More of this little character later.

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We pick up in Iowa, where we decide to stop heading east in order to get to New Mexico. We see flooding along the Missouri River, and catch a thunderstorm in Kansas.

Minimum maintenance road.

Flooding causes standing water. Standing water causes mosquitoes and other insects. A fresh source of food means the dragonflies grow fat and happy. This one was about three inches long, with a five inch wingspan.

We’ve got ourselves a good old fashioned lightning storm. Western Kansas.

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The longest swath of the Fourth of July trip that we’ll feature in one set of photos: about 800 miles covered in this burst. Continuing on US-212 across eastern Montana, to get to South Dakota, and then driving through the Black Hills at the time of day when they are the blackest. We then continue into Nebraska, and drive US-20 east all the way to Iowa.

Endless fields of yellow flowers are the most prominent feature of the eastern Montana landscape. All the way across the state on US-212, from I-90 eastward, featured miles upon miles of bright colors.

The Milky Way. A 90 second exposure.

Very early dawn in Nebraska. Above this house: a noctilucent cloud – one of the rarest kinds to see!

Slightly later dawn.

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We continue on the Fourth of July trip … across Beartooth Pass we go, on US-212. One of the most scenic drives to be found anywhere.

Squeezing in the last of morning light.

This sign might very well date back to when US-12 in Wyoming was renumbered to US-212 in 1963! There are very few US-212 shields in Wyoming.

About 9500 feet up the pass. This view is in infrared, which causes ice to show up bright blue.

A marmot appears.

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The Fourth of July trip. Undertaken by Daniel Brim and me. Our usual arrangement holds – we take approximately identical photos, and try not to hit any raccoons and/or rabbits.

Our destination is sunny Union County, New Mexico – by way of Beartooth Pass, Sioux City, and various other places that call into question our ability to drive in a straight line.

We fly into Salt Lake City airport, and then make a beeline to Grand Teton National Park for sunrise.

The Grand Tetons at sunrise.

Similar view, different road.

Late dawn, with foreground lighting.

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the third day of the Gila River trip, in which I return from New Mexico back home to San Diego.

Campfire from the night before. I don’t remember why we decided that Frosty the Candle Snowman had to go, but we certainly sent him off to Valhalla in style.

An old alignment of New Mexico state route 32 yields this tilted, decrepit junction assembly. It dates to the late 1960s or so.

This grassland – just east of Springerville, AZ – burned in the Wallow Fire just a few weeks after I took these photos. But, it will grow back, as that is how these things tend to go.

Sunset through Telegraph Pass, just east of Yuma on I-8.

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the second day of the Gila River trip – now with special guests! Dale, Beverley, and Shelly live in a completely different section of New Mexico, but when I discovered that they were camping on the western side of the state (only a 630 mile drive from San Diego!) I knew I had to drive out there for the weekend.

I find them at Lake Roberts, and we head up to the end of New Mexico 15 to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, find some hot springs, and generally have a quality time of things.

I took over 1000 pictures on this day – quite a lot of things to be seen!

Shelly, Dale, and Beverley at the entrance to the cliff dwellings. The ladder is a modern touch for modern folks. The original inhabitants, of course, flew from door to door on the power of their awesomeness.

Today’s theme ingredient is: forest fire.

I believe this is a desert spiny lizard (Sceloporus magister). Dale spotted the little critter first and it took me a good several seconds to note what he was pointing at. The camouflage is dang near perfect!

The Gila Cliff Dwellings. They were built around 1280 by the Mogollon people, and were abandoned sometime in the 1300s. Due to the desert climate, they remain very well-preserved; almost exactly how they looked over 700 years ago.

Dale. No further explanation needed.

A lazy evening spent at a hot spring. I took this photo while sitting in the pool. Probably not the smartest idea ever, but hey, the photo came out!

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A trip to New Mexico, essentially following the Gila River all the way. Part features the first day, and the morning of the second – driving from San Diego to Lake Roberts, NM.

Adventures in terrible light-post placement. There are only two known 1957-spec interstate shields in Arizona. (The other one is on this exact gantry, facing the other direction.)

Extremely pointy flower in morning light. Highway 90 between Lordsburg and Silver City, New Mexico.

Heading north from Silver City on state highway 15.

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the second batch of photos from the trip ScottB and I took to Mariposa, in the western Sierra foothills. On this day, we leave the town and head southwards, on 49 and then various county roads, before spurring off on 168 into the mountains a while.

Just a little stream, filled with floating vegetation, by the side of a county road just a mile or two from highway 41.

An oddly shaped tree. We find it at Shaver Lake, on highway 168.

It is definitely waterfall season. This one is beside old highway 168, which leads to Big Creek.

This pair of signs dates to 1953. Some of the last white porcelain guide signs left in the state! I actually found these about a year ago on a trip with Andy, but when we got there it was night, so I had to come back for a daytime shot.

This river feeds from the waterfalls into Huntington Lake.

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The new stack at the Dallas North Tollway and the Sam Rayburn Tollway in suburban Dallas is a little more than halfway finished. Construction began in February 2010, and the junction is expected to open in March, 2012. This photo was taken yesterday, looking north.