Sunday, April 18, 2010
Beautiful...
We arrived back home yesterday evening - the trip was fabulous. I have attempted to put together a slide show of some photographs (they are also on Facebook with captions). They are somewhat in order: Davis Mountains State Park (TX), Big Bend National Park (TX), Balmorhea State Park (TX), Guadalupe Mountains National Park (NM), Carlsbad Caverns (NM), White Sands National Monument (NM), Gila Cliff Dwellings (NM), and City of Rocks State Park (NM).
Staying at the Davis Mountains State Park, we were able to attend a star party at the McDonald Observatory. The host had a laser and was able to point out all of the planets, galaxies, and constellations...fascinating! Afterwards, they invited you to look through several telescopes at various features. We also stopped in at the Fort Davis National Historic Site.
Big Bend was amazing - very remote! The canoe trip on the Santa Elena canyon was just amazing! We had a very memorable hike in the Chisos Mountains (Lost Mine Trail) where a storm came upon us...we didn't think much of it until it started to hail. First pea size, and then marble size (ouch!). "The Window" trail was also a favorite.
Rob was in heaven stopping in at Balhorhea State Park...a 77,053 sq. ft. spring fed pool.
The Guadalupe Mountains were beautiful; they day before we arrived, they received nine inches of rain in two hours! The hike we had planned was flooded out and we choose another recommended day hike (Devils Hall)...we were quite pleased!
I must note that the pictures from Carlsbad Caverns do not give the place enough credit (we have a very basic camera that doesn't do well in the dark). The cave was enormous and the natural entrance hike in was just unbelievable. The size and number of features in the Big Room was unlike any cave we have visited before.
White Sands was very unique; we have a new appreciation for what it would be like being "lost in the desert" after a 4.5 mile hike on the Alkali Flat trail head. Sand...sand...and more sand!
The Gila Cliff Dwellings are very remote - interesting ruins in the caves (we were able to walk into three of the caves). We made a short stop into City of Rocks State Park on the way back into El Paso...a neat little park. It was starting to fill up with campers for the weekend.
In El Paso, we also briefly stopped in at the Border Patrol Museum and the Fort Bliss museum. We encountered the border patrol several times during the trip...very active in this part of the country!
Good times...another great vacation. And with vacation, there is coming back...ughghgh...
A lot to catch up on with work... A lot to catch up on at home... It will take me a while, but I will catch up on blog reading as well!
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3 comments:
Glad you had a good time! And welcome home.
Hi! Got your comment about the camera. I didn't get mine yet... still saving for it (although Best Buy seems to keep increasing the time frame for their no interest deal which keeps tempting me).
My recommendation (being that my family are pros) is anything by Canon. That's what we use at the studio and what we all have for our personal use. The camera I have my eye on now is one of the several digital "Rebels" by Canon, a single lens reflex (SLR) camera.
If you're just looking for a point-and-shoot camera, Canon has those, too. With digital cameras, you do kind of get what you pay for (better resolution, better lens capabilities, etc.) so if you're willing to go on the higher end of your budget, I would.
Nikon makes several really nice cameras, as well.
Basically, I would stick with cameras made by known camera manufacturers. There are digital cameras out there made by electronics companies who don't necessarily specialize in cameras. I would avoid those. They should stick with TV, computers and cell phones. Does that make sense?
glad you had a great vacay- the pics are so good! you caught some things in bloom! and that one shot of the sunset (i think) between two peaks is gorgeous. ok, that white sand is crazy!!! nearly looks like snow in the photos!
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