Vacation 2022

White Sands National Park / Roswell, New Mexico / Carlsbad Caverns National Park

White Sands National Park is in the Southwest part of New Mexico. Right smack dab in the middle of the White Sands Missile Testing Range. That’s about the best I can say for it.

Roswell, known for its UFO crash is in the Mid-Eastern portion of New Mexico. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any aliens.

There’s nothing around Carlsbad for miles. Probably hundreds of miles. With the exception of the bats, there’s nothing or no reason to be on the surface of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. But man, the cavern!

June 5, 2022

Start – Heading Eastward to White Sands National Park.

5:40 – The gate shack.

10:37 – Snow or sand banks?

17:04 – Sideways view #1.

30:02 – Sideways view #2.

34:00 – Let’s head on out to Roswell.

35:49 – It’s official. We’re in Roswell!

40:30 – Waldrip’s 0; Alien’s 2. Heading on out to Carlsbad Caverns. Caught some “Dirt Devel’s” along the way.

June 6, 2022

45:01 – Carlsbad Caverns Park Entrance.

1:03:03 – At the visitor’s center and entering the cavern.

1:15:57 – Sideways view #3.

1:28:03 – Leaving the park.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone visit White Sands National Park unless you were just going to be passing it as you go to another destination. I saw no reason at all for anyone to go even 30 minutes out of their way to visit it unless they jut wanted to punch their national park card of places visited. I am not saying that the park isn’t valuable as it certainly is in regard to safely hosting rare species of animals and plants. Humans aren’t rare. Unique but not rare. I recommend leaving the park to the animals.

After watching so many documentaries on modern day Roswell, I was so disappointed. I was led to believe that even when the town wasn’t hosting a festival of some sort, that alien decorations would thoroughly adorn the town. Dad and I drove a couple of streets and didn’t see many. There wasn’t even a glow-in-the-dark milkshake at the Dairy Queen. I guess I wouldn’t recommend a Roswell visit unless one knew that a festival was happen at the time of one's visit.

There is literally nothing around Carlsbad or Carlsbad Caverns. It’s dry, dusty, barren land. For hours in all directions as best I could tell. But the cave or cavern at Carlsbad Cavern National Park and the bats in the evening make the visit totally worthwhile. The landscape outside of the cave is the same as around the whole National Park. It’s dry, dusty, barren land. So other than touring the cave and watching the bats, there isn’t anything to do in the park. There’s a couple of trails but nothing of interest on them. You’d just be walking a dry, dusty, barren trail. If you plan it right, half a day is all you need at the park. Take the cave tour in the afternoon, eat a bite in the air conditioning of your car and wait for the bats to come out. The drive to Carlsbad isn’t pretty or scenic but the destination is. This should be on your bucket list!

Vacation 2022

Saguaro National Park

I found the Saguaro National Park(s) to be quite fascinating. I placed the ‘s’ in parenthesis as there are actually 2 distinct locations; one to the East of Tucson, Arizona and the other on the West side.

The saguaro cactus are the ones that look like people standing with their arms held up, as if at gun point. Actually, most of the saguaro, if they are old enough to have the ‘arms’, have more than two arms. The Western Park had more of the traditional looking saguaros, while the Western Park had some with the arms hanging down.

The Western Park seemed more rugged than the Eastern. Everything everywhere in the Western Park appeared to want to get you. The Eastern Park is actually thinner and has more trails and bike paths.

It would have been neat to see the park with the pipe organ cactus, but it was simply to far away from my bucket list and wanna hit parks. Tucson didn’t have anything of real interest to us, so Saguaro National Park(s) was the only reason for us to be here. There is virtually nothing much else around that required our attention. That being said, I would recommend that everyone go and see Saguaro National Park(s) sometime. Simply amazing.

June 4, 2022

Start – We began our Saguaro NP tour in the Western Park. The road that travels to and through the park is a state road, so at time in your in the Western Park and other times you're outside the park. You can pretty much tell when you're in or out by whether or not residential homes are present.

