Kite Fest

This weekend was the Seattle Kite Fest. It was held at Magnusson Park just north of Seattle with a nice view of Lake Washington. Frankly, I was very disappointed. I was expecting to see dozens of cool kites crowding the sky, but there were hardly any. Most were plain hand made rectangular kites. It seems that the event is mostly for kids, but I would have expected at least some cool kites. This dragon was just about the only neat one in the sky. See this location in Live Maps.

Dragons do exist

Sun Bathing

Just some flowers sitting on my porch on a sunny day.

Enjoying the sun...

Navajo Pottery

It's back to work... This is the only souvenir I got on this trip besides a few post cards and refrigerator magnets. It's a small hand carved Navajo pot that I bought in Flagstaff.

Apache Trail

So sad, this is our last full day in Arizona. We had to drive back Phoenix so instead of taking the fast and boring Interstate, we took the scenic view. Our first scenic stop was at the Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings near Roosevelt, AZ. These dwellings were built and inhabited by the Salado people in the Tonto Basin. See this location in Live Maps.

Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings

While we were still at the dwellings, up in the sky was a group of hawks flying around. I was lucky to have my camera pointed at them at the right time when these two were diving straight for the ground. It's basically a game of chicken where one tries to crash the other into the ground. They released each other a fair distance from the ground, so no one got hurt.

Dueling hawks (enlarge)

From Roosevelt, we took highway 88 back to Phoenix. This section of the Apache Trail has 30 miles of unpaved dirt road that takes you up narrow winding paths, but all with incredible views. I was tired of driving all week long, so Martha took the wheel while I took the pictures. Most of the road is a two lane road, but there is a one lane section that takes you up a steep cliff side. There are only a few places where two cars can pass each other. We were on the outside of the road, making it even more interesting.

One lane road on the Apache Trail

Towards the end of the road, there is a an overlook we stopped at for this beautiful view.

Scenic view towards the end of the trail

Crepuscular rays in the distance

Canyon de Chelly

We spent the night in Chinle on the Navajo Indian Reservation. In the morning, we drove over the Canyon de Chelly National Monument (pronounced da Shay). Since we were on a bit of a tight schedule today, we didn't hike to the bottom of the canyon and simply enjoyed the views from above. In this picture, you see the most prominent and famous part of the canyon, Spider Rock which stands 800 ft. tall. It was nice to see it on this trip as the last time I was there, we were snowed out. See this location in Live Maps.

Spider Rock spire

Besides Spider Rock, the other attractions in the canyon are several Navajo and Anasazi ruins. Below you see the Anasazi White House ruins. It might be a bit hard to tell in the pictures below, but the ruins are named for the white colored house at the center top of the ruins.

White House ruins

We spent the rest of the day driving, but we made a few stops along the way. One of the first stops was at the Hubble Trading Post in Ganado. If you have the extra money, it's the perfect place to buy quality Navajo rugs and jewelry. I couldn't afford a rug this time around, but here is a picture of the rug I got last year when I visited with Jose and Tim.

Broken log in the Petrified Forest

Later in the afternoon, we drove to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Despite being here last year, it's still an amazing view and a neat experience to walk through the remains of a 3 million year old forest. Unfortunately, like last time, it was also cloudy. See this location in Live Maps.

More petrified wood

As usual, you can see the entire collection of pictures for Canyon the Chelly, the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest in my Picasa Web Album.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley.

Mexican Hat.

Storm clouds ahead.

Arizona sunset.

Glen Canyon

For now a small description will do. The first picture is not Glen Canyon, it's a view of north and east of the Grand Canyon. The last (poorly stitched) picture is of the Carl-Hayden dam in Glen Canyon. The lake is at record lows since the 1940's (I think, so don't quote me on that).

A small note about the tree. As I stooped and clicked away, a tourist (the big fat ones you see in movies) walks by and says "it's only a tree". With indignation I kept snapping away, but that made me wonder how many things I pass every day and think, "it's only a tree". However, browsing the pictures on this site (Photoblog), I'm glad to see that there are many of you that don't pass by everyday things and think it's only a tree.

Northern and eastern view of the Grand Canyon.

Neat looking tree.

Even in harsh environments, beauty abounds.

Carl-Hayden dam and Lake Powell.

Grand Canyon

I survived the Grand Canyon for the second time! My first trip to the Grand Canyon was with my brother Jose and my Dad back in 2001. This time, instead of hiking to the bottom and back in one day (not recommended by the Rangers), Martha and I took the Bright Angel trail down to Plateau Point. From the ridge to Plateau Point it's a 6.1 mile (9.8 km) hike that descends ~0.6 miles (0.9 km).

ISO 500 | 18 mm | f/13.0 | 1/640 sec

ISO 500 | 18 mm | f/11.0 | 1/500 sec

You may think, oh, only to Plateau Point, that's nothing! However, this time we were hiking in 123° F (50° C) weather! Most of this was in the middle of the day, so there isn't much shade or any at all. After sizzling some time at the Point and catching a few glimpses of the Colorado River, we headed back to Indian Gardens to wait in the shade until the sun wasn't so hot. See this location on Live Maps.

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As soon as the sun was hidden by the western ridge, the temperature dropped nearly 20 degrees. That made hiking much more bearable, but it was still 103° F (39° C). We took the 4.5 mile hike back fairly slow, but at least this way we go to see some awesome colors and contrasts that you don't see during the day. It was a bit hard choosing which pictures to post here, so please look at my full set of Grand Canyon pictures in my Picasa Web Album.

ISO 500 | 24 mm | f/11.0 | 1/500 sec

ISO 500 | 18 mm | f/10.0 | 1/400 sec

Sedona

Today we took the scenic route to Sedona on highway 89. As we started out, we came across an overlook where we stopped for several minutes to walk around. The view was very nice, but what really caught my attention was this flowering agave.

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We had originally planned to stop by Slide Rock State Park, but when we saw the long waiting line to get in and the multitudes of people, we decided against it and headed straight to Sedona. We had lunch at a nice small restaurant with this excellent view of the mountains. It was about 105° F (40° C), so we ate inside, but I stepped out on the balcony for a few minutes to take this picture. See this location in Live Maps.

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After lunch and walking around the shops downtown, we were ready to cool off in the river. Just before entering town we had stopped at a small overlook that had a trail down to the river. This is one of the rock formations you could see as you walk down the trail. The river pictures weren't that great, so I didn't post any here, but you can see the full set of Sedona pictures at my Picasa Web Album. See this location in Live Maps.

ISO 500 | 18 mm | f/10 | 1/400 sec

Meteor Crater

Today we drove up to Flagstaff from Phoenix. After stopping for lunch in Flagstaff we headed east to see Meteor Crater. It's impressive what a chunk of rock traveling at ~28,600 mph can do. The crater is almost a mile wide and 570 feet deep. View the rest of my pictures for this day in my Picasa Web Album.

See this location in Live Maps.

ISO 500 | 18 mm | f/7.1 | 1/200 sec