Southwest Roadtrip
In early December I took advantage of Martha’s 3 weeks in India to take Starr on a 2 week trip to southern Arizona and western New Mexico. My itinerary was a long list of candidate locations and a desire to "go with the flow." After a wonderful family Thanksgiving stop in San Francisco, I continued south and ended up visiting the following locations:
- Joshua Tree Nat'l Park
- Kofa Mountains
- Tucson's Saguaro Nat'l Park & Mountain Park
- Dragoon Mountains
- Chiricahua Nat'l Monument
- Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Nat'l Monument
- White Sands Nat'l Monument
- Bisti Badlands area (King of Wings, Valley of Dreams, & Bisti)
- Shiprock
- Valley of the Gods
For the most part, the weather was conducive for photography — lots of cloudy to stormy skies. I did experience two days of rain between the Dragoons and White Sands stops, and this later became an issue when driving & hiking on NW New Mexico's slippery-when-wet clay. And, in the end, the trip was cut short a few days when a large cold & wet storm moved into the western U.S.
Full trip details, with pictures, can be found in the galleries below, with some of my favorite images from the trip gathered together in the first, "Favorites" gallery.

Favorites
Rick Samco's favorite photos from 2019 Roadtrip to southern Arizona and western New Mexico

Joshua Tree
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Joshua Tree National Park California

Kofa Mountains
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Kofa Mountains, Arizonaa

Saguaros
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Saguaro National Park and Tucson's Mountain Park, Arizonaa

Dragoons
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Dragoon Mountains, Arizona

Chiricahuas
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona

Organ Mountains
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, New Mexico

White Sands
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

King of Wings
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from King of Wings, New Mexico

Valley of Dreams
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Valley of Dreams, New Mexico

Bisti Badlands
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Bisti Badlands, New Mexico

Shiprock
Rick Samco's 2019 photos from Shiprock, New Mexico