10:34 – We stop to get our first close up view of a Saguaro with some blooms left on it.

21:38 – We’re getting deep into the Western Park now and there are no more residential buildings.

26:50 – The Visitor’s Center of the Western Park.

35:15 - Bajada Loop Drive. A rough rock road that travels through a very thick cactus grove.

39:55 – Sideways video #1.

1:07:55 – Heading on over to the Eastern part of Saguaro National Park.

1:10:43 – Entering Saguaro National Park on the East side of Tucson.

1:22:30 – What was that?

1:28:57 – Hello Mr. Ranger sir.

1:38:36 – On the road again.

1:47:13 – Selfie time.

1:48:47 – Sideways video #2.

1:53:42 – Sideways video #3.

2:03:50 – Goodbye Saguaro National Park.

Would I recommend Saguaro National Park? You bet! Put it on your bucket list.

Vacation 2022

Horseshoe Bend / Grand Canyon NP/ Sedona, Arizona

We spent the night at a campground in Page, Arizona. It was just 3 miles from Horseshoe Bend. Horseshoe Bend is a severe bend in the Colorado River and is a part of the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. I wasn’t there the bet time of day for a picture nor was the sky the best for getting one. Look Horseshoe Bend on the internet to see some really great pictures.

You won’t spend a lot of time at Horseshoe Bend but I recommend that you see it.

Close to Horseshoe Bend and a focal spot that we didn’t take in is Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is a beautiful slot canyon(s) that offer excellent photography opportunities besides the unusual hike through the canyon. One day I hope to return to take the tours.

The cost to tour Antelope Canyon is pretty steep and for that reason may not be suitable for many people and families. However, I believe that Antelope Canyon should be on your hit list if not actually in your bucket list.

The Grand Canyon is the Grand Canyon. It never was one of my Bucket lists places but kinda on us to other places that were. So, we went. I won’t say I was sorry that I did. It is an incredibly large hole in the ground; you might even say a grand hole. I wasn’t really impressed and found Zion, Bryce Canyon and the Capitol Reef much more interesting and pretty.

Sedona, Arizona is a beautiful little tourist town with lots of red rock around it. It is very pretty. It has a small Native American cliff dwelling called Montezuma’ Castle. Not nearly as impressive as many other cliff dwellings, it is still nice.

Start – Video and pictures taken at Horseshoe Bend.

4:26 – We’re at the Grand Canyon NP parking lot.

Of course, the observation tower and the area around it. I also apologize for the back and forth swaying of the video camera while walking. I should have used my gambol but didn’t think it would be that bad so didn’t use it.

8:49 – And finally, I present to you the Grand Canyon.

19:35 – You can see the observation tower from a distance in this picture.

22:32 – We said goodbye to the Grand Canyon and hit the road to Sedona, Az.

25:17 – We start down the Red Oak Scenic Byway.

I didn’t capture all of the byway, but what I did get was beautiful. The whole byway is beautiful.

42:20 – A quick stop for some pictures and to stretch our legs.

56:50 - A quick stop to see if this retailer has any of the photography equipment that we lost earlier in the trip.

They didn’t. We headed West out of Sedona to Cottonwood to spend the night.

I didn’t get any video footage of Montezuma’s Castle. You can see the still pictures I took on my website.

Vacation 2022

Valley of the God’s & Monument Valley

We stayed in the Aquarius Hotel in Kendall, Utah last night. Today, we finish up touring Capitol Reef and the drive to Page, Arizona. Along the way we will drive through the treacherous road at the Valley of the God’s and then tour Monument Valley, which is on Navajo tribal land. Neither Valley of the God's or Monument Valley belong to the National Parks System.

Start – driving back to the Capitol Reef’s visitor's center.

38:28 – Thus far, we have been skirting the Capitol Reef NP. Now we’ve away from it and are headed to the Valley of the God’s. You’ll notice a terrain change.

1:04:32 – Terrain Change.

1:09:11 - We’ve arrived! The Valley of the God’s.

In the valley below are two very structures (the gods). To get there, you descend down a very curvy, treacherous, rock road with several switchbacks on it. That’s about it for the Valley of the God’s.

1:23:03 – Sideways video #1.

1:32:10 – We leave the Valley of the God’s and drive to the Navajo Tribal Lands.

1:33:13 – The Mexican Hat rock.

1:42:04 – More interesting rock layers.

1:50:47 – A round about. In the middle of the dessert!

1:56:13 – The fleecing, er, ticket booth for entering the tourist trap, er, scenic opportunity that is Monument Valley.

2:02:59 – Let’s get dduussttyy! We’re actually starting the loop that goes around/through Monument Valley now.

2:25:20 – Tired of getting jarred, bounced and beat to death, we decided to not finish the tour (we hadn’t even made it to the loop yet) and head back while there were still nuts and bolts that hadn’t been loosened up in the car.

2:34:57 – I finally clean the windshield with the wipers. Sorry for the big smear/blob that has been on the camera this whole time.

2:41:07 – Dad and stop for a selfie.

2:48:39 – We can see it. We can see it!

2:55:14 – Back to the round about. Bye Navajo lands and on to Page, Az.

The drive between Valley of the God’s and Monument Valley isn’t that interesting but the drive between Capitol Reef and Valley of the God’s is incredible. There are numerous places to stop and hike and visit, though they are purposely not very well marked (they are getting more and better protection for the Native American dwellings and such).

I wouldn’t put Valley of the God’s or Monument Valley (at least the paid loop drive) on my list of have to go to’s. However, the drive down the cliff face in Valley of the God’s is fun so if you’re close to it, I’d definitely take it in.

You can the rock structures of Monument Valley from the paved roads around it. You just can;t get as close to them as you can on the pay loop road. The road is rough and dusty and will beat you and your vehicle to death. Honestly, there’s really no way to make it better other than to pave the whole thing which would be very expensive and would increase the ticket cost. Most of the road that you drive on is a sheet or layer of natural rock. It would be impossible to just smooth it out with a bulldozer or earth mover and the like. My recommendation is to just drive the outskirts of Monument Valley and do your site seeing. The rock structures are pretty great and worth seeing. Unfortunately, there’s nothing else around, no other site, o your basically taking a half a day or better to see this one thing.

I’d recommend seeing Monument Valley if your somewhat close to it. If you have to drive 2 or 3 hours out of your way, I’m not so sure I would recommend it.

Vacation 2022

Capitol Reef National Park

It’s a beautiful drive from Bryce Canyon NP to Capitol Reef NP. It’s around 120 miles away but because of the curvy mountain roads, it’ll take most people about 3.5 hours to drive.

Start – We left Bryce Canyon on UT63 headed to Capitol Reef and continued on when it turned into the Scenic Byway 12.

11:55 – Entering a beautiful but treacherous piece of road known as Hell’s Backbone.

23:05 – Not sure where exactly we are (probably around Denver, Utah) but the landscape has changed and looks like good elk country. We didn’t see any elk here.

35:37 - Just outside Torrey, Utah on UT24 just East of UT12. Roughly 10 miles to the North Entrance of Capitol Reef.

48:55 – Actually entering the North Entrance to the Capitol Reef NP at the visitors center.

1:00:03 – Sideways video #1.

1L05:56 – Sideways video #2.

1:15:08 – Sideways video #3.

1:21:10 – We turn around and get off of the bumpy, rock road and back onto the paved surface.

1:25:15 – Sideways video #4.

1:30:48 – Sideways video #5.

Stopping occasionally to snap some pictures of or perform an EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) we returned to the Welcome Center, then headed West to Kendall, Utah to seek lodging.

1:38:30 – White Squidelies(?) in the rocks.

1:41:47 – Sideways video #6.

1:47:55 – Sideways video#7.

1:59:12 – Sideways video #8. What are these black rocks/boulders?

2:01:15 – Goodnight to Capitol Reef NP. We’ll see you again tomorrow.