Grand Canyon Weekend - October 23-27, 2003

These pictures were taken on a weekend trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the Grand Canyon and the Las Vegas area with Charles Calkins. They were taken with my Olympus C730 Ultra Zoom digital camera. Most images are shown at a resolution of 640x480, but are available in full 2048x1536 size by clicking on the links after the captions. There are pictures are of roads and signs mixed in, but not as many as on some trips. Charles also has a lot of pictures.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

Albuquerque to Holbrook, Arizona. No pictures, since we were looking straight into a sunset and then it was dark..

Friday, October 24, 2003

We started early from Holbrook, and headed west on I-40 [6 Pictures] with our first stop at Meteor Crater [5 Pictures]. From there it was on to Sunset Crater, where we mainly looked at the Bonito Lava Flow, first from a turnout [4 Pictures], then from the Lava Flow Trail [12 Pictures]. We also made a quick stop at the Cinder Hills overlook [Picture]. We continued on, getting a few views of the Painted Desert [2 Pictures] and then stopped at the Citadel Ruin at Wupatki National Monument [8 Pictures]. From there, it was on up toward the Grand Canyon [5 Pictures]. We stopped at the Little Colorado River overlook in the Navajo Nation on the way in [18 Pictures]. Next, a ride through the Kaibab National Forest [3 Pictures]. We made it to the Grand Canyon [Picture], and made a bunch of stops: Desert View [23 Pictures], Navajo Point [4 Pictures], Lipan Point [9 Pictures], the Tusayan Ruins [4 Pictures], Moran Point [8 Pictures], Grandview Point [17 Pictures], an overlook describing canyon features [5 Pictures], another viewpoint just west of Yaki Point [5 Pictures], Mather Point [14 Pictures], and the Yavapai Observation Station [13 Pictures]. After that, it was down to Flagstaff for the night for dinner and a visit to the Lowell Observatory. With a new moon, the viewing was great, and we got to see Mars on the big telescope and Andromeda and several neat stars and star clusters on the smaller telescopes.

Saturday, October 25, 2003

We left Flagstaff in the morning and headed west on I-40 [6 Pictures], then exited to take the Historic US 66 route through Peach Springs [36 Pictures]. We next drove down [17 Pictures] to Lake Havasu City, where there was a strong wind and a lot of dust and sand as we checked out London Bridge [20 Pictures]. After that, we made the ride to Las Vegas [21 Pictures]. It was full, so no reasonably priced rooms seemed to be available, and eventually we ended up getting a reservation about 50 miles up the road in Overton. So we stuck around to lose some quarters and get dinner on The Strip [6 Pictures] before heading up to Overton.

Sunday, October 26, 2003

Instead of heading back on the interstate, we decided to leave Overton [Picture] and take the ride along Lake Mead. On the way out of town, we drove up a mesa near town for some pictures [6 Pictures]. We entered the Lake Mead National Recreation Area [Picture]. Our first stop was the Overton Beach area [3 Pictures], then we backtracked a bit to see the Valley of Fire State Park, which was much more than I expected. On the way in, we stopped at the boundary of the NRA for a few pictures [5 Pictures]. We entered the Valley of Fire State Park [3 Pictures], and made stops to see Petrified Logs [4 Pictures], a stone formation called the Seven Sisters [11 Pictures], a natural arch [5 Pictures]. We drove along a scenic loop road [4 Pictures], then on a side road [2 Pictures] to Rainbow Vista [9 Pictures], and back [3 Pictures]. Back in the National Recreation Area, we stopped at Blue Point Springs [8 Pictures] then Echo Bay [12 Pictures], along the Northshore Scenic Drive [8 Pictures], and Las Vegas Bay [3 Pictures]. Next up was the ride to Hoover Dam [2 Pictures]. At the dam, we parked in the fairly new parking garage [3 Pictures]. We took the tour that goes down into one of the generator rooms [6 Pictures], then walked around a lot outside [27 Pictures]. We continued east and south to Kingman [9 Pictures] for dinner at the "House of Chan" then drove across I-40 to Holbrook for the night.

Monday, October 27, 2003

We left Holbrook [3 Pictures] in the morning and headed for Petrified Forest National Park [Picture]. We stopped at the Rainbow Forest Museum and walked the trail [12 Pictures], for some pictures along the park road [2 Pictures], at the Crystal Forest [7 Pictures], at the Agate Bridge [2 Pictures], at the "Tepees" [3 Pictures], at Newspaper Rock [2 Pictures], and at a couple of Painted Desert overlooks [12 Pictures]. Then it was back to New Mexico [3 Pictures] and soon to Albuquerque.

E-mail domain: teresco.org, username: terescoj - Sat May 13 21:43:24 EDT 2